History of Music Videos

What is a music video?

A music video can be defined as a short film, recorded and edited in combination with a song. Nowadays, they are an invaluable marketing and promotional tool for artists, providing wider opportunity for publication of a song and changing the way in which audiences consume media.

History of Music Videos

The Prezi presentation below shows the origin of promotional music videos in a brief timeline from 1957 to 1982, highlighting how they have developed over the years, as well as looking back at some of the earliest forms of technology between the 1920s and 1940s which have influenced the development of media as we it today.
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. Music Videos Today
As technology has advanced, the quality of music videos have also improved, as well as the means of distribution. Below are two music videos from the genre which my chosen song falls into (house music), the first video being an example of an abstract video which does not follow a narrative, and the second video following a a short and somewhat vague narrative. These videos are intended to be an example of the music videos being produced and released today. . .

COURSEWORK - A2 Media Brief, Chosen Text and Song

Brief

A2 Media Studies
Unit G324
Advanced Portfolio In Media

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

• A website homepage for the band
• A cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package)
• A magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package)

Chosen Ancillary Text

The text which I have chosen to analyse is 'Proper Education' by Eric Prydz vs. Pink Floyd. It's an interesting music video in terms of narrative and representation and would therefore work well as an example text relating to the theories which we have been learning from the start of the academic year.

The genre of the original song, 'Another Brick in the Wall' by Pink Floyd is late 70s punk rock, whereas, the remix by Eric Prydz is modern house music and this contrasts the two eras and brings about further interesting points. I am hoping to make a music video to a modern house track, so this will make applying my analysis of this text to my own music video a lot easier.

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Chosen Song & Genre

The song which I have decided to make my music promo video for is 'Ghosts' by Higher Self ft. Lauren Mason. It was difficult to find a house track which featured extensive lyrics that would provide a basis for lyric analysis. Quite a lot of house tracks have no lyrics at all, and those which do are often small, repeated lines or verses and generally hold no meaning. However, 'Ghosts' does feature lyrics compromising of verses and a main chorus, as well as lines which may be tagged as having a real meaning.

'Ghosts' has arguably been, to date, Higher Self's most well-known track with over a million views on YouTube and is the only song with a promotional music video. It's been described as his 'breakthrough' track.

Higher Self is a house producer and therefore in similar fashion to my AS Media portfolio, my coursework will be based entirely around electronic music, predominantly house.

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