Music Video History

A music video is a short film accompanied with music and imagery. They are mainly produced for promotional or artistic purposes. In modern day they are usually made to promote the album of the artist or to promote the song further. There are many cases in which a music video has been a way to promote merchandise or even a movie. Music videos have been around for a very long time but became a lot more popular when the TV channel 'MTV' aired on TV the music video titled 'video killed the radio star'.

Although this was the time music videos began to become very popular, this was not the first music video. The video considered the first 'music video' was called 'St Louis Blues' by Bessie Smith. The music video involved Bessie Smith drinking and singing to the song which is considered a music video. It was released in 1914, way before music videos were even a thing.






All music videos either use:

• Animation 
• Live Action Filming 
• Documentaries 
• Non Narrative Approaches

The top 10 most expensive music videos are

1. Michael and Janet Jackson 'scream' which cost 7 million dollars 
2. Madonna 'die another day' which cost 6.1 million dollars 
3. Madonna 'express yourself' which cost 5 million dollars
4. Madonna 'bedtime story' which cost 5 million dollars 
5. Michael Jackson 'black or white' which cost 4 million dollars 
6. Guns n Roses 'estranged' which cost 4 million dollars 
7. Gwen Stefani 'make me like you' which cost 4 million dollars 
8. Aqua 'cartoon heroes' which cost 3.5 million dollars 
9. Puff Daddy 'victory' which cost 2.7 million dollars 
10. MC Hammer '2 legit to quit' which cost 2.5 million dollars 

Key conventions of three genres 

Cloud rap conventions - psychedelic images, lo fi quality such as a VHS camera, less popular street-wear clothing brands 

Trap Conventions - Expensive cars, drugs and expensive jewellery

Pop Music conventions - parties, drinking, fashion

The top 5 most watched music videos are: 

1. PSY - Gangnam Style 
2. Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth - See you again
3. Justin Bieber - Sorry 
4. Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk 
5. Taylor Swift - Blank Space 

The most popular music video of the 1970s is Bohemian Rapsody by Queen. I think one of the main reasons it was so popular was because it was the success of this songs video that made it a regular thing for bands and artists to make music videos for their songs in order to promote it and market it. it allowed for the song to be promoted without the artist even being there, being aired on TV programs such as 'top of the pops'. The music video was said to also have been made so that the band could avoid miming on TV because miming to such a complex song would be too hard and they would look off when doing it. 

The most popular music video of the 1980s its 'take on me' by Aha. I think this music video is so popular because it involved a pencil sketch animation combined with live action which is called rotoscoping. I think this was the reason it was so popular because it was like something that no one had ever seen before and it made it stand out from everyone else because it incorporated two different types of film-making and the transition from one to another in the video is very smooth and i think it works very well.



One of the most popular music videos of the 90s is Baby One More Time by Britney Spears. It was filmed in a school with the artist and the dancers wearing stereotypical school uniform. Spears says the reasoning for this was so that she could attract to her fans which were mainly younger teenagers and I think this worked very well because it made the fans relate to the video because most of the fans were still in school at the time and I think it attracted them to becoming a fan of the artist and the video more than if it was just filmed in a studio or a stage.

One of the most popular music videos of the 00s is Fell in Love with A Girl by The White Stripes. One of the reasons I think its so popular is because of the animation that is used which is Lego models which are stop frame animated in order to create the illusion that the models are moving. I think the reason that it is so popular is because that it doesn’t include the whole band and is completely different and innovative in comparison to other music videos. It helps it stand out and draw in the audience because of the creativity and variation it creates.

From this research i can understand what it took for different music videos to become popular and its also telling me that in order for my music video to stand out, it needs to be doing something different that no one has done before and needs to be completely original.