Music Videos - More Info...

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Impact
The music video, in which short performances accompany and illustrate songs, appeared out of nowhere in the early 1980s to become the most influential—and the only new—art form of the decade.
As advertisements for new recordings and as self-promotion for the artist, music videos captured the capitalist spirit of 1980s art. Artistically these videos were a mixed lot, ranging from electrifying to turgid (dull). Most fell somewhere between these extremes—a typical video was a quirky, dreamlike montage of images (a "minimovie") designed to illustrate fantasies or approximate the live performances of the artist or band.
In their cultural impact videos accomplished much more than advertising, making arguments about their overt commercialism of small consequence. The music video single-handedly revitalized the slumping recording industry, revolutionized television, expanded radio formatting, ignited the careers of dozens of unknown music performers, breathed new life into dance and choreography, and opened avenues of potential in the movie industry.
It also changed marketing and audience demographics by creating a new inter-connection and interdependence among television, movies, and music.


Pioneers
The earliest videos were primitive but often vital exercises for their creators and, in the long run, for the entire industry. Many pioneering videos were simply concert clips, but several artists, particularly in Europe, were experimenting with surrealistic and narrative forms by the late 1970s. In Europe the shortage of radio stations motivated many young musicians to seek alternative types of exposure. Their promotional videotapes were played at discos and on television. In England David Bowie became a forerunner in the new form with his energetic promo video for his song "DJ" (1979) and his Fellini-esque fantasy "Ashes to Ashes" (1980), in which a stone-faced Bowie, dressed as a harlequin, walks along a postapocalyptic beach while being lectured by an old woman. New-wave bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s embraced the video form, even on nonexistent budgets. Devo and The Residents mixed camp with alienation in their clips, while The Pretenders contributed cinematic style with "Brass in Pocket" (1980). By late 1980 videos were appearing frequently on late-night music programs and in urban dance clubs, which began alternating the promos with avant-garde movie clips and old television footage. Viewers were soon flocking around video screens at clubs such as Hurrah and Danceteria in New York and Lucky Number and Neo in Chicago, The music industry began to take notice.


MTV
The true catalyst of the 1980s video explosion was Music Television (MTV), which began broadcasting in August 1981. MTV was the brainchild of former radio-program director Robert Pittman. With the financial backing of Warner Communications and American Express, Pittman created the cable network to reach what he called "the TV babies," post-baby-boom teenagers and young adults who had grown up with television and rock music. "The set is part of our lives," he said. "We want it to respond to our every need and desire." MTV showed twenty-four hours of nonstop music videos every day, with breaks for rock news, "veejay" chitchat, commercials, and occasional special programming. Record companies supplied their artists' videos for free in return for free airplay. Pittman's market surveying produced demographics that were extremely appealing to advertisers: 85 percent of the viewers were between ages twelve and thirty-four, and 63 percent were under twenty-five. The MTV network vice president in charge of advertising sales noted, "MTV was the most researched channel in television history." After starting with a relatively small playlist—a few hundred clips, mostly rock—and an equally small operating budget, MTV grew rapidly, from 18 advertisers in 1981 to more than 125 by early 1983. By 1983 the company had not yet turned a profit, but its reach was impressive: from 300 cable outlets capable of reaching 2.5 million homes in 1981, it had grown to include 2,000 affiliates received by 17.5 million homes in 1983. John Lack, executive vice president at Warner Amex, summed up the market position of MTV: "We are a company that believes in specialized entertainment, and if you are Budweiser or Kawasaki or Pepsi-Cola, you want our audience." Their audience wanted video; Pittman's new slogan for the burgeoning network was "I want my MTV."


Clout
The success of Jackson's innovative, cinematic videos heralded the true arrival of video as an art form. His flashy choreography created a new demand for dance in videos, which was heightened by the huge success of Madonna as a video artist in 1984. Several video directors earned reputations for quality work. One of these was Bob Giraldi, who directed "Beat It" (1983) and "Say Say Say" (1984) for Michael Jackson, "Love Is a Battlefield" (1984) for Pat Benatar, and "Running with the Night" (1984) and "Hello" (1984) for Lionel Richie. The new prestige of video directors caught the attention of respected movie directors, such as John Landis and Bob Rafelson, who suddenly wanted to make music videos. In 1984 Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" was directed by Brian De Palma, and the following year John Sayles filmed Springsteen's "I'm on Fire" and "Glory Days." Later in the decade Martin Scorsese gave video a try with Michael Jackson's "Bad" (1987). In turn, successful video directors began graduating to big-budget feature films. Adrian Lyne, who started as a video director, broke through in Hollywood with Flashdance (1983), a $100 million smash. The visual style of Flashdance evoked rock video, and Jennifer Beak's Danskins, torn jeans, and ripped sweatshirts touched off a fashion craze. The huge success of the soundtrack ($47 million in sales) and its hit singles released a flood of slick, video-inspired, music-oriented movies in 1984, including Purple Rain, Footloose, Streets of Fire, and Reckless. Other blockbuster films, including the 1984 hits Beverly Hills Cop and Ghostbusters, were peddled via high-profile videos featuring songs from their soundtrack albums. Video had become the marketing tool of the decade.

"Music videos are an art-form all on their own"

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- Music videos can have a positive effect on CD sales. More and more, it is expected that a music video will accompany a CD release to add to the artist's visibility and exposure in the market place.

- Much Music Television was launched in the early 1980s and became another avenue to expose an artist's image and talent. In this sense, the music video must be an extension of the CD concept and the marketing campaign.

- The standard for a music video is very competitive and it takes a lot more than taking a digital camera and shooting scenes at random. The video should have a concept and a plan to execute it.

