History of Music Videos

It wasnt until 1975 that music videos became popular, this was because of the band Queen and
their song Bohemian Rhapsody, it was made because they couldnt attend and perform at Top of
the Pops since they were on tour away from the UK. The song which went on for 9 minutes was
claimed to be too long for radio use and was predicted to be unsuccessful but soon reached the
number one spot. If we compare Queens music video to a modern day video you can see a huge
difference it both quality and visual effects, but the Queens music video was revolutionary for the
music video industry as it made the music video industry burst into life as many more pop stars
would follow Queen into making music videos. This launched a new way for people to consume
music and huge new place to market music and products. The first real place for people to watch
and consume music videos and a change from radio was the TV channel MTV. The first music
video to be played on MTV was Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles on august 1 st 1981,
but it wasnt till Michael Jacksons Billie Jean was on MTV before MTV was made popular. But
prior to music videos from Queen and Michael Jackson music video usually consisted of bands
grinning at the camera from exotic and famous locations and or live performances. In the modern
day of music videos, the videos arent really used to show off the music they are more known to be
an advert that has a soundtrack to it. Modern day music videos are commonly full of product
placement and a way for the pop star to show off their new Lamborghini with the latest Beats
headphones around there neck and the new Rolex on their wrist.
The first ever music video created was The Lost Little Child created in 1894 before cameras
became a house hold item. The music video consisted of photos taken and put into a slider and
was shown in the background whilst the song was being performed. This was common on how
music videos were shown, until Queen launched their hit music video Bohemian Rhapsody in
1975. This made the music video become iconic as it changed the way music video would be all
the way up to the modern day. This was because Queen used their music video to perform there
song without actually being there. It also paved the way for music videos and they started to be a
way for the performer to express the story of the song in a more clear way by giving the music
video a story line.
1975
Queen
Bohemia
n
Rhapsod
y

As we can see in this image, the quality is a

little low as it was filmed around 40 years ago
this shows us how much quality has improved
over the years, this is because most things that
were filmed back then were commonly in 720p
which for its time was a good quality but was
easily beaten down when 1080 HD came in.
Also we can see the special effects which are a
little blurred and look simple / nonprofessional
compared to the modern standard.
In this image we can clearly tell it is higher
quality and is in a HD resolution, this is because
over the years cameras have become more
advance in the fact that they are able to record
in a higher quality, at resolutions around 1080p
and more recent videos being filmed at a 4k
resolution. Making old videos such as the
Bohemian Rhapsody look unclear and blurry.
We can also tell that the special effects have
improved as they are used on both of the

Roan Helliwell

2014 Daft Punk Essential mix

characters in the image to give them a shiny

futuristic look which works well alongside the
disco ball. We can also tell that the quality of
music videos have improved over the years as
special techniques / effects have been used to
hide the camera filming away from the reflection
on the disco ball.

Evolved over time

Over the past 20-30 years music videos have changed into more than just music videos, for
example 30 years ago music videos were just a video that went along with the song and showed
the storyline in more detail, but into todays day and age music videos are much more than that for
example A-HA Take on me features a woman going to a caf and the comic she is reading
comes to life and throughout that music video it tells a story but if we compare that to a modern
day music video things such as half naked women and product placement have taken over what a
music video is about a good example of this would be pop stars such as Pit-bull and Miley Cyrus.
In Pit-bull music videos it is nothing but naked women and product placement such as Voli Vodka
which appears in nearly every shot and even the lyrics another big product placement which is
featured in Miley Cyruss music videos is Beats headphone, this takes away the main purpose of a
music video as most pop stars use it as a way to show off all the new brands and earn money
from doing so. This can be known as celebrity endorsement, were companies use celebritys to
promote their product and get more sales. Another way music videos have evolved over time is
with the introduction of awards, there are many different type of awards such as MTV music
awards, YouTube music awards and the Grammys. These venues offer awards such as music
video of the year, best male video of the year, best female of the year. This makes the music video
industry a competitive scene rather than one about music.
The reason music video awards were introduced was because of the popularity of music videos
was sky high as it was a place fans could see their pop stars performing without having to go see
them live. Introducing music awards was also another way for people to make money as they
would pay more to go see them live and support them getting their awards. Music video awards
have evolved in the way that over the years more awards have been awarded such as the best
song of the summer another way the music video awards have evolved is that more live
performances are performed meaning more fans will want to be there and watch their favorite pop
starts. Music awards also made pop stars go further and put more effort into the videos as they
had a chance to be awarded for this. This lead to pop stars doing crazy things or just getting
popular actors to act in their videos. An example of this would be Miley Cyruss Wrecking ball
video which had her naked on a wrecking ball singing her song, this lead to people being
controversial as it was labeled as unsuitable for kids and her fan base is largely made up of kids
as during her teenage years she played Hannah Montana. Another example of someone getting
actors to do their music videos would be Carly Rae Jepsens I really like you were Tom Hanks
starred in the music video which helped the song as his fan base would view the song benefiting
Carley.
Companies often pay for stars to put their product in the video as if major pop stars use or show
off their product, the company is more likely to earn more money as their product would become
popular, meaning more people are likely to buy it. With it also being featured on a popular pop
stars music video it shows the product in good light making people think that the product is good
because a huge pop star is using it again making more people wanting to own the product. The
more the company pays the more likely the pop star is going to keep advertising the product
meaning the company in turn makes more money. An example of stars that have been offered
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good product placement deal would be Run DMC when Addidas offered them $1.8 mil to wear
their products. Companies can pay a range of different prices on products placement, it all
depends on how big the star is and the probability of the video becoming popular and how long the
product is going to be featured on the music video. It was reported that Coke paid around 20,00
to be featured in Lady Gagas music video telephone. Another way companies make money
through the use of music videos is celebrity endorsement, which is where a company uses
celebritys fame to promote their product. An example of celebrity endorsement would be Dr. Dre
and the Beats headphones, with Dre being both a rapper and a producer he made a great
candidate when monster chose him to be the lead celebrity behind Beats. This was successful as
people thought that if Dre uses the headphones to produce his music they must be great
headphone to use. By also giving the headphones the name Beats by Dre made it more effective
as people were more likely to trust a highly successful producer to create a pair of headphones

