1924 – short video animations were made to accompany an orchestral score. Max Fleischer (Popeye, Betty Boop and Superman) began making 'Screen songs', which were a series of sing along animations.
1930 – cartoons would have bands performing their songs in live action sequences during the cartoon.
1940's – The Soundies were being introduced in Chicago. They were the original music videos. Short 3 minute sequences involving dance sequences and other things.
The original Walt Disney films were created around music, and this began to open doors for the link between music and visuals.
Musical films really began to innovate the idea of music videos. Madonna's 'Material Girl' has obvious links to the stage play 'Diamonds are a girls best friend', and the use of dance routines in music videos could have been inspired by the dancing involved in the on stage performances.
1959 – The term 'music video' was first coined by The Big Popper Richardson.
Late 1950's – The Scopitone was introduced. Which was a visual Jukebox.
1960's – began the innovation of music and visuals. After the introducing of the Scopitone in France, other version were patented in other countries.
1964 - The Animals made a promo clip for their hit 'House of the Rising Sun'. The video was in full colour, and featured long shots, mid shots and close ups the band doing a sequence of choreographed moves around a set.
1964 – The Beatles starred in a hit black and white film which included funny dialogue and well thought out musical sequences.
1965 – The Beatles starred in their second feature called 'Help!' The film was in ful colour and had the band go on a musical adventure involving assassins, around London and a number of different locations too
1965 – The Beatles began to make 'film inserts' which were pretty much music videos. This was so they didn't have to make an 'in person' appearances.
You could say that The Beatles were probably the first to start the trend of music promos. At the same time of their production of 'Film Inserts' , The UK band The Byrds began using the same technique.
1967 – promo video clips started to grow in importance. Many film inserts were produced by bands within the UK so that they could be seen on screen and not have to make a live appearance, much like The Beatles.
1966 – The first real 'plot' promo video was made for the Kinks single 'Dead End Street'. Although no lip sync was included, the on screen visuals were made to match some of the key words within the songs lyrics.
During this period, promotional clips began to grow in populraity, with bands like The Who and The Moody Blues making them they soon became very important in the music industry.
1974 – In the UK music videos and music itself began to reign. And the introduction of Top of The Pops really boosted musics popularity with the average person being able to see their favourite artists perform live, although they were miming. The other problem is that BBC had strict rules on the number of ''outsourced' music promos they could use.
Thursday, 25 June 2009
Tuesday, 23 June 2009
Research - Genre Comparative Study
The two videos, one by Lostprophets and the other by Seether, although both of the rock genre and do follow some of the typical conventions, do have their differences when it comes to analysing them to the six stage analysis of music videos.
Both videos have a strong influence on promoting the artist, mostly the lead singer although the band are included too. Seethers' Fake It, has the band on a number of fake sets, and the video includes lots of close ups on the lead singers face and has the band included within the videos narrative. This helps promote the artist and make their faces known to the audience so that they know who is singing the song. Compared to Fake It, Last Train Home does not promote the lead singer over the band as much, and unlike Seether, the band are not part of the videos main narrative, but are included in a side narrative with the band performing on the back of a lorry going down streets with everyone following them and chanting to the music. This follows the generic conventions of rock videos as the band are usually shown performing in front of an audience, and this also adds a touch of voyeurism to the video as the band are being watched from houses and the streets by onlookers.
Last Train Home has a lot of links between music and visuals. As Lostprophets are a rock band, in terms of Mise-en-scene, all the extras within the video are wearing stereotypical rock clothing like black hoodies, jeans and studded bracelets. Also every time the drums or guitars start to build up and go really loud, like in the chorus, you get a lot of close ups on them and the person playing them. The link between music and visuals is also apparent in seethers Fake It. Because of the rock genre, there is a heavy emphasis on the bands instruments. There are lots of close ups on the guitarists and the drummers, and also lots of close ups on the lead singers guitar, keeping the lead singer as the main focus of the band.