- Today, producing music videos is an art and, increasingly, music video producers are being sought after much like their counterparts who produce the actual music. Some music videos can cost $10,000-plus to make but may not even get aired.

- The process for getting new music videos to air on music television is to initially full out the submission forms provided on the Web site at www.muchmusic.com. All videos received for a given week are reviewed every Tuesday by three to six programmers. A roundtable discussion takes place on the merits of the video, the marketability of the music and the current buzz on the artist. This will also determine if the video will play on Much Music, Much More Music, Much Vibe, Much Loud or Much More Retro. Once this has been done, just like radio airplay, it becomes a question of heavy, medium or low rotation. Coming out of the gate with heavy rotation means the video will be played at least once daily, medium rotation means it airs every second day and low rotation is every third day.

- A video can be upgraded from low to medium rotation based on positive viewer feedback and weekly music charts.

Questions and Answers - Music Videos - encyclopedia.com

Q: How long are music videos typically?

A: Typically three to five minutes long, music videos frequently include quick cuts, stylizations, fanciful and often erotic imagery, and computer graphics.


Q: What popularized music videos?

A: The music video form was popularized by the MTV cable network (est. 1981) and began to have wide popularity and influence in the early 1980s


Q: What audience are music videos aimed at?

A: Although music videos have usually been aimed at a teenage audience, many videos of ballads or "soft rock" songs are now directed at an older group of viewers.

Music Videos - encyclopedia.com

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/music_video.aspx :

A music video is a videotaped performance of a recorded popular song, usually accompanied by dance or a fragmentary story and sometimes employing concert footage. Typically three to five minutes long, music videos frequently include quick cuts, stylizations, fanciful and often erotic imagery, and computer graphics. Originally vehicles for promoting singles, most music videos are in the rock idiom. Although many examples of the genre feature the macho rock stars and scantily clad dancers that have become cultural clichés, certain music videos are notable for their cutting-edge techniques and artistic innovations, and some of their directors have achieved auteur status

The music video form was popularized by the MTV cable network (est. 1981) and began to have wide popularity and influence in the early 1980s. By the 1990s many hundreds of videos, representing a cross-section of musical forms—from traditional to experimental rock, heavy metal to hip hop—were being produced yearly. Although music videos have usually been aimed at a teenage audience, many videos of ballads or "soft rock" songs are now directed at an older group of viewers. Since shortly after their inception, the style and content of music videos have strongly influenced advertising, television, film, and popular culture as a whole.

Codes and Conventions of Music Videos

The codes and conventions of music videos are:

The conventions of a music video vary depending on the genre of the music.
However, some general conventions are: The artist is shown performing, the lyrics of the song influence what is shown in the video, the pace of editing fits the pace of the music, and the codes of dress reflect the mood of the song.
There are also symbolic codes, for example, what the person is feeling and how we see that.
The way that things are done within the video also describes the genre of the music video.

Top 10 Music Videos

Top 10 (out of top 100) music videos of all time 

(according to: http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/weekly_article/stylus-magazines-top-100-music-videos-of-all-time4.htm  -  videos and more information available through the link).

010. Dr. Dre f/ Snoop Dogg – “Nuthin’ But a “G” Thang” 
(Dir. Andre Young, 1993)

009. Daft Punk – “Around the World” 
(Dir. Michel Gondry, 1997)

008. Jay-Z – “99 Problems” 
(Dir. Mark Romanek, 2004)

007. Bjork – “All Is Full of Love” 
(Dir. Chris Cunningham, 1999)

006. The Replacements – “Bastards of Young” 
(Dir. Unknown, 1985)

005. Radiohead – “Just” 
(Dir. Jamie Thraves, 1995)

004. A-Ha – “Take on Me” 
(Dir. Steve Barron, 1985)

003. Joy Divison – “Atmosphere” 
(Dir. Anton Corbijn, 1988)

002. Johnny Cash – “Hurt” 
(Dir. Mark Romanek, 2003)

001. U.N.K.L.E. f/ Thom Yorke – “Rabbit in Your Headlights” 
(Dir. Jonathan Glazer, 1998)

Planning

Music Video (definition):

Videotaped performance of a recorded popular song, usually accompanied by dance or a fragmentary story and sometimes employing concert footage. Typically three to five minutes long, music videos frequently include quick cuts, stylizations, fanciful and often erotic imagery, and computer graphics. Originally vehicles for promoting singles, most music videos are in the rock idiom. Although many examples of the genre feature the macho rock stars and scantily clad dancers that have become cultural clichés, certain music videos are notable for their cutting-edge techniques and artistic innovations, and some of their directors have achieved auteur status.

The music video form was popularized by the MTV cable network (est. 1981) and began to have wide popularity and influence in the early 1980s. By the 1990s many hundreds of videos, representing a cross-section of musical forms—from traditional to experimental rock, heavy metal to hip hop—were being produced yearly. Although music videos have usually been aimed at a teenage audience, many videos of ballads or "soft rock" songs are now directed at an older group of viewers. Since shortly after their inception, the style and content of music videos have strongly influenced advertising, television, film, and popular culture as a whole.

Wikipedia:

A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music/song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos go back much further, they came into their own in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium, and later with the launch of VH1. The term "music video" first came into popular usage in the early 1980s. Prior to that time, these works were described by various terms including "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional (promo) clip" or "film clip". In Chinese entertainment, music videos are simply known as MTVs because the network was responsible for bringing music videos to its popularity.
Music videos use a wide range of styles of filmmaking techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film.

Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation and live action.

Michael Jackson peforming in his most famous music video, Thriller: