Music video

On the 20^th June,  we learnt about the history of music and how it originated from films, we also learnt about artists and their influence on the music of today.

·         Since the invention of cinema,  it created the ability to bring songs and music to life.

·         Advances in technology have transformed the music video into what it is today.

The early years:

·         Surprisingly, music videos have been around since the 1920s

·         Many Jazz musicians of the time, such as Bessie Smith, made short films to accompany popular songs.  In 1929, Smith made her only film appearance, starring in a two-reeler titled St. Louis Blues, based on W. C. Handy's song of the same name. In the film, directed by Dudley Murphy and shot in Astoria, she sings the title song accompanied by members of Fletcher Henderson's orchestra, the Hall Johnson Choir, pianist James P. Johnson and a string section—a musical environment radically different from any found on her recordings.

·         Louis Armstrong was one of the first artists to use recordings of his performances to improve himself. Armstrong was an avid audiophile. He had a large collection of recordings, including reel-to-reel tapes, which he took on the road with him in a trunk during his later career. He enjoyed listening to his own recordings, and comparing his performances musically. In the den of his home, he had the latest audio equipment and would sometimes rehearse and record along with his older recordings or the radio.

 

Armstrong also did many known songs of today such as : "what a wonderful world, dream a little dream and hello dolly"

Bob Dylan

·         1965: Bob Dylan films, “subterranean homesick blues” as a segment for D.A. Penne baker’s film which is a documentary of Dylan’s 1965 tour in England, don’t look back- widely credited as one of the first modern music videos. In the film, Dylan, who came up with the idea, holds up cue cards for the audience, with selected words and phrases from the lyrics. The cue cards were written by Donovan, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Neuwirth and Dylan himself. While staring at the camera, he flips the cards as the song plays. There are intentional misspellings and puns throughout the clip: for instance, when the song's lyrics say "eleven dollar bills" the poster says "20 dollar bills". The clip was shot in an alley behind the Savoy Hotel in London where Ginsberg and Neuwirth make a cameo in the background.

·         The "Subterranean Homesick Blues" film clip and its concepts have been popularly imitated by a number of artists.
      
                   Here's a link to the song -  http://en.musicplayon.com/play?v=461198

Pop Music TV Shows

·         1970- The record industry discovers TV shows as a great opportunity to promote their artists.

·         They focus on producing short “promos”, early music videos which started to replace the live performance of the artist on the TV stage.

Bohemian rhapsody

·         1975- “Bohemian Rhapsody” a ground breaking video released by Queen marked the beginning of the video era and set the language for the modern music video. The video is considered one of the first to use advanced visual effects. All of the special effects were achieved during the recording, rather than editing. The visual effect of Mercury's face cascading away (during the echoed line "go") was accomplished by pointing the camera at a monitor, giving visual feedback, a glare analogous to audio feedback. The honeycomb illusion was created using a shaped lens. The video was edited within five hours because it was due to be broadcast the same week in which it was taped. The video was sent to the BBC as soon as it was completed and aired for the first time on Top of the Pops in November 1975. After a few weeks at number one, an edit of the video was created. The most obvious difference is the flames superimposed over the introduction as well as several alternate camera angles.

 

This is the Queen that I am used to, as they sang songs like "we will rock you"

                                  

Technical codes:

·         Camera work – As with any moving image text, how the camera is used and how images are sequenced will have a significant impact upon meaning.

·         Camera movement, angle and shot distance all need to be analysed.

·         Camera movement may accompany movement of performers (walking, dancing etc) but it may also be used to create a more dynamic feel to stage performance e.g. constantly circling the band as they perform on stage.

·         The close up does predominate, as in most TV, partly because of the size of the screen and partly because of the desire to create a sense of intimacy for the viewer. It also emphasises half of the commodity on sale (not just the song but the artist, and particularly the voice).

Editing:

·         Though the most common form of editing associated with the music promo is fast cut montage, rendering many of the images impossible to grasp on first viewing thus ensuring multiple viewing, there are videos which use slow pace and gentler transitions to establish mood.

·         This is particularly apparent for the work of many female solo artists with broad audience appeal like Dido. Here's a link to a video with fast edits - http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=PSu5nAQ7uZw .
Dido also used words to go along with her song as Bob Dylan did with big pieces of paper -

·         Often enhancing the editing are digital effects which play with the original images to offer different kinds of pleasure for the audience. This might take the form of spilt screens, colourisation and of course blockbuster film style CGI.

·         Lisa Loeb and Nine Stories – Stay (I missed you); The music video, directed by Ethan Hawke and released in 1994, begins with a cat on a chair, then zooms out to Loeb (wearing a black dress and her trademark horn-rimmed glasses) singing the lyrics while walking around in the empty New York City apartment in which she lived at the time. At the time, no audio, visual or green screen effects were generated through the video, which was said to be very basic and simple. It is one continuous camera shot of Loeb in an apartment.