Music video essasy By Caitlin Marsland-Barker
The concept of music videos was used around as early as the 1920’s, better known as ‘visual music’. Throughout the years, technology to create these videos has become more advanced, giving us the chance to create more elaborate videos than the simple animations from the 1920’s. In the last few decades we’ve been introduced to computer software and editing technology that allows us to be able to use green screens, just like in the films, and intricate editing software that allows us to create sequences that would never have existed a few decades before. With these advancements we’ve witnessed classics, such as Queen’s bohemian rhapsody, which was considered a huge step forward in the industry due to it’s use of visual effects, or Red hot chilli pepper’s californication, which included CGI that was considered to be outstanding at the time of release. The reason music videos are used across a wide range of different reasons is because of the promotional side of them, which helps them promote their music and also earn them money with downloads and views. With the help of music channels and television programs, it gives the artist a better chance of recognition and media attention. MTV was and still is a great platform for artists and bands to spread their videos worldwide, collaborating with the channel to create media uproar with unique and advanced music videos that would bring both the channel and musician money. One example of a collaboration between MTV and an artist is the Dire Straits with the music video for ‘Money For Nothing’. This collaboration created a music video that featured CGI, considered revolutionary in the industry. Due to the funding from MTV, this meant they’d be featured on their channel, causing a boom in money for both the band and the channel, due to people wanting to see this ‘innovative’ type music video that had never been attempted before. The video was directed by Steven Barron, who also directed ‘Take On Me’ by a-ha, which explains the almost surreal feel that the video holds, as well as the use of ground-breaking technology and techniques. When looking at ‘Elastic Heart’ by SIA, we can see that the music video is automatically interpretative. We know this due to the unique style of dancing and lack of connection between the song’s lyrics and music video. This music video is a widely known video of this generation, due to the use of its surreal situation and use of interpretive dance. The use of this in the music video was to create a sort of hype about both SIA and the song, also involving Hollywood actor LaBeouf. This video caused a stir with the public due to the controversial interpretation of pedophilia which is portrayed between Shia and young dancer, Maddie Ziegler. The music video is also surreal, since the whole situation is one which would never occur. The use of surrealism in this video helps portray the meaning behind the song without making an obvious statement, instead giving us a chance to come to that conclusion by ourselves.
This music video broke the internet on the day of release, due to SIA reusing Maddie, who’d previously been in her other video ‘Chandelier’. This was a promotional stunt to create media attention, due to the series like videos that seemed to link with each other. This music video doesn’t use the help of computers or lip syncing, causing the simplicity of it to make a huge statement. Usually artists would use techniques, such as CGI, to improve their video and create attention to their video, but SIA took the more simplistic route to make viewers focus on the song and figure out how the lyrics link with the video. This strategy is a smart marketing technique, since people will ask each other to try and come up with a good interpretation on the song, spreading it and hopefully managing to earn more money once people start to download both the video and the song itself. Another example of an interpretive music video is ‘Black hole sun ‘by Soundgarden. This music video features the use of both CGI and green screen, two techniques that were a revelation at the time. By using these techniques, it gave them more of a chance making it onto TV, since it was a unique at the time. The music video features appearances from the band, performing the song in a field, as well as a sequence of surreal situations, including a fat woman on a vibrating fat belt whilst applying red lipstick liberally all over her face, whilst a muscled man does push ups in her living room. This helped create a buzz about the music video, since the abstract nature of the video was something to cause controversy and peak interest in both fans and those around. However, throughout the song there’s a black hole that can be seen in the sky, meaning that there is almost a connection between the video and song, which means there is a hint of illustrative technique in this video.