There is a obvious link between lyrics and visuals for Seethers' Fake It. The song talks about faking what you don't have, and the video shows the band on a fake set of a private jet among others, and this obvious link helps to bring the lyrics to life, and help give understanding to the song. This link can also be seen in Lostprophets Last train home. When they say 'and we sing...' the whole band, and the onlookers sing along too, and this adds to the feeling of togetherness that the lyrics are trying to give out.
One of the sets to Seether's Fake it is dark snowy woods, this set is similar to one from the music video to 'Wonderboy' by Tenacious D. Also the set on a plane with all the dancing women smothering themselves over the band is similar to the idea of the mile high club, and could may well be a reference to this idea. Also towards the end of the video one of the women are filming her and the lead singer on a phone, which appears to be a Nokia. This is a bit of promotion for the phones brand. There are also references to the use of Photoshop in the video, as he says ' I can fake it with the best of anyone' and they are healing the women's face and adding a tanned look to her face. Furthermore towards the end of the video, you see a clapper board come down in front of the camera which has the artists name, name of the song, and the director of the video on it.
There is also lots of voyeurism in Fake it as the band are on set the camera pans out and you can see that these sets are fake, and that the band are being filmed by a camera crew within the music video. So they are being filmed within a film as such.
The narrative to Lostprophets Last train home includes none of the band members, which is sometimes typical within this genre of music. The story behind the narrative has many meanings, and could be interpreted in a number of different ways and leaves the audience to think about it themselves.
Both videos have a strong influence on promoting the artist, mostly the lead singer although the band are included too. Seethers' Fake It, has the band on a number of fake sets, and the video includes lots of close ups on the lead singers face and has the band included within the videos narrative. This helps promote the artist and make their faces known to the audience so that they know who is singing the song. Compared to Fake It, Last Train Home does not promote the lead singer over the band as much, and unlike Seether, the band are not part of the videos main narrative, but are included in a side narrative with the band performing on the back of a lorry going down streets with everyone following them and chanting to the music. This follows the generic conventions of rock videos as the band are usually shown performing in front of an audience, and this also adds a touch of voyeurism to the video as the band are being watched from houses and the streets by onlookers.
Last Train Home has a lot of links between music and visuals. As Lostprophets are a rock band, in terms of Mise-en-scene, all the extras within the video are wearing stereotypical rock clothing like black hoodies, jeans and studded bracelets. Also every time the drums or guitars start to build up and go really loud, like in the chorus, you get a lot of close ups on them and the person playing them. The link between music and visuals is also apparent in seethers Fake It. Because of the rock genre, there is a heavy emphasis on the bands instruments. There are lots of close ups on the guitarists and the drummers, and also lots of close ups on the lead singers guitar, keeping the lead singer as the main focus of the band.
There is a obvious link between lyrics and visuals for Seethers' Fake It. The song talks about faking what you don't have, and the video shows the band on a fake set of a private jet among others, and this obvious link helps to bring the lyrics to life, and help give understanding to the song. This link can also be seen in Lostprophets Last train home. When they say 'and we sing...' the whole band, and the onlookers sing along too, and this adds to the feeling of togetherness that the lyrics are trying to give out.
One of the sets to Seether's Fake it is dark snowy woods, this set is similar to one from the music video to 'Wonderboy' by Tenacious D. Also the set on a plane with all the dancing women smothering themselves over the band is similar to the idea of the mile high club, and could may well be a reference to this idea. Also towards the end of the video one of the women are filming her and the lead singer on a phone, which appears to be a Nokia. This is a bit of promotion for the phones brand. There are also references to the use of Photoshop in the video, as he says ' I can fake it with the best of anyone' and they are healing the women's face and adding a tanned look to her face. Furthermore towards the end of the video, you see a clapper board come down in front of the camera which has the artists name, name of the song, and the director of the video on it.
