THE HISTORY OF MUSIC VIDEO!

When MTV began airing music videos in 1981, ironically the single ‘video killed the radio star’ by the Buggles was the first. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos conducted by on-air hosts known as VJs (an announcer who introduces the act and plays the video's). Today, MTV primarily broadcasts a variety of reality and scripted television programs targeted at adolescents and young adults. However music award ceremonies and music videos are still apparent. However, it wasn’t until Michael Jackson produced ‘Thriller’ when the industry really saw the potential in music videos and there effect on the audience. ‘Thriller’ became a short film which hugely promoted his single and is still famous today, especially the dance routine. Toady critics argue that it’s still the best video ever made.

Narrative based which is also most typically used as the artist/band is the protagonist and acts out a short story to their song. Which includes and introduction, build up, equilibrium and conclusion. Narrative based is the most commonly used by an artists as it adds depth to their song and gives the audience an idea of what their message is behind the lyrics, and most importantly people are interested in watching them! Concept based are music videos which takes any idea and applies it to your music. For example, the band OK-GO created the concept based music video ‘Here It Goes Again’ which involved each member of the band performing a routine on active treadmills. Getting their song and band noticed for their clever and different ideas rather than doing the usual of a performance or narrative based video to show case their talents. And then there’s parody music videos. Which consists of an artists or impersonator taking an famous music video already made and adapts it so that the audience see’s the comical side of the video. In other words ‘taking the micky’ out of an artist. Weird Al Yankovic is well known for this as he adapted Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’ changing the words to ‘Eat It’ along with the quest within the video, yet keeping elements such as location and clothing the same.

There’s three main styles of music videos. Performance based, which includes a live performance from the band with images of their adoring fans attending their concerts as they show case their musical talents. This can either be real footage from a concert/festival or practiced and set up with actors playing the fans.

In the UK the importance3 of Top of the Pops to promotes a single created an environment of innovation and competition amongst bands and record labels as the show’s producers placed strict limits on the number of videos it would use – therefore a good video would increase a song’s sales as viewers hoped to see the video again the following week.