History of Music Videos

1900 - Thomas Edison invents the gramophone. This was the first step from live music to recorded audio.

1927 - The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland) was in the first film which wasn't a silent movie. The film included sound for the first time. It was also half musical.

 

1940s - Disney's Fantasia was considered to be the first music video. The film was produced and then the score was written specifically to match the film.

The 1940s was also the peak period of MGMs Hollywood musicals

1954 - Elvis Presley records That's All Right and becomes a sex symbol in the music industry.

1963 - UK's first music TV programme, Ready Steady Go.

1964 - The second UK's TV programme Top of the Pops begins.

The Beatles release the film and album A Hard Day's Night

 

1981 - MTV starts. The first TV station to be dedicated to music. This became a turning point as music videos started becoming more important than the actual song. Music videos start becoming more creative and artistic. Different concepts and ideas are experimented within music videos.
 

1983 - Micheal Jackson's Thriller becomes the longest music video with a length of 16 minutes.

1984 - MTV Music Video Awards start taking place.

1987 - MTV Europe is launched which is broadcasted to 1.6 million homes.

1990 - MTV Unplugged lauches.

1994 - MTV launches the MTV Europe Music Awards.

1997 - MTV UK and Ireland launch their own independent channel.

2001 - Launch of MTV Dance. First music channel dedicated for dance only.

2005 - Lauch of YouTube.

iTunes allows users purchase and download music videos. The number of downloads go to 1 million after 20 days of being released.

2010 - All Lady Gaga's music videos reach 1 billon views alltogether.

Vevo is launched on YouTube which is dedicated for music videos only.

2012 - South Korean artist PSY, breaks YouTube record and becomes the first to reach 1 billion views with 'Gangnam Style'.

2013 - YouTube has 60 hours of videos being uploaded every minute. 4 billion videos are being viewed everyday.

2014 - PSY breaks another record. 'Gangnam Style' is the first video to reach 2 billion views.

Textual Analysis of Music Videos (Godwin's Music Video Analysis)

I have chosen to analyse 2NE1's "I Am The Best". 2NE1 is a South Korean 4 member girl group (consisting of CL, Park Bom, Sandara Park and Minzy) who were formed by YG Entertainment in 2009. YG Entertainment is one of the top three entertainment companies in South Korea currently and is also known as "the 400 billion won company". Another artist who is signed under YG Entertainment is PSY. The song "I Am The Best" topped all South Korean charts just within 24 hours of the song being released. "I Am The Best" was then confirmed to be an "all-kill" for the group.

"I Am The Best" is part of a genre called K-Pop (Korean pop music) and within it has many characteristics and features. Some characteristics of a K-Pop music video include

• bright and bold colours
• dancing
• close ups of the artist
• unusual styles/concepts (hair and clothes)
• studio set
• high production cost
• sometimes have a narrative

Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
The "I Am The Best" music video demonstrates the characteristics of a typical K-Pop video very well. For example in the music video they are shown to be dancing, having an unusual style and bright colours. There are also many close ups of each member of the group and was filmed on a set with a high production cost.

Dancing

Unusual hair styles and clothes/concepts

Close up of the artist

Intertextual references
In this music video there is a reference to the film "Million Dollar Baby". At the beginning the member is wearing a boxing belt which reads "WW Champ" or "World Wide Champion" which shows that the group is strong and their music is beginning to become more popular in other countries around the world. In the second verse in the song, the words "billion dollar baby" are sung (2:14) which refers back to the film "Million Dollar Baby" which is about a female boxer. This again links back to the beginning of the music video as one of the members is shown to be a boxer as she is wearing a hood, shorts and a belt which a boxer would wear at the beginning before the match starts.

 

Relationship between lyrics and visuals
There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. For example, when one member sings "hot fire", the background turns from blue to fire to correspond with the lyrics. (1:04)

 

 



Another example is when another member sings "like a flat tire", it has been edited to make her cheeks look like they are being deflated imitating a tire. (2:07)

 

 

Intro to A2

This is my blog for the A2 course. In this blog I will be looking at music videos and their conventions of their genres.