There is also lots of voyeurism in Fake it as the band are on set the camera pans out and you can see that these sets are fake, and that the band are being filmed by a camera crew within the music video. So they are being filmed within a film as such.
The narrative to Lostprophets Last train home includes none of the band members, which is sometimes typical within this genre of music. The story behind the narrative has many meanings, and could be interpreted in a number of different ways and leaves the audience to think about it themselves.
Thursday, 18 June 2009
Research - Initial Six Stage Analysis
The song Don't Jump by the German punk rock band Tokio Hotel, includes many of the six features that most music videos follow. There is a lot of focus on the band in all their videos and this one is no exception, having the band be the main protagonists of the narrative within the music video.
The narrative of the video matches the lyrics to the song, so there is a direct link between lyrics and visuals. The lead singer is shown twice, one down on the streets looking up at the other, which is about to jump off the building. The band is playing within the narrative space, so you can see the drummer in the streets playing within the story space while the story is unfolding, this is also apparent for the two guitarists.
There is a lot of close up and mid shots on the lead singer, further promoting him. The lead singer is also the main protagonist of the narrative to the song, having his personality split and thus two of him are shown. The other band members are also shown throughout the video as onlookers to the possible suicide, but these are not as obvious as the lead singer. In terms of mise-en-scene, the band are dressed accordingly, matching their punk rock genre of music. Although the lead singers clothes are a lot more noticeable and so is his hair.
The opening of the video introduces the band as a whole, including close ups on the guitarist, and the drummer. The look and aesthetics of the video are all linked to the band and the narrative. The dark look of the video matches the dark genre of music, there are no bright colours, and this also links to the story behind the video, suicide is not a cheery topic. Voyeurism is shown within the videos narrative where the onlookers to the lead singers suicide are looking up at him, again implying that he is the centre of attention.
There is a link between music and visuals in terms of mise-en-scene. The band members clothes match the genre of music, and the appearance of the band members tend to follow a generic convention when it comes to the genre of music. In the song there is also a direct link between lyrics and visuals because the song talks about calm rooftops and manic streets, and this is shown in the video with their being slight chaos on the streets while the lead singer walks through them.
Lip sync in this video is not good, mostly because the band are German, so syncing the lyrics with the video is difficult, but a good job has been done, and the different order of clips doesn't mess up the narrative, or confuse the audience in any way.
The narrative of the video matches the lyrics to the song, so there is a direct link between lyrics and visuals. The lead singer is shown twice, one down on the streets looking up at the other, which is about to jump off the building. The band is playing within the narrative space, so you can see the drummer in the streets playing within the story space while the story is unfolding, this is also apparent for the two guitarists.
There is a lot of close up and mid shots on the lead singer, further promoting him. The lead singer is also the main protagonist of the narrative to the song, having his personality split and thus two of him are shown. The other band members are also shown throughout the video as onlookers to the possible suicide, but these are not as obvious as the lead singer. In terms of mise-en-scene, the band are dressed accordingly, matching their punk rock genre of music. Although the lead singers clothes are a lot more noticeable and so is his hair.
The opening of the video introduces the band as a whole, including close ups on the guitarist, and the drummer. The look and aesthetics of the video are all linked to the band and the narrative. The dark look of the video matches the dark genre of music, there are no bright colours, and this also links to the story behind the video, suicide is not a cheery topic. Voyeurism is shown within the videos narrative where the onlookers to the lead singers suicide are looking up at him, again implying that he is the centre of attention.
There is a link between music and visuals in terms of mise-en-scene. The band members clothes match the genre of music, and the appearance of the band members tend to follow a generic convention when it comes to the genre of music. In the song there is also a direct link between lyrics and visuals because the song talks about calm rooftops and manic streets, and this is shown in the video with their being slight chaos on the streets while the lead singer walks through them.
Lip sync in this video is not good, mostly because the band are German, so syncing the lyrics with the video is difficult, but a good job has been done, and the different order of clips doesn't mess up the narrative, or confuse the audience in any way.