25th October 2012 - Music Industry Research

Music Industry Research

12th October 2012 - Additional Notes from Class

Additional Notes

• 1864 was the first illustrated song; someone took photos and put them in sync with the song on screen.
• Michael Jackson's "Scream" costed over $7 million.
• Some performers would project images onto a screen as the song was played live; these images would reflect the themes and emotions of the song.
• The 1930's era was very musical based.
• The 1960's were very rock & roll and television dominant.
• Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" is deemed one of the first music videos (made in 1965).
• The Beatles created a mockumentary called "A Hard Day's Night" 

1. "A Ticket To Ride" has musical notes appear on screen on the same beat.
2. "Hide Your Love Away" zooms in on Lennon on the chorus.

• In the 1970's, music videos benefited from the flood of new film makers coming out of school.

1. "Life on Mars" pans down onto Bowie.
2. "Bohemian Rhapsody" focuses on all of the band.

• In the 1980's, MTV was established to show case music videos.

1. "Material Girl" opens like a film, and the costumes, set and characters are taken from Marilyn Monroe's "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend".

• MTV made music videos big business.
• Duran Duran and George Michael flew around the world to record the music videos for "Rio" and "Freedom", respectively.
• With film size budgets it's not shock that film directors establish in music videos first.
• OK Go's "A Million Ways" was filmed in one of the members' back garden and costed an incredibly low budget, however got over 9 million downloads.

Types of Music Video:

• Performance - features the band performing to a crowd of fans.
• Narrative - presents a sequence of events.
• Conceptual - relies on a poetic form, primarily a metaphor.

• Music videos are used to promote the song and promote the artist/band.
• The first video to be banned on MTV was "Body Language" by Queen, due to homoerotic undertones, lack of clothing and amount of sweat.
• "Smack My Bitch Up" was banned because of references to drugs and sex.