Music Videos Ms. Garcia Escobedo Middle School

What is a music video? Short film that combines music and visual images Produced for promotional or artistic purposes

Music Video History: The Early Days In the 1920’s, silent films were replaced by “talkies,” or films with sound. In the 1950’s, musical films became popular Examples: “Top Hat,” “West Side Story,” “Mary Poppins” Modern music videos often borrow choreography and elements from musicals –Example: Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and “Bad,” used stylized dance fights, as in “West Side Story.”

West Side Story

Michael Jackson

Music Video History: Animation Disney created short animated films with music, called “Silly Symphonies.” Disney’s “Fantasia” featured animated interpretations of classical music.

Music Video History: Early Influences In 1964, The Beatles starred in a feature film called, “A Hard Day’s Night,” directed by Richard Lester. It was shot in black and white and presented as a mockumentary. In 1966, Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues was a precursor to the modern music video. Other bands appeared in promotional clips (Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, etc…)

A Hard Day’s Night

Bob Dylan

Music Video History: TV Beginnings Popular music appeared on TV shows such as American Bandstand and Soul Train. Cable stations started playing music videos late at night because they were inexpensive. In the late 1970’s, Saturday Night Live began airing short musical films during its program.

American Bandstand

Soul Train

Music Video History: MTV Era In 1981, MTV aired “Video Killed the Radio Star,” beginning an era of 24-hour-a-day music videos on television. MTV started “I want my MTV!” campaign to get more cable outlets to carry the station. This new outlet helped music videos grow to play a very important role in popular music marketing. In 1988, MTV began a show called “Yo! MTV Raps,” bringing hip hop music to a mass audience for the first time.

Music Video History: Did Internet Kill the Television Star? Starting in the late 1990’s, people started using the internet to share music and videos on websites like Napster and iFilm. Youtube launched in 2005, which made it easy to watch and share homemade music videos. Many Youtube users became “Youtube Celebrities” due to their videos. In 2010, MTV dropped the name “Music Television” because they wanted to focus on reality programming.

Three Types of Music Videos: Narrative: - Music and images work together to tell a narrative story. CONCERT: –The images show the band performing a song. CONTRAST: –The images and music do NOT go together, creating a new meaning (juxtaposition).

Narrative or Complementary Music and images work together to tell a narrative story. Examples: –Cyndi Lauper “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” –Gwen Stefani “Cool” –Beyonce “Irreplaceable”

Concert The video shows a band performing a song. Examples: –Bon Jovi “Living on a Prayer” –Wiley “Can You Hear Me (Ayayaya)”

Contrast The images and music do NOT go together, creating a new meaning (juxtaposition). Juxtaposition: the act of placing two unrelated things together, creating new meaning. Examples: –Pink Floyd “Learning to Fly” –Fall Out Boy “Irresistible” –Macklemore “Can’t Hold Us”

Parody A creative way of making a humorous song by “making fun” of the original. This can be used with an original piece of work, an artist, or a topic. Examples: –Weird Al Yankovic “I Bought it on eBay” –NASA “All About That Space” –Brian Williams “Rapper’s Delight” (Jimmy Fallon) –US Swim Team “Call Me Maybe”