Task 3 - Music Video Timeline

A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a piece of music or a song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of the artists music.
Music videos use a wide range of styles of film making techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation and live action.

1960s
In Canada, Manny Pittson began pre-recording the music audio, went on location and taped various visuals with the musicians lip-syncing, then edited the audio and video together later. Most of the music was recorded in the studio or on a stage.

One of the earliest performance clips in 1960s pop was the promo film made by 'The Animals' for their 1964 hit 'House Of The Rising Sun'. This was filmed in a studio on a specially-built set; it features the group in a lip-synced performance, depicted through an edited sequence of tracking shots, close ups and long shots.

Also in 1964, The Beatles starred in their first feature film called 'A Hard Days Night'. It was shot in black and white, with new innovative musical sequences. The musical sequences provided the basic foundations on which many promo clips and music videos were modelled.

In 1966, Bob Dylans 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' clip shows Dylan standing in a city back alley, silently shuffling a series of large cue cards in time to the music. The cue-card device has been used in many other other music videos. However, in the UK in 1966, The Kinks made one of the first promo clips to have a plot, for their single 'Dead End Street', a miniature comic movie was made.

The promotional clip continued to grow in importance, with television programs such as 'The Midnight Special' and 'Don Kirshner's Rock Concert', which would mix concert footage with clips put together with camera tricks, special effects, and dramatizations of song lyrics.

1970s
During 1972 to 1973, David Bowie featured in a series of promotional films directed by Mick Rock. These clips are important landmarks in the development of the music video genre in the 1970s. Mick Rock directed and edited four clips to promote four of David Bowies singles such as 'John, I'm Only Dancing', 'The Jean Genie', 'Space Oddity' and 'Life On Mars'.

The long-running TV show Top of the Pops began playing music videos in the late 1970s, although the BBC placed strict limits on the number of 'outsourced' videos TOTP could use. Therefore a good video would increase a songs sales as viewers hoped to see it again the following week. In 1975, the band Queen made a memorable promo video for their single 'Bohemian Rhapsody' to show it on Top Of The Pops.

1980s
Although the origins of music videos go back much further, they came into their own in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around music videos, they then later launched VH1. The term 'music video' first came into popular usage in the early 1980s. In 1981, the U.S. video channel MTV launched, beginning an era of 24-hour-a-day music on television. With this new outlet for material, the music video would, by the mid-1980s, grow to play a central role in popular music marketing. Many important artists of this period, most memorably, Adam & the Ants, Michael Jackson and Madonna, owed a great deal of their success to the construction and appeal of their music videos.

Two key innovations in the development of the modern music video were the development of relatively inexpensive and easy-to-use video recording and editing equipment. The advent of high-quality colour videotape recorders and portable video cameras enabled many musicians to produce promotional videos quickly and cheaply.

During this period, directors of music videos began to explore and expand the form and style of the genre, using more sophisticated effects in their videos, mixing film and video, and adding a storyline or plot to the music video. Occasionally videos were made in a non-representational form, in which the musical artist was not shown. Because music videos are mainly intended to promote the artist, such videos are comparatively rare; two early 1980s examples are Bruce Springsteens 'Atlantic City', directed by Arnold Levine, and David Mallets video for David Bowie and Queen's 'Under Pressure'.

In 1983, arguably the most successful and influential music video of all time was released, the 14 minute long video for Michael Jacksons 'Thriller'. The video set new standards for production, having cost US $500,000 to film. That video, along with earlier videos by Michael Jackson such as; 'Billie Jean' and 'Beat It', also was instrumental in getting music videos by African-American artists played on MTV; earlier, such videos were rare because MTV initially conceived itself as a rock music oriented channel.

In 1985, MTV launched the channel VH1, featuring softer music, and meant to cater to an older demographic than MTV. MTV Europe was launched in 1987, and MTV Asia in 1991.
Another important development in music videos was the launch of 'The Chart Show' in the UK on Channel 4, in 1986. This was a program which consisted entirely of music videos without presenters. Instead, the videos were linked by then state of the art computer graphics. The show moved to ITV in 1989.

