Music videos first emerged in the 1980s with the launch of MTV, which aired The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star" as the first music video. The purpose of music videos was to promote songs and artists visually, helping unknown artists gain fame. MTV played a key role by making music videos widely accessible and affordable to produce. Over time, more music video channels emerged, and influential early directors included Nigel Dick and Paul Hunter. Michael Jackson's "Thief" was a groundbreaking, expensive video that helped bring more diversity to the genre. The rise of websites like YouTube has significantly impacted the music industry by allowing free online distribution of music videos and changing how people consume them.
2. When did music videos first come
about
• Music vidoes first came about in the 1980’s
when MTV started to show songs visually on
TV. In 1981 MTV showed the first music video,
which was called ‘Video killed the radio star’
by the Buggles
3. What was the purpose of the music
video
• The purpose of music videos was that by showing
a visual image like a short film of a song. Music
videos were used in order to promote a song,
which is a marketing scheme. For example many
artist who are unknown can instantly rise to fame
from a music video, which becomes a popular
trend on TV almost like YouTube is now. In
addition, Artist usually release around average 3
music videos in order to promote them for when
they a release an album.
4. What role did MTV play in the
beginning stages of the music video?
• MTV was the first to start airing music videos the role
that they played was that they showed that music
videos are cheap and easy to do meaning many artist
could afford to do a video on a low budget. This was
good because having a music video on MTV was a
promotion of the artist and the song. The channel
allowed for music videos to be played all day so it
allowed for artists to have the chance to have airtime
and for the audience being able to watch music videos
all day. This helps for uses and gratifications theory
with escapism and etc. also it allowed to see a visual
representation of the artist.
5. What other music video channels
arose after MTV?
• Other music video channels that came around
was VH1 which first aired in 1985
6. Notable music video directors
• Nigel Dick: Oasis- Wonderwall, Britney Spears-
Baby one more time
• Paul hunter: Christina Aguilera/Lil Kim/Pink-
Lady marmalade, Notorious B.I.G.- Hypnotize
• Jake Nava: Beyonce-Single ladies, Usher- Burn
7. What were some
groundbreaking/controversial/big
budget music videos of the 80’s and
90’s, early millennium?
• In 1983 Michael Jackson music video ‘Thriller’ which was 800,000 dollars was
groundbreaking as it was voted one of the most influential music videos of all time
in addition, to being called the standard of how music videos should be done. The
video was 13/14 mins long was also controversial because before African American
music videos didn't’t get aired on music channels however after ‘thriller’ more
African Americans could get their music videos on MTV.
• In 1990 Vanilla ice produced a music vidoe for his song Iice Ice baby which became
hugely popular because it was the first hip hop song to top the billboard the charts
and has been said to create diversity to hip hop making it mainstream. It also
became noticeable because of the colour of his skin and because the incident
which happened with Suge knight .
• In 2004 Jay Z released a song called ‘99 problems ‘ which was a hugely popular
song which featured Jay Z rapping about racial tension between Black people and
White police officers.
8. What impact has the internet had on
record labels/artists and music video
television
• The internet has had an impact on record labels/artist and music video
television because for;
• Music video television: The audience/people are able to watch music
videos on the internet with websites such as YouTube meaning there is
less people watching on music videos also, because people rather search
for music videos that they want to see instead of watching for their
favorite music videos to come on.
• Record labels/artist: The impact the internet has on record labels/artists is
that in terms of marketing, artists can advertise their music online for
their target audience to find out the latest on their favourite artist. So in
marketing it has benefited them however there are also negative impacts
such as album leaks which usually happens to big artists as their album
gets out on the internet before the release meaning millions will have the
album before it comes out which effects albums sales.
9. How has the internet changed the way
that music videos are distributed?
• Music videos are now distributed through the
internet through websites such as YouTube
meaning people/audience are able to see music
videos online easy and free. This also means that
anyone can upload a music video for millions of
people to see for example chief keef uploaded a
music video for his song ‘Don’t Like’ and got
around 10 millions views within a week. This has
helped him because then everyone started
hearing about him through word of mouth and
this ultimately led to him being from a YouTube
star to being signed at Interscope records
