With the conventional use of Black and white, and Sepia editing, the bands all appear as mysterious and rebellious, not conforming to traditional happy and eccentric portrayals that that of pop bands may.
In every image, we are drawn into the image with the band looking directly at the camera as if they were looking at the viewer, highlighting the continued use of cinematography in an effort to draw in the audience.
We can also see how over the space of 40 years clothing
stereotypes haven't far changed for this genre of music. With the continued look
of dark clothing, leather jackets and skinny jeans, the only change that makes
the time period clear is the different hairstyles that link with the time
period.
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a
song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes Modern music
videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote
the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos date back
much further, they came into prominence in the 1980s, when MTV based their format
around the medium. Prior to the 1980s, these works were described by various
terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert",
"promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip",
"promotional video", "song video", "song clip" or
"film clip".
Music
videos use a wide range of styles of film making techniques, including
animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches
such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles, such as
animation and live action. Many music videos interpret images and scenes from
the song's lyrics, while others take a more thematic approach. Other music
videos may be without a set concept, being merely a filmed version of the
song's live performance.
1980sThe first video to be banned by MTV was Queen's 1982 hit "Body Language". Due to thinly veiled homoerotic undertones plus lots of skin and lots of sweat (but apparently not enough clothing, save that worn by the fully clothed members of Queen themselves), it was deemed unsuitable for a Television audience at the time. However, the channel did air Olivia Newton-John's 1981 video for the hit song "Physical", which lavished camera time on male models working out in string bikinis who spurn her advances, ultimately pairing off to walk to the men's locker rooms holding hands, though the network ended the clip before the overt homosexual "reveal" ending in some airings. The video for "Girls on Film" by Duran Duran, which featured topless women mud wrestling and other depictions of sexual fetishes, was banned by the BBC.
MTV did air
the video, albeit in a heavily edited form. Laura Branigan initially protested
an MTV request to edit her "Self Control" video in 1984, but relented
when the network refused to air the William Friedkin-directed clip, featuring
the singer lured through an increasingly debauched, if increasingly stylized,
series of nightclubs by a masked man who ultimately takes her to bed. In 1989,
Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time" video (where the singer performs
the song in an extremely revealing body suit surrounded by a ship full of
cheering sailors) was restricted to late-night broadcasts on MTV. The Sex
Pistols' video for "God Save the Queen" was banned by the BBC for
calling the United Kingdom a fascist regime. Mötley Crüe's video for "Girls,
Girls, Girls" was banned by MTV for having completely nude women dancing
around the members of the band in a strip club. Mötley Crüe did make another
version of the video that was accepted by MTV.
In 1983,
Entertainment Tonight ran a segment on censorship and "Rock Video
Violence."[49] The episode explored the impact of MTV rock video violence
on the youth of the early 1980s. Excerpts from the music videos of Michael
Jackson, Duran Duran, Golden Earring, Kiss, Kansas, Billy Idol, Def Leppard,
Pat Benatar and The Rolling Stones were shown. Dr. Thomas Radecki of the
National Coalition on TV Violence was interviewed accusing the fledgling rock
video business of excessive violence. Night Tracks' producer Tom Lynch weighed
in on the effects of the video violence controversy. Recording artists John
Cougar Mellencamp, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of Kiss, along with directors
Dominic Orlando and Julien Temple, provided a defense of their work. The
episode's conclusion was that the controversy will continue to grow. Some
artists have used censorship as a publicity tool. In the 1980s, the show Top of
the Pops was censorious in its approach to video content, so some acts made
videos that they knew would be censored, using the resulting public controversy
to promote their release. Examples of this tactic were Duran Duran's
aforementioned "Girls on Film" and Frankie Goes to Hollywood with
"Relax", directed by Bernard Rose.
1981–1991:
Music videos go mainstream
In 1981,
the U.S. video channel MTV launched, airing "Video Killed the Radio
Star" and beginning an era of 24-hour-a-day music on television. With this
new outlet for material, the music video would, by the mid-1980s, grow to play
a central role in popular music marketing. Many important acts of this period,
most notably Adam and the Ants, Duran Duran and Madonna, owed a great deal of
their success to the skillful construction and seductive appeal of their
videos.
