The Purpose of Music Videos

The Emergence of Music Videos

The blueprints for music videos date back to 1941 with the Panoram Soundie which was a jukebox that played short video clips whilst unrelated music was being played. As music-centred films took off in 1956 including Shake, Rattle and Rock (Cahn, 1956), the idea of featuring musical performances alongside video became very popular. This lead to the creation of music television in 1962 with shows such as Top of the Pops where bands would be seen performing as-live and gain a great deal of promotion as a result. As the record industry began to produce promos for bands in 1970, these early examples of music videos became more popular until 1975 when Queen released the first example of what we call the modern music video to accompany their song ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. In this essay, I will explore how music videos grew more and more in the creative industries, becoming what we know today.

Promotion

Music videos are a fantastic way of promoting an artist and their songs as fans can have a visual association as well as an audial one. Artists will often want their video to be as iconic as they can so that people it sticks in people’s minds more identifiably as that artist’s song. It is a good opportunity to promote their name as well as their image which will be communicated through the way they act, perform and dress. Music videos often also feature the director’s name so that they can also be promoted and credited for their work in the film industry and other areas. It is a good way to showcase the director’s style to encourage word of mouth and potentially more work for them as a result. An example where a music video has been pushed as promotion is R-Kelly’s 45 minute pop soap opera, showing audience members his style and identifying characteristics.

Producers’ Strategies

Different bands and artists are marketed differently according to what type of artist they are. For example, a mainstream artist such as Justin Bieber is unlikely to be marketed in the same way as an independent artist such as Radiohead. An artist signed to a major label has a lot of money and publicity behind them allowing for their music videos to be high budget featuring common conventions such as dancers, celebrity cameos, a good quantity of props & costumes and grander locations. As well as being available on online outlets (such as YouTube, Vevo and ITunes), mainstream artist videos will also be seen on Pop music television channels such as MTV Hits. An example of a grandiose music video of this standard is Psy – ‘Gangnam Style’ which features a lot of interesting locations and choreographed dancing. This would contrast to a low budget video like Madness – ‘House of Fun’.

The expansion of media outlets has given rise to self-produced artists who produce and distribute music and videos by themselves. Some artists such as The Midnight Beast find fame on YouTube from their own videos. Whilst this method does give a lot of scope to be unique, the disadvantages may include a poor budget and a larger piracy problem than signed artists may have. However, some artists have artistic goals rather than commercial ones; they create a music video as an artistic statement. The outcome tends to be fairly surreal and theatrical and do not necessarily hit the mainstream viewers as they tend to be shown late at night with other alternative music videos.

Extension of Income

Artists receive royalty payments every time their track is played on the radio. If that song has a music video to complement it then they also receive payment for every time that it is watched. This is only theoretical as the task of tracking an individual video’s consumption is implausible due to the huge quantity of media outlets that exist now. Instead, an estimate is made according to the popularity and sales of the track in order to pay the artist their royalties accordingly. This system makes it more difficult for alternative or un-established artists to get the airplay that they desire. This is because the radio stations and television channels play what they think people want to see and hear meaning that there are a lot of repeats on major stations and channels. I think that the best ways for new talent to make money is for them to be unique and do something big to get publicity. An example may be Okay-Go’s music video for ‘Here It Goes Again’ implementing a quirky dance using treadmills to entertain the audience. Also, by distributing their work on free media outlets such as YouTube, they are cutting down on the costs incurred with getting their work heard and seen.

 

 

Extension of Media Outlets

Media outlets are sources that people can use to access and view a media text such as, in our case, a music video. There are many types of media outlets, examples are shown below:

- Internet sources such as YouTube, ITunes and Vimeo are fantastic, free ways of watching music videos and, with modern innovations in technology such as smart phones, they can be viewed this way almost anywhere.

- Television channels such as Scuzz and MTV Hits play music videos almost all of the time. This is a great way to see a variety of artists in a similar genre or era. For example, Scuzz deals with genres of hard and alternative rock.

- Artist’s DVDs and CDs often have bonus features. These sometimes include digital discs with music videos to accompany certain tracks for the audience to watch and enjoy. An example of this is the special edition soundtrack to the film School Of Rock (Linklater, 2003) which included an extra music video of the film band playing another original composition, mentioned in the film.

- Some places such as Pubs and Clubs have public screens where people can watch sports, the news and even music videos!

 

The huge amount of contemporary media outlets has both advantages and disadvantages. It is advantageous because it means that anyone can watch music videos any time they like which means potentially more income for the artists as well as more advertising space or external companies to use. The problem here is that piracy can be a big problem and, due to the amount of file sharing that happens, artists can end up losing money. There is also more choice for the viewers. However, this means that audiences become fragmented and watch different things. Whilst the large amount of outlets gives new artists more platforms to get recognised, it means that there is so much material going around that it can be very difficult for new talent to actually get noticed.

 

Synergistic Marketing

Synergy is when a subsidiary product to a main product or company is promoted and sold through licensing deals. This means that you can promote a media product such as a song, album or music video through the production of other products related to it. A good example of this is Pink Floyd’s album ‘The Wall’. After its release in 1979, it gained huge commercial success and to further promote it, a series of promotional music videos were released which even lead to a film adaptation being released in 1982. As well as this, a lot of merchandise was released including conceptual artwork and other merchandise such as clothing, accessories and other images such as framed lithographs and posters. Synergistic marketing has a lot of benefits as a form of promotion. Firstly, potential or existing fans of the original product can access other memorabilia to further their enjoyment. As well as this, the rights holders will potentially increase their income by a great deal due to the extra products sold and the extra customers that they could potentially receive.

Conclusion

Since their birth, the popularity of music videos has only grown stronger, providing more content for fans and more income for artists and their record labels. As well as providing the artists with promotion for their songs, it also opens up the possibility for promoting the directors of music videos. These facts, when combined with the growth of media outlets and widely accessible technology, mean that new artists can also get popularity and recognition due to the additional platforms of distribution that they now have access to.