JENNY FORREST
HISTORY OF MUSIC VIDEOS
ARTIST: QUEEN
ALBUM: A NIGHT AT THE OPERA
RELEASE: 1975
GENRES: PROGRESSIVE ROCK
1980
QUEEN: BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
This was the first music video to be aired on MTV. Having launched on August 1, 1981, this music video was clearly going to be a bit hit. American audiences hadn’t yet heard this song despite its popularity in England, and so MTV were able to give it more coverage. MTV was only on air on a few cable systems at the time, and in those areas, a lot of Buggles albums were sold.
Trevor Horn, the writer of Video Killed The Radio Star, wrote in his book, ‘I Want My MTV’: “It came from this idea that technology was on the verge of changing everything. Video recorders had just come along, which changed people’s lives. We’d seem people starting to make videos as well, and we were excited by that. It felt like radio was the past and video was the future. There was a shift coming.”
THE BUGGLES: VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR
ARTIST:THE BUGGLES
ALBUM: THE AGE OF PLASTIC
RELEASE: 1980
GENRES: NEW WAVE/POST-PUNK
This was the first music video with year-round appeal, despite the Halloween novelty. The horror theme is conveyed by the lyrics, about creatures of the night who terrify their victims. The entire music video was a cultural milestone, introducing elaborate choreography, costume and dialogue from the narrative. It also introduced the idea that a music video could be more creative, more than just presenting the song. At 13 minutes longer, Thriller acts as a mini-movie, although a radio edit of the song was a conventional length.
This music video also introduced the trend of group dance scenes in pop videos, still seen today, as the famous graveyard scene caught the imagination of producers. The music video is considered the most famous music video of all time, as by the Library of Congress. It added the song as its first to its National Film Registry in 2009.
1982
MICHAEL JACKSON: THRILLER
ARTIST: MICHAEL JACKSON
ALBUM: THRILLER
RELEASE: 1982
GENRES: ROCK MUSIC, POP ROCK, DISCO, CONTEMPORARY R&B,POST-DISCO
ARTIST: CYNDI LAUPER
ALBUM: SHE'S SO UNUSUAL
RELEASE: 1983
GENRES: 80'S POP, POP
1983
CYNDI LAUPER: GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN
1985
A-HA: TAKE ON ME
ARTIST: A-HA
ALBUM: HUNTING LOW AND HIGH
RELEASE: 1985
GENRES: 80'S POP, POP
ARTIST: MADONNA
ALBUM: LIKE A PRAYER
RELEASE: 1989
GENRES: 80'S POP
MADONNA: LIKE A PRAYER
1995
MICHAEL JACKSON ft. JANET JACKSON: SCREAM
ARTIST: BEYONCE
ALBUM: I AM...SASHA FIERCE
RELEASE: 2008
GENRES: DANCE-POP, R&B
BEYONCE: SINGLE LADIES (PUT A RING ON IT)
2008
2012
PSY: GANGNAM STYLE
ARTIST: PSY
ALBUM: PSY SIX (SIX RULES) PART 1
RELEASE: 2012
GENRES: POP
ARTIST: MILEY CYRUS
ALBUM: BANGERZ
RELEASE: 2013
GENRES: POP
MILEY CYRUS: WRECKING BALL
2013
The music video was a first for visual images to be more significant than the song itself. They were innovative and had a futuristic feel, with the images in the “thunderbolts and lightning section” were created by putting a prism in front of the camera lens, and the effect where the singer travels to infinity created by pointing the camera at a monitor. In addition, it was the first music video to be filmed on video instead of film.
It was created by the band to avoid performing it live on Top of the Pops, fearing it to be too complex to perform live. However, this in fact gave the song stronger promotion, with the show running the video for months keeping it in charts. This started a trend in the UK of making videos for songs to be aired in replacement of live performances.
The song became a huge anthem for the decade, symbolising female attitude, as well as setting fashion trends of bright, extravagant clothing. This was also the first for female led videos, for the artist to represent women independence, wearing cheap and fashionable clothing, as followed by artists such as Madonna.
This video also won the first ever Best Female Video at the 1984 Video Music Awards.
This anthem theme fitted with the real woman, as supposed to the beautiful and rich, rarely seen in the real world. Cyndi Lauper wrote in the book I Want My MTV: "I wanted ‘Girls Just Want To Have Fun’ to be an anthem for women around the world – and I mean all women – and a sustaining message that we are powerful human beings. I made sure that when a woman saw the video, she would see herself as represented, whether she was thin or heavy, glamorous or not, and whatever race she was."
The music video for Take On Me was an iconic one. The narrative is of a cartoon figure who persuades its reader to join him in the comic and the story. Presented through approximately 3000 frames of sketches, the video took 16 weeks to create. Fans said that this is what brought the song to life, connecting the lyrics to a storyline in the most effective way. The video later won 6 Video Music Awards by MTV including Most Experimental Video.
Like a Prayer was the first song by a major artist to be used in a commercial before being released to radio stations and stores. Pepsi signed the artist Madonna in an endorsement deal, so they could debut the song in a commercial. The following day the song was added to radio playlists worldwide. However, Madonna hijacked the video due to be shown on MTV, leading to outrage by religious groups and Pepsi facing a boycott and dropping Madonna altogether, meaning the commercial was never aired again.
The era that Madonna brought to the music industry was also iconic. Her music mixed night-club beats with a catchy melody, but her persona and the lyrics brought the beginning of confidence, where a woman was so in-control of her sex life, teaching other women love themselves and their bodies.
At the time of the video’s release, it was the most expensive to have ever been made. Costing approximately $7 million, the short amount of time to make the music video caused large costs in the creation of 12 sets, including a spaceship location, and to pay for the ‘assistants who had assistants who had assistants’ (Mark Romanek speaking to Slash Film).
The music video is also relevant for the popularity it brought the pair at such a controversial time. Both Michael and Janet used this music video as a way of presenting their frustrations at the media for how they’d been portrayed, with Michael experiencing a molestation trial and negative press regarding his marriage to Lisa Marie Presley.
ARTIST: MICHAEL JACKSON
ALBUM: HIStory: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE, BOOK I
RELEASE: 1995
GENRES: 90'S POP, POP
The lyrics of this song are iconic for the following actions by many of her fans. The basis of the song is that a girl should dump her boyfriend if he is not willing to propose to marry her. When touring after the song's release, many wedding proposals took place between fans at the actual concerts. The iconic dancing seen in the music video also created an internet phenomena. Choreography
seen in the chorus section were replicated by thousands of fans, with their own versions being posed online. Speaking to Billboard, the artist revealed that "Out of all my videos, 'Single Ladies' was the least expensive and took the least amount of time, and it ended up being the most iconic. But once we got on the set, it was like, wait a minute. This is something special."
The goofy dancing featured heavily in this music video is what gave it it's fame, with a horse-riding style move adding comical value.
In 2012, the music video gained a Guinness World Record for 'Most Liked Video', reaching 2,200,000 likes on Youtube. In December the same year, the video was the first on Youtube to hit a billion views. Gangnam Style gave PSY his first chart hit in America after being features in Billboard's Hot 100.
The music video begins with a close-up of the main artist upon a white background, where she sheds a tear. This immediately sets the scene for the pop ballad, and immediately led viewers to believe that Miley was more focused on the song itself, following the controversial music video for We Can't Stop. However, Miley appears swinging naked on a wrecking ball and then licking a sledgehammer. Yet, it became Vevo's most watched video in 2013, with 100 millions views in the first 6 days.
1989
1975