History of music vidoes

A music video is a short film that accompanies a complete piece of music, most commonly a song.

These are used primarily as a marketing device to promote certain genre or the song itself.

 



1960’s

1963

Be my baby- The Ronettes ,

It is mainly popular to us due to the film Dirty Dancing, where the song is also being promoted with people dancing to this song in the film. The vidoe is in 'black and white and sepia', which emthasize on the age of the music video. The range of shots is ok but there is no sub story to the video- only the Ronettes singing at different concerts.

1968

The rolling stones- Sympathy for the devil.

This music video is quite different as it starts on a 'talk show' . There is still no sub story to the video but there is a main focus on the singer through out the video. The instruments are focused when appropriate- where there is a instrumental gap, the focus of the camera turns to the guitar, and occasionaly there is a long shot of the whole band.

1969

Elvis Presley- suspicious minds

the biggest impact that yhis video would have made is that it is not black and white anymore. However, some of the old conventions are still in place for this music film and that is; a fair amount of shots, this time with transitions of the Elvis singing and all of his fans. Also, there is a different mise-en-scene in this video that none of the above had- the lighting changes from light to dark in certain parts of the song to try and dramatize the song.

1970’s

1979

Gloria Gaynor- I will survive

We can see that this music video has been more thought through becasue straight away, from the beginning, there was a close up shot of Gaynor's face- half lit up by light and the half in shadows. There is a slight substory, where a girl is skating on ice, dancing to her music, looking like she is having a good time. It could be said that out of the videos so far, this one has been used for advertising properly.

1972

Johnny Nash- I can see clearly now

This is very different from the others that we have seen, becasue the setting is outside, actually matching- (amplifying) the lyrics more, with the fountain behind to mirror the fact that he is singing about water. We don't see no fans, no intrument, just Nash, igoring the boring, old conventions of a music promo.

1977

Abba- Dancing Queen

Straight away, we can see a clear link between the piano and the music- well synced. There are shots of the instruments, of the girls singing and dancing. Altough there is no sub-story, there doesn't have to be; they are singing about dancing queen, and they are dancing. Also, the quality of teh camera work and the picture is better than the precious videos.

1980’s

1986

Bon Jovi- Living on prayer

This is very unvenventional music video. This is becasue the shots are separated, so that we can see more. The mixture of black and white, and coloured shots add the effect of better technololgy, as the background changes to blue, pink, green etc. In the shots, we can see mainly the singers, the instrument and everything else in the shots is conventional, except the layout.

1984

Madonna- Like a virgin

Straight away, there is a substory and an outside location in Italy, Venice. This location automatically adds to the romance that is in this song. This is also a video where an artist has really dressed up to aimplify the lyrics- 'Like a virgin' amplifies Madonna's white dress.

1887

Guns ‘n’ roses- Sweet child o’ mine

This is an upgraded conventions of an old rock music video. This is becasue the shots actually vary depending on the rythm of the music, and it does have a little sub story to it that looks like the life backstage. It also emphasize on the women- which amplifies the lyrics.

1990

1992

Whitney Houston- I will always love you

A substory- amplifies the lyrics- 'i'll go' and the plane appears. Also, when she is singing about memories, she can see her and her partner dancing and spending time together, making the video emotive and powerful.

1999

Destiny’s child- Say my name

First modern vidoe so far, the mise-en-scene (costume) is very clever as their clothes changes colour with the colours of the rooms and the furniture that they are in. Although They are just singing, the substory is within that- they are singing about a bloke that is lying to the girls, and hence, they are holding and sorrounding him.

1996

2Pac- California Love

2000

2003

Justin Timberlake- Cry me a river 

2004

Usher- Let it burn