In 1986, Peter Gabriels song 'Sledgehammer' used special effects and animation techniques, the video for Sledgehammer would go on to be a phenomenal success and win nine MTV Video Music Awards.

In 1988, the MTV show 'Yo! MTV Raps' made its debut, this show helped bring hip hop music to a mass audience for the first time.

Task 2 - 'The Prodigy - Omen' and 'Pendulum - Slam' music video comparison

Both songs are very similar and appeal to the same kind of audience, the genre of the songs are a mix between 'dance and drum and bass'. However the music videos to the songs are completely different from one and other. One uses comedy and the other uses the bands performance.

There are a few conventions within The Prodigy's music video for their song 'Omen', for example there is lots of flashing lights and lots of people doing fast pace dancing. It also shows the group dancing as they do in many of their music videos. However the music video for Pendulums 'Slam' does not really have any conventions in it apart from someone dancing to the music.

For both video there isn't really many links between the visuals and lyrics, for example, during The Prodigys music video it refers to an omen, and the visuals show a kind of possessed little girl. apart from one moment in the Pendulum video, when the lyrics say 'were marooned on a small island', the visuals show a man sitting alone on a small round monument.

There are a lot of links between the visuals and the music in The Prodigy's video, and there are also a few links in the Pendulum video. For example, in The Prodigy's video before the music drops, there is no quick shots and no flashing lights, but then when music does drop there are lots of quick shots and cuts, as well as a lot of different lights flashing with the tune. As well as that, when, for example, the drums are heard it shows the person playing the drums, it does this for the majority of the instruments and singer. In Pendulums video, at the beginning when the narrator is talking it just shows the man walking around like an everyday person, but then when the music begins, there are also quick cuts and shots that go with the drums in the music, and then the man dances to it.

During The Prodigy music video the focus is mainly on the band performing at a gig, and doing a lot of dancing, so this shows that they like party and that their performances are very hardcore. However, during Pendulums music video does show the performance of the group, but, it does show the group walking out to watch the man dancing. Also, when the man puts the CD in the stereo, it shows the groups album cover and on the disc it has their name Pendulum on and the name of the track Slam. This will appeal to the audience of this group as the video shows that you can just lose it and dance, so fans will buy the album for that reason.

I could not find any pieces of intertextuality in Pendulums music video, on the other hand, there is some form of intertextuality in The Prodigy's music video, for example the title of the track is called Omen and at the beginning and end of the music video, there is a small girl you might see in a horror film such as, the omen or the shining.

In conclusion, both tracks sound the same but the music videos for them are completely different. The Prodigy have gone for a video showing their performance and displaying what the band are like. Where as Pendulum have chosen to do a more humorous video but at the same time advertising their album. However both groups contain some dancing in it which really, is the only similarity when it comes to the music videos.

The Prodigy – Out of Space Analysis

The genre of 'Out of Space' by The Prodigy is a mixture of dance, rave and techno. There are many conventions in 'The Prodigy – Out of Space' music video such as there being lots of bright coloured background. Also there is a lot of rave dancing through out. As well as that there is short cuts of random images which is common in most Prodigy music videos. The video is also quite cheaply made as you can tell when you watch it, however there are some parts of it which are humorous.

There are some links between the visuals and the lyrics, such as during the chorus when it mentions about taking off to space, it shows clips of rockets being launched into space, so it goes with the chorus.

There are also some links between the visuals and the music as the lighting and the colours go with the music, there is a lot of quick cuts because the tempo of the music is quick.

During the music video it mainly includes all of the group doing different dances and there is no other people during the video. The dancing also shows what style of music it is and shows what the group is all about. However there is not really any sign of intertextuality within the music video itself.

Throughout the video, the focus of the camera is on the dancing and the different colours of some of the shots backgrounds. Also there are some shots of the group performing on the stage and dancing.