Purpose Of Music Videos

Music videos are a mainstay of pop-culture in modern society. However, this wasn't always the case. They started to emerge in the early 1940's in clubs and bars in the USA. over 70 years later, music videos have evolved into extremely detailed pieces of medias with whole crews and huge budgets working on them. In this blog post I am going to be exploring the emergence and transitions that the music video industry has occurred and how it became a mainstay in society, and maintained it's place and didn't turn out to be just another 'fad'.

Music videos are a fantastic way for artists to connect with their viewers in the most unique ways imaginable, placing themselves in the song for the viewers to follow them. In some cases, the music video can elevate a band or artist to new, unseen heights and take of their careers. A key example of this is: a-ha with their classic: Take On Me, the music video was so unique at the time that it propelled the band to household names globally, not just nationally 

and the song to the top of the charts.

                              


It's not just the musicians who can benefit from a successful video, the director and crew can aswell, if their video does well then it promotes their name and brand aswell and other musicians are more likely to use them as they will see them as the key to success.

A key example: Anthony Mandler, worked with Rhianna once and she enjoyed the work so much that he has directed he majority of her music videos.

Different artists are marketed differently by their producers in their music videos, this is obvious, so the market doesn't become over saturated. If people have a unique look then they are more marketable to certain audiences and therefore much more profitable. A key example of this is: Miley Cyrus who had a complete image change to keep up with culture and draw more controversy and in turn, money.

Miley Cryus - 2012





Miley Cyrus - 2013 







This image change took place in less than a year and pushed Miley Cyrus even further as her image threatened to become slightly stale.

The polar opposite to Miley Cyrus would be Adele, she is promoted as someone with an extremely powerful voice as her looks and heritage aren't her main draw so it'd be foolish to do so. She is expertly shown in her videos to be shown doing what she does best, singing. Simple but effective for Adele's marketing team.





To extend the income of artists through the use of music videos, the artist and label may use more 'risky' stuff to generate more views and buys, this has certainly become the case more and more as the 2000's have continued, with more raunchy and risky videos coming to prominence ahead of stories and narratives, which still have a place, but big budget videos with either sex or violence seem to sell more and generate more views.

A key example of this is, Nicki Minaj, who had always been 'risky' but as the years have carried on, she has gone further with it and generated more views and popularity by doing so.





Nicki Minaj - 2007







Nicki Minaj - 2014



Media outlets and the extensions of these are what makes music videos accessible to the majority of the UK's population. The majority of these are based online due to the power of the internet and that most people are able to get onto it with extreme ease whenever they need to. The dominant outlet for this is of course: YouTube, it has an extensive library of videos at the click of a button. It also has the 'suggested' videos tool which can alert the viewer to similar videos and videos from the same artist which drives viewer engagement.

Although the internet is bigger than it has been before, TV music channels are still a powerful platform for artists to be broadcasted, The main example of this being: MTV a pop-
culture staple. Although it is filled with more reality based TV shows than music videos now, it's what made music videos iconic, without it, they wouldn't be the same.

Synergistic marketing allows two products to work together as one to produce something. In terms of music videos, this will most likely take place between a sponsor wanting their product to be showcased in the video, in turn providing the video makers to receive funding for their video to make it in the way it was intended to be. Furhtermore, it can help to promote both products, fans of the product being advertised may be more likely to view the video if they know their product will be showcased and vice-versa.

A fantastic example of this being done in music videos is Beats By Dre promoting their products in videos:

In my opinion, music videos are so popular due to them producing a visual source alongside the lyrics for the viewer to refer back to. They also ensure that the song has a lasting image when looked back on in years to come, this allows it to remain relevant in culture and withstand the test of time easier.

An example of this is Thriller by Micheal Jackson, as it has maintained its place in culture after more than 30 years, due to its video being so unique and popular.