The use of product placement in music videos

2014

2014

In this picture we clearly just see the Beats Pill

which is a speaker made by the company
Beats. With it being a new release around the
time the song came out it was a perfect
marketing scheme to have it feature in Miley
Cyruss video as it would make teens think ohh
Miley has got one of them, I want one too
In this picture we see Pit-bull stood in front of
bottles of Voli Vodka, this is doing two things,
and it is showing off the fact that Pit-bull can
afford Voli and have it everywhere. It also
makes young adults think all the celebritys
drink this, wouldn't it be cool if I had it too.

Technology
Music videos have also changed just like technology for example, the quality of music videos have
improved if we compare Queens bohemian rhapsodys quality and CGI effects to a modern day
music video like Swedish House Mafias greyhound we can see a complete change in both quality
of the video because of the evolution of camera and how they can record in a higher resolution
giving a clearer picture also the changed in special effects and CGI making unrealistic things look
real with the improvement of graphics we can see this by comparing the quality of the CGI and
camera of bohemian rhapsody to Greyhounds which has robotic dogs racing in the desert in a
much higher quality.

CGI (Old v new)

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Queen 1975 Bohemian Rhapsody

The CGI used in this video was considered

good back when it was released in 1975 but
compared to modern day CGI its pretty much
just basic CGI. In this picture we can see that
the CGI used is multiple exposure which is
where one image is placed over another one to
create an overall single image one shot filmed
being copied and placed in different parts of the
screen making it look like the same people are
appearing more the once at the same time.

Swedish House Mafia Grey Hound 2012

The CGI used in this music video is much more

advanced than the one used in the other music
video, this because this was made around 2011
meaning that technology has moved on hugely
meaning more software was available to make
these cyber dogs come to life and look realistic.
The reason this music video contains CGI is
because the story line of the music video is
people racing robotic dogs in the desert, but the
dogs are controlled by people in this sci-fi
arena. But to makes this look realistic they
would have to use CGI as making a robotic dog
with props would be a really hard job. With them
making the dog with CGI I allowed them to
make the dogs look alive with bright colors and
a metallic look. It also allowed the actors in the
arena look futuristic as they had LED lights
around them like a suit and they were
controlling the dogs with their hands.

Cost
Another way music videos have changed is the cost to make them, bohemian rhapsody cost
around 4500 to make and for its time was full of high definition special effects. The next big music
video was thriller which is one of the most expensive music videos ever made costing around
500,000 to make. This lead to other pop stars such as Madonna creating huge budget music
videos such as Die Another Day which cost around 3.9 million to make. With the cost of music
videos becoming a higher and more popular this made companies think that music videos were a
good way to market their products, mainly because if a fan saw their favorite pop star wearing the
latest top of the range headphones it would make them want to have a pair too. A good example to
show how technology has changed in music videos is to look at the music video that only took 5
seconds to film. The being Unconditional Rebel by Siska, to film the 5 second long music video
they used a top of the range 4K camera that could capture 10,000 frames per second and after
filming for 5 seconds they then slowed it down which resulted in a 3minute and a half long music
video.
The length of music videos
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Over time the length of music videos have stayed the same but one or two music videos go on
longer than the actual song for example one artist was prone to having really long music videos
was Michael Jackson, who has the record for the longest music video with the song Ghosts which
went on for nearly 40 minutes. Jackson had other long music videos such as Bad which went on
for 15 minutes, Thriller that went on for 15 minutes and You Rock My World which went on for 13
minutes. The reason for Jacksons long videos is because he changed the music video into more
of a short movie, this is because he wanted to express the storyline in detail and get the viewer
engrossed into the story. Modern day music videos normally last around 3-5 minutes depending
on the length of the song, the length of the video normally depends on the depth of the story of the
song, for example lots of modern day songs like Avicii has an opening of around 30 seconds
before the song actually kicks in, this is because it introduces the story of the video so the viewer
understands the basis of the story.
One way music videos have changed in recent times is 3D, although this is a new thing in 2015 it
is still a way that music videos have changed. This shows the advancement in technology as back
when music videos started appearing and becoming popular in 1975 3D video didn't even exist.
An example of a 3D music video would be Cory Branans You Make Me which features him stood
next to world wonders and iconic places around the world. This music video was able to be 3D
because 3D camera have become cheaper as they are not classed as something special
anymore, you can pick up a 3D camera for about 500 meaning nearly anyone can create their
own 3D film/video.

Roan Helliwell