Two key
innovations in the development of the modern music video were the development
of relatively inexpensive and easy-to-use video recording and editing
equipment, and the development of visual effects created with techniques such
as image compositing.[citation needed] The advent of high-quality color
videotape recorders and portable video cameras coincided with the DIY ethos of
the New Wave era,[citation needed] enabling many pop acts to produce
promotional videos quickly and cheaply, in comparison to the relatively high
costs of using film. However, as the genre developed, music video directors
increasingly turned to 35 mm film as the preferred medium, while others mixed
film and video. During the 1980s, music videos had become de rigueur for most
recording artists. The phenomenon was famously parodied by BBC television
comedy program Not The Nine O’clock News who produced a spoof music video
"Nice Video, Shame About The Song".
In this
period, directors and the acts they worked with began to explore and expand the
form and style of the genre, using more sophisticated effects in their videos,
mixing film and video, and adding a storyline or plot to the music video.
Occasionally videos were made in a non-representational form, in which the
musical artist was not shown. Because music videos are mainly intended to
promote the artist, such videos are comparatively rare; three early 1980s
examples are Bruce Springsteen's "Atlantic City", directed by Arnold
Levine, David Mallet's video for David Bowie and Queen's "Under
Pressure", and Ian Emes' video for Duran Duran's "The
Chauffeur". One notable later example of the non-representational style is
Bill Konersman's innovative 1987 video for Prince's "Sign o' the
Times" – influenced by Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues"
clip, it featured only the text of the song's lyrics.
In 1983,
one of the most successful, influential and iconic music videos of all time was
released: the nearly 14-minute-long video for Michael Jackson's song
"Thriller", directed by John Landis. The video set new standards for
production, having cost US$500,000 to film. The video for "Thriller",
along with earlier videos by Jackson for his songs "Billie Jean" and
"Beat It” were instrumental in getting music videos by African American
artists played on MTV. Prior to Jackson's success, videos by African-American
artists were rarely played on MTV: according to MTV, this was because it
initially conceived itself as a rock-music-oriented channel, although musician
Rick James was outspoken in his criticism of the cable channel, claiming in 1983
that MTV's refusal to air the music video for his song "Super Freak"
and clips by other African-American performers was "blatant racism".
On March 5,
1983, Country Music Television, or CMT, was launched, created and founded by
Glenn D. Daniels and uplinked from the Video World Productions facility in
Hendersonville, Tennessee. The Canadian music channel MuchMusic was launched in
1984. In 1984, MTV also launched the MTV Video Music Awards (later to be known
as the VMA's), an annual awards event that would come to underscore MTV's
importance in the music industry.
In 1985,
MTV launched the channel VH1 (then known as "VH-1: Video Hits One"),
featuring softer music, and meant to cater to an older demographic than MTV.
MTV Europe was launched in 1987, and MTV Asia in 1991. Another important
development in music videos was the launch of The Chart Show on the UK's
Channel 4 in 1986. This was a program which consisted entirely of music videos
(the only outlet many videos had on British TV at the time [citation needed]),
without presenters. Instead, the videos were linked by then state of the art
computer graphics. The show moved to ITV in 1989.
The video
for the 1985 Dire Straits song "Money for Nothing" made pioneering
use of computer animation, and helped make the song an international hit.
Ironically, the song itself was a wry comment on the music-video phenomenon,
sung from the point of view of an appliance deliveryman both drawn to and
repelled by the outlandish images and personalities that appeared on MTV. In 1986,
Peter Gabriel's song "Sledgehammer" used special effects and
animation techniques developed by British studio Aardman Animation. The video
for "Sledgehammer" would go on to be a phenomenal success and win
nine MTV Video Music Awards.
In 1988,
the MTV show Yo! MTV Raps debuted; the show helped to bring hip hop music to a
mass audience for the first time.
Reference:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_video
