The purpose of Music Videos

The purpose of this essay is to evaluate the purpose of music videos and to see how over recent years as technology has advanced, so has the music video. As well as technology, many media outlets such as social networking sites, YouTube and television have enabled many artists to get a name for themselves and gain success. The emergence of music videos occurred in 1975 when Queen made the music video for their hit song “Bohemian Rhapsody” and marked the beginning of music videos today. The video was one of the first to use advanced video effects.

With the emergence music videos there were a lot of opportunities in promoting the artist, song, record company and directors. One way in which bands tried to promote themselves in their videos was having the band name on the drum kit on it and costume was a way of sticking out of the crowd to be recognised. One band that used to do this a lot was the Beatles in all of their promos for their songs. As well as this, a famous artist could also ask another recognised name to collaborate with them on the making of the video which promotes both parties. For example, in Noel Gallagher’s music video “What a Life!” Russell Brand who is a well-known face, plays an acting role in the video. This may make people watch the video as Russell Brand is well known personality in film and show business.

Many artists market themselves differently and have different production strategies in order to appeal to the public and engage them with their video. Depending on the budget and how famous the artist is dictates the quality of the video. For example, Jake Bugg’s video ‘Seen it all’ is a low budget music video because he is a new musician. Therefore the record company wouldn’t want to take a risk on spending a lot of money on a music video in case Jake Bugg wasn’t successful after the release of his song. However, a well-established artist such as Beyoncé would have a bigger budget for a music video. However, in some cases a lot of artists have been ‘made’ from making a video on a low budget. This has been made possible due to media outlets such as YouTube and social networking sites which allow unsigned artists to put their music on the internet without it costing anything. One of the most famous artists to be recognised through YouTube was Justin Bieber. He self-produced his own videos of his performances and is now regarded one of the biggest artists in the world. Many artists aim to do something different with their videos in order to promote their song.

Royalties are given to the artist and record label for their song being played on the radio and their music video being played. However, it is near impossible to track when the music videos are being played due to the vast number of media outlets available. Therefore, the royalties are paid to the artist due to the popularity of the artist and song. Throughout the years there has been an increased on the media outlets that allow the consumer to watch music videos. This is a good thing for the artist because it allows people to watch their video on various different music channels. However, for the media outlets it’s not so good because of all the competition with each other to get a bigger audience.

One of the main media outlets is the internet with sites such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites where it is free and easy to access music videos. Another is music channels that start of way back in 1981 with the launch of MTV. With this, more and more music channels emerged; some examples are 4music, Kiss, Viva. One of the main advantages of these media outlets is that it allows the consumer to access of watching their favourite artists wherever they want as it is possible to access videos via mobile, web and TV. It also potentially the artist more recognition and popularity. The disadvantage of growing number of media outlets that a lot of people watch a lot of stuff from lots of various media outlets, so chances of getting attention is lessoned.

Synergy has been used for many years through media. Walt Disney came up with the idea of using synergy to promote Disney products and expand the brand of Disney. For example, if a production company wanted to use a Disney product in a music video, the production company would pay Disney a lump sum and also get their name or logo put into the music video which advertises Disney. Also, if an artist is using a song for a soundtrack for a movie, clips of the movie could be used in the film to promote the film. An example of this is in the song “Nickelback, Hero” clips from the hit film ‘Spiderman’ are used to promote the film as the song is used as the soundtrack to the film. Merchandise or clothing range is also used in music videos from various artists to promote products. This is often used by artists such as Lady Gaga who wears clothes from her clothing range to promote it and also Liam Gallagher to promote his Clothing range ‘Pretty Green’.

One of the main reasons why I think music videos are so popular is because fans of artists can watch their music videos wherever they are. It’s free to use if you have internet access and is much preferred to than buying the videos of ITunes or from a music shop. It also allows unsigned artists the chance to gain some recognition and a record deal if people like their music and style and It also gives people that made the video recognition.