The History of Music VideoWhat is a music video?
A music video is a short clip to accompany a song, they are often used to market and promote the song, and used to
help create a brand for the artist.
The Buggles – Video killed the radio star
The Buggles – Video killed the radio star was the first song played on MTV in 1981. It seems to have been filmed with a handheld camera, and still satisfy Goodwins theory as they star image is singing directly into camera.
The band also has lots of different costumes and locations, the only editing technique they have is the middle picture of the black and white. Often during shooting the images are cardboard and cheap, however they did not have the development in technology like we do now to enhance the music video.
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Michael Jackson – Thriller
The video cost half a million dollars, and at the time was the most expensive music video ever made. The director John Landis, generated this budget by getting MTV and Showtime to pay $250,000 each for the rights to show the 45 minute “the making of Thriller”. The video was released on December 2nd 1983. The video is a 14 minute long musical horror film, and has had 345 million views on youtube.
This iconic music video has since given strong inspiration to further generations and has been remade many times by copying the dance moves, and creating intertextual references back to this video.
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Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 You Directed by John Maybury, the clip consists mostly of a
close up on Sinéad O'Connor's face and her different stages of sadness and even anger as she sings the lyrics; the rest consists of her walking through an area of Paris known as the Parc de Saint-Cloud. Toward the end of the video, two tears roll down her face, one on each cheek. In the middle and at the very end of the video there is a shot from O'Connor's photo session for the I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got album cover.
The clip won three "Moonmen" at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards: Video of the Year (O'Connor became the first female artist to be awarded with it), Best Female Video and Best Post-Modern Video. It was nominated for Breakthrough Video, Viewer's Choice and International Viewer's Choice during the ceremony. The video also became the subject for many parodies and spoofs, such as Gina Riley's parody "Nothing Is There" on Fast Forward, referring to the fact that O'Connor tended to shave her head bald.
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Outkast - Hey YaClick the link to
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In the video, André 3000 plays all eight members of The Love Below: keyboardist Benjamin Andre, bassist Possum Jenkins, vocalist Ice Cold 3000, drummer Dookie Blasingame, three backing vocalists The Love Haters, and guitarist Johnny Vulture.The video opens with the band's manager Antwan (Big Boi) talking to Ice Cold 3000 and Dookie Blasingame backstage. Meanwhile, the television presenter, portrayed by Ryan Phillippe (another version featured an energetic Phillippe), tries to calm a crowd of screaming girls on a show being broadcast live in black-and-white. The band performs while the girls in the audience scream loudly; one girl is carried off by security after rushing the stage, and another faints.A family is shown dancing to the broadcast at home. When André 3000 instructs to "shake it like a Polaroid picture", some of the girls begin taking pictures and shaking them. Ice Cold 3000 dances with one of the girls on stage, and the video closes with several friends of the band watching and discussing the performance.
The video won best MTV music video award in 2004.
Taylor Swift - Bad BloodClick the link to
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The music video was directed by Joseph Kahn, who previously directed the music video for the second single from 1989, "Blank Space". The video was filmed in Los Angeles on April 12, 2015, but is set in London. The music video was premiered on May 17, 2015, at the start of the Billboard Music Awards. Each actress chose their character's name. Swift began teasing the video in May on Instagram by posting photos of each character. The music video won 2016 Grammys music video Award.
It is interesting to see how music videos now can be promoted using other social media that was not around years ago, and how music videos can have their own advertisements and features of other celebrities to create a stronger word of mouth.
