Function of music videos
The 50s and 60s: The beginning
- Music videos begin to emerge
- Presley, the Beatles and Dylan produce short films to go with the music video
- Promoted their albums and movies at the peak of their career
- This meant it was increasingly important to see the artist as well as hear them
The 70s: Top of the Pops
-Only songs with good music videos were chosen to be shown
- Mass audience
- Competition within the industry
- Became very censorious
- Banned or edited
- Got extra publicity
The 80s: MTV
-MTV was launched, and became the largest promotional tool of the decade
Function of music videos:
Music videos became in demand because the television had become to take off, becoming the new platform that was being most highly consumed. The videos also allow the artists to give their brand an identity, as the public became more interested in who was singing the songs, as well as the artists. Once TV had really taken off, the public had very high demand for more television, which meant there needed to be a high supply to satisfy their needs. The music industry began exploiting those needs, creating more content for the audience to consume.
Thriller became the first music video to have a budget of over $1 million, which became a major issue for smaller, independent music artists, as viewers began demanding higher quality music videos. This meant that smaller independent artists could get their voice heard, meaning they had to use bigger studios to fund their videos, making the richer studios become richer.
In 2005 YouTube was a major turning point for small artists, as they were given a platform to perform and show their talents on, and became more powerful than MTV, totally changing the music industry and it's music videos.
