Primary Research- Music Video

Music videos are mediums of media in which a video is constructed and performed, in order to  visually represent or go alongside with the piece of music it is made for, in addition to commercially promoting the product. They act as an illustration for the music, a way of helping the listeners and audience connect with the music by providing a visual stimulus that helps give the music foundation and context. There are different styles of music video however. Some music videos can be narrative based, in which the video will feature around a story-line and characters, and a linear story is told whilst the song plays out. This can often be seen in more emotionally driven songs, such as through the likes of Adele and such.  Others can be animation based, live-action based, or even documentary based. Other music video can be content based, and will simply be stylish in order to make the artist look more appealing, such as in many rap/hip-hop music that are currently produced.


A brief history into music videos:

Music videos can link all the way back to 1894, in which a pair of sheet musicians hired an electrician, in which he used a magic lantern to project a series of still images on a screen simultaneous to live performances. This would become the first step to music videos. In 1926, with the arrival of 'sound films', many musical short films were being made. These were basically motion pictures, with synchronized sound. They incorporated bands, vocalists and dancers to try and create short music videos in the form of pictures and audio in as much engaging way as possible. 'Soundies', which were produced and released from 1940 to 1947, were musical films that often included short dance sequences, similar to later music videos. However in 1981, this marks the year in which music videos became a mainstream feature. The U.S mainstream video channel MTV was created, which began an area of 24 hours a day music on television. With this new outlet/creation for music material, this music video channel would, by the mid 80's, grow to play a very large role in popular music marketing. From this point on, MTV has continued to be a leading frontier for music videos and music marketing, with artists of all genres incorporated and also being one of the most successful music channels on modern TV.  From 2005 on wards, the internet became 'video friendly', providing an easy way of sharing video with the rest of the internet. This was when users of the internet began to upload music videos to the internet, for people all over the world to see such as through websites like Napster and iFilm. Nowadays music videos are shared all over the world via the internet, with site giants such as YouTube and Vevo that are the leading frontiers for music videos, as well as modern TV channels. 

An example of music video: 

This is an example music video and is for the song 'Team' by Lorde. This is a music video I particularly like due to its stylish approach. The music video is narrative based and revolves around a group of teenagers on a remote island somewhere, the message of the song seeming to be based around hierarchies and rules within the teenage world. I very much like this music video due to the narrative based approach, featuring a story told in the music video that is appealing to the audience as many of the viewers will probably be teenagers too, which is what Lorde's music is mostly aimed at. The music video also has very strong cinematography in my opinion, with many shots really drawing in the audience into the world the music video explores. Along with the mysterious settings and colour pallets, the world explored in the music video, along with the song, becomes hard to turn away from. Lorde is also in the music video herself, often breaking the fourth wall by looking at the camera. This can be used as a device to make Lorde, in the world of the music video, aware of the fact she's being watched and also suggests she's addressing the audience personally, to convey her message in the song in as clear detail as possible.