Music Video Questions

1-2.) What would you consider to be the main purpose of a music video and what other purposes might there be?

There are multiple purposes to a music, from promoting the artist to experimenting with different special effects and filming styles to making money. You could argue that any of these is the main reason behind creating a music video, but the truth is that there is no one real main reason but multiple.

The generally accepted main reason for creating a music video would be to promote the artist or song. doing this allows the artist to become more recognised and hopefully get the song to have more purchases by the public.

Making money is also an obvious reason for making music video. If it is believed that the song in question will be popular or earn a lot of money, a music video will be made to further the profits.

During the creation of a music video the director may wish to experiment with numerous special effects or convey a unique visual style. One music video that really shows this idea would be Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody.'

Re-enforcing the message of the song can be another main reason for creating a video for a song, this is especially obvious with songs about love or other strong emotions. One such example would be Jason Derulo 'Whatcha say.'

3.) How might an artist extended their income through having a music video?
Artists extend their income though music videos in numerous different ways. For example, one such way would be though the popular video sharing website 'YouTube.' Every time somebody clicks on a video from the official channel of an artist (for example their music video) the artist(s) get a small profit. Considering how views can end up in the 100,000's + per video this can end up with a good few thousand extra pounds per video. Their income can increase even further with advertisements under these videos. If the viewer clicks on this advertisement they will be sent to either the artist/ band's website or YouTube page that may inform them about any concerts coming up an how the viewer can purchase tickets.


4.) Describe how and why music videos have been used to fill in for bands on tour or when otherwise unavailable?
Although this is uncommon, some artists or bands may not be able to make it to live performances due to illness or even something as simple as being caught in traffic. In cases such as this instead of delaying or canceling the performance the music video for the song will be played instead. While this isn't as good as seeing the band perform live, its better than having 'Dead Air' for a few minutes or  hours.



5.) Thinking back through history and presently.. how have music videos enabled an 'extension of outlets' (opened up ways to get music to the masses?)
Music videos have seen an explosion of popularity in recent years, however music has shown numerous extension of outlets since as far back as the 1940's. Back then music videos didn't exist as we know them, instead soundies were around. These contraptions allowed people to view black and white snippets of movies featuring music, these short videos often would have the audio playing over a bunch of people dancing onscreen while the band performed onscreen.

By the 1960's music was becoming more and more popular. So it was with this that the 'Scopitone' was invented. This machine was a lot like the previous 'soundies' machine however music now had full videos to go with them of the artist(s) performing and the whole song was able to be played. With such artists as 'The Rolling Stones' and 'The Beatles' becoming the most popular artists of their time, music videos for them started to expand further such as having the video for the song be from the film its from. One such example would the the song 'Help' by the Beatles.

In the 70's music videos became more than just simple entertainment, with such shows as 'Top of the Pop's' becoming extremely popular in the music industry. However with this popularity of all these live performances from famous music artists there came a problem, not everyone could make the performances. To stop 'Dead Air' from becoming a problem, music video were shown to the audience whenever this problem occurred. This meant that the program could continue smoothly without looking unprofessional. The 70's also showed the rise of experimenting with music videos using special effects and camera tricks, one famous example would be Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody.'

By the 80's music videos have become so popular that whole TV channels were being created devoted to showing only music videos and little else, the most popular of these being MTV. Many of these channels would make their presence known for a few decades later. The 90's had music video's fully realized as we know them today with such famous examples including Michal Jacksons' 'Scream' and The Beastie Boys 'Sabotage' showing more modern styles.

The world of music changed hugely by 2005 with the birth of YouTube, this new and interesting website allowed anyone with a computer and access to the internet to upload almost any video for the public to view on the YouTube website. This meant that music videos became more accessible to people as well as allowing lesser know artists perform to people all over the world from the comfort of their own home. Since then viral music videos have become increasingly more popular all over the internet. 'This too shall pass' is a good example of these viral videos.