Name: Eiriel Dela Merced De Roxas

Essay Task: The evolution and changing role of music video from 1900, and it’s likely development in the future. It is a known fact that the music videos and the industry have evolved greatly starting from the 1900s to the current era we receive these from the media. Even though we would refer the music videos to quite a recent development of which has started in this first half of the twentieth century, it would be fair to argue that due to dramatic changes within the music industry, be that in regard to either the genre or general perception of a particular artist, it is only natural that the music videos made to accompany the music adapt and evolve as time passes. For example, in the past music videos were not something you would instantly expect when thinking of a particular song or artist, not only because of the older and less advanced technology, also due to the fact that the time of creation of the first music video, there were no such device to view these on, leaving the music video almost purposeless, which saves it for a name within the art industry. Fischinger’s Komposition in Blau for instance, it would be good example of a music video created as an artistic statement, as the beat and tempo of the song matches exactly to the visuals with the music. This adds to the effectiveness of the piece as a whole. However, over a period of decades and some major development in technology as well as changes in society, music videos are now made for such purposes and now generally has more focus on materialistic purposes, as the purpose of a music video in itself is to promote an artist or song in that way that it will boost their popularity and through its sales of both the song and the artist as well as merchandise sold in relation to the artist which they may also have. Another example would be, The Beatles with their song and music video to their song, ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’. This would be a lot more common to show in television music chart shows such as Top of the Pops and Ready Steady Go in years between the 1960s to 1970s. The pure purposes of these music videos then would be the fact that it is only to show the artist’s presence within the show which was what the Beatles did as they were promoting at the same time in the US as well as being in the Top 5 in the charts. The music videos shown in these shows, does not necessarily have a link between the music as well as linking to the visuals as they are purely have to fulfil of the presence of the artist. And this has changed overtime as music videos as they have become more narrative which interests the modern day audience. Due to this process of evolution we find things once considered as a general essential of a music video, such as the artist singing or lip-syncing the song, are now sometimes not feature in some of the much more modern music videos today. Instead they seem to solely focus on a storyline created either from a loose tie to the plot the lyrics provide us with, or may be a storyline that does not seem relevant to the song in question. For example, a storyline that solely focuses purely on the plotline on the lyrics alone with no consideration of promoting the artist visually would be She Wolf by David Guetta as within the video we are more entranced with the provided short story about a woman turning into a wolf. Whilst this does tie into the song in question, this would be a fairly recent development with music video productions and this is actually reasonably successful in its approach as the viewers, the lack of the artist appearance may actually be intriguing and may act as a hook which draws us into the story. It seems in recent years music videos are developing ever more quickly as with the constant competition with rivals, with each artist seemingly wanting more exposed to the audience in a new and initiative approach. This and its increasing number of artists entering the music industry every year, this give both artists and their viewers as well as their general fans a particular demand of which tries to not only to keep up with the latest technology and concepts to achieve and meet these demands deemed necessary.

However, something that has remained consistent in the development of music videos over time is

the basic concept of the rhythm, tempo, and beat of the music being in synch with the number of

shots and cuts per minute used, as without this it would be hard to call it a music video, as without

this accompaniment there may as well be no video to begin with, as the viewer/listener would not

be as drawn in or find this half as effective. Another thing also interesting about this one area that

remains consistent is that like, Fischinger’s Komposition in Blau, many modern music videos like

dubstep, or the Chemical Brothers use visuals that match the beat exactly, with no specific image or

artist, something which many would consider to be extremely effective as what you are seeing not

only matches precisely what you are hearing, it also seems to give an extra sense of focus around

the song as you can both hear and see the beat, something once uncommon to this degree, but now

becoming increasingly more popular as peoples tastes in music change towards a more modern and

generally upbeat taste in music.

Whilst it is hard to predict the future of the music video, as, like everything in the media, they are

subject to a lot of change. It seems clear that they are only going to change more so with the

constant development of new technologies too, as if we can now use special effects and CGI in music

videos, which at one point would have been impossible to both do and imagine, it’s hard to imagine

how the music video can change in the future. Inevitably, it will change at a rapid pace to meet the

needs of the constantly changing audience of the time, always demanding for advances without

which they may lose interest. The only thing I feel that couldn’t possibly change about music videos

is the way that the use of editing and the beat of the song match, as this is one thing I would

consider so fundamental it would be the only thing, in my opinion, unlikely to change. The other

components however, as witnessed over the past decades, will most likely change dramatically in

order to continue to fulfil its purpose of promoting and appealing to its target audience.

Word Count: 1,127 words