Aims:

• Explore the traditional ways in which music over the decades have evolved and developed.

The development of music videos since the early 1900’s has evolved majorly. Over the last 90 years I will uncover the differences and the noticeable changes in music videos since 1930 onwards. Significant changes include colour of music videos as well as the choreography and work put into creating a powerful music video.

Firstly, In 1930 the first video I want to analyse is called ‘Crying for Caroline (Spooney Melody). In this music video there is very few words at all and instead a bunch of picture on the screen crossing from side to side whilst the music plays in the background. This genre of music is more subtle and calming for the listeners. Once the singing begins, the singer appears at the front of the screen whilst the images in the background pass by. Furthermore, it is clear to see that all the published work is in black and white. This era of music is very similar throughout the mid 1900’s and there is very little action and choreography to each video.

1958 (1950’s), during this era there is more evidence of stronger choreography as we have people singing from the beginning and less of a melody. Also what I notice is that they have decided to make a music video out of live performance, this shows a bit more of the quality and depth of consideration that people are starting to show in reference to their music videos produced. Finally the colour of the picture is lighter and starting to show hints of different colours standing out from one another.

1965 (1960’s), during this decade we have our first sighting of colour in a music video. The example I am using is The Beatles – Paperback writer. This band decided to showcase their music through a well choregraphed performance similar to one which you see in the early 2000’s. This music video recorded them performing as well as acting at the same time as their music was playing. This would’ve been considered a breakthrough from music as one of the first videos in colour.

1980’s, this next video is also in colour and has strong choreography, however the quality of the music video isn’t as strong as the one by the Beatles. During this video there is evidence of an emotional and emphatic performance, this is created through the different types of camera angles and shots, which make is less realistic and more alien like. Furthermore this would’ve cost the production company so much money as the level of complication and complexity had spiralled the meaning behind music and made people want to fight/compete to create the best music video or most amount of money spent on the video.

Video is unavailable.

In the 1990’s the level of music video had heavily evolved and was made to become more advanced. Bands and other musicians were making music videos where they would show evidence of the band working on the song as well as performing over the song. the cost of production was also very much varied by this time, some people were trying to create the most expensive and extravagant videos whilst others such as beastie boys tried to create a music video of a really low budget to prove effective music videos didn’t require loads of money.

Moving into the early 2000’s also known as the YouTube era involves the introduction of some of the most iconic pop star of my generation including Kylie Minogue as well as the introduction of MTV and other monumental companies such as Vevo. In the 2000’s the level of music video had evolved further and artists had taken more care in their music videos showing more passion for the story and acting behind the lyrics more than the actual creation of the lyrics. For example in Kylie Minogue’s music video ‘Come into my world’ there is lots more focus on the acting than the music.

Finally moving into the more recent years the introduction of Vevo was introduced and the music video Foster the people by Houdini was released. in this music video there is evidence of the creation of the music for example the drums and guitar at the beginning but as the video develops we get more of the behind the scenes creation and acting in the music video. For this video we can see there has been a lot of money spent on the production and choreography of the Video.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• From researching and looking through the music videos over the last century each decade it is clear to see there has been a clear development in terms of music created, the quality of the music video, the quality of the picture in the music video and the overall cost of producing these music videos.
• As a whole it is clear to see the development is obvious and going to have an impact on the audience watching. However each music video created in certain decades will have impacted the audience at the time.