Music Video Notes

Music videos are a marketing device used by record companies aimed to make sales and to make the song popular. They have been popular sins the 1980s but been around sins the 60s. In 1964, the film "A Hard Days Night" contained songs by The Beatles and some atempt at narative. This therefore made the film a musical sequence, witch meant that The Beatles had a big influence on the misic video.
In 1965, The beatles began to use film inserts as a promotional tool, other bands began to follow suit, and the beatles lead the way with"Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane." Both of these were described as avendgard, they used slow motion and unusual camera work, therefore through experimentation they were more sofisticated than previous musical sequences.
In 1981, music videos became mainstream with the launch of MTV with the first song beamed "Video Killed The Radio Star." Music videos became the standard practice for bands as they could be cheaply produced by high tech equipment and effects like the croma key.

Censorship
Products need to be censored, music videos are regulated by the British Broadcast Film Censor. Music videos are mini films thats why the BBFC regulate them, censorship should be considered when making a music videos. In 1991, the Michael Jackson video "Black or White" was censored as he was said to have touched himself inapropriatley, and other videos have been censored such as "Smack My Bitch Up" by Prodigy

Music Theory
Some would argue that music videos have made pop songs purly based on image. Are pop songs enough on there own to make meaning and pleasure to the audience
"A good music video is a clip that responds to the pleasure of music, in which the music is made visual, either in new ways or in a way that accentuates existing asociation."- Andrew Goodwin

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics such as dance in Boy/Girl Bands
2. The relationship between lyrics and visuals either contradict or illustrate the lyrics
3. The relationship between music and visuals either illustrate, amplify or contradict what is happening on screen
4. The demands of the record label will include close ups of the artist may develop motifiers that re-occur across the style and video
5. Frequent reference to the notion of looking at the female body
6. Intertexual references, refering to a film that may be very well known