AOB 1: History of Music Video

A music video is more of a tool than anything else, used by record labels and production companies use to convey a certain message or promote a band/artist.

Music videos have become an incredibly popular method for stars to gain popularity, and with the evolution of digital imaging and CGI, the music video industry is constantly gaining momentum.

Music videos differ from other genres in that they always convey a certain conventions or portray certain characteristics.

The concept of music video as we know it today was first utilised by the Beatles in the 1960s, when they filmed a video for their single strawberry fields. Instead of simply filming a video of the band playing, the music video simply contained footage of the band’s members running around in a field.

The music video genre has expanded and grown since it’s introduction, with different genres using different styles and themes, and particular artists introducing new ideas and concepts, such as David Bowie in the 1980s, with the music video “Ashes to Ashes”, in which Bowie experimented with surreal concepts and themes.

Genre characteristics can be distinguished more clearly in recent music videos, with stage performance being utilised amongst rock bands and the subsequent sub-genres, dance routines amongst pop and boy and girl bands, and surrealist concepts in other genres.

Other factors affect specific genres, such as with pop and soft rock, where how the star looks is as important as their music, with singers and band members wearing bright, trend-setting clothing, whereas with rock and metal bands, appearance takes on a darker, more free form, with denim, dark colours and darker concepts expressed in music videos, such as Linkin Park, a band famous for adapting and re-inventing the Rap Metal genre and who rated as the sixth greatest band in the music video industry in 2003.

Other bizarre concepts were utilised in the music video industry.

Bands like The Gorillaz owe their roots to the Dire Straits, with their music video “Money for Nothing” in 1986, which was the first music video to use animation, and ran on what would today be considered a basic graphics engine.

Though the music video industry is tailored to all tastes and genres, mainstream songs, especially by female artists, will have one or more sexual reference(s).

Whilst some artists stop at this, others will go further, including highly suggestive dance routines, voyeuristic acts and sometimes even sexual activities, whether included in the video itself or hinted in the lyrics.

A good majority of these videos end up banned because of being too lude.

Music videos such as Hurricane by 30 Seconds To Mars were banned because of sexual acts being utilised in the video, in this case, bondage, violence, and the repeated use of a sledgehammer.

Other videos, such as 45 by Shinedown, were banned completely from MTV because the band/artists refused to change the lyrics of their songs to fit the MTV censorship policy.

Shinedown’s lead singer, Brent Smith, expressed his outrage after MTV heavily changed the lyrics of the chorus without the band’s consent to fit their censorship, stating that if they “disagreed with the lyrics and message of the song, they might as well not play it altogether.”

The modern, censored MTV is a far cry from it’s humble beginnings back in the early 1980s, when former Monkee Mike Nesmith came up with the idea for Popclips on Nickelodeon. The idea was expanded and developed and other music channels began broadcasting with the only feature of these channels being the music videos themselves. Advertisers, seeing the profitable world of music video, began to be drawn to such music channels, and MTV came into being in 1981, with a long and fruitful life ahead of it.