Dancing in the distraction factory - Andrew Goodwin

Within 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory', by Andrew Goodwin, it looks into the definitive critical study of music television, with close studies of the emergence and growth of MTV. Andrew Goodwin raises many issues to do with conflicting theories surrounding Music Television criticism and the problems with using classic realist criteria.

Within his book he gives some really nice insight to the music industry. he even goes into explaining how "There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visual either illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics" and even similarly explains that "There is a relationship between the music and the visuals, with the visuals either illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music"

But what I learn from 'Dancing is how there is 'Narrative music video' (a story to a song, as shown in the hyperlink), 'Live Music video' (where the band just plays and turn that into a music video, as shown in the hyperlink), Or bands can even attempt to do both. This is then magnified by how "Different genre music videos may have specific iconic and typical specific music video styles." (Example: Guns 'n' Roses - Sweet child O' Mine - This would be a live video)

Within music videos this quote, "There is a demand on the part of the record company that there are enough close ups of the artist or lead singer", helps to show how I'm suppose to present my main singer within my own music video.

With what I have taken in from Andrew Goodwin's book helped me produce the idea that the artist can develop their own style of iconography, (meaning the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images), in and out of their video, to create their own style iconography. And often with woman artists there is reference to voyeurism which is a sexual manner, leading to more popularity.

I've looked into these different ideas on music videos and given example. They can be found Here

For more information on Andrew Goodwin, it can be found here

Different Types of Music videos

Performance Based Video

These are music videos that feature the artist/band/group performing the song through most if not all of the video. It’s probably the easiest to do on a budget provided you can get a suitable location for filming. A good example of this is would be ‘Best of You’ by the Foo Fighters. The video for this is mostly performance based with random video footage presumably licensed from elsewhere.


Narrative Based Video

A narrative based music video contains mostly footage that attempts to tell a story through the moving image. Usually involving actors, the story is sometimes linked to the lyrical content of the song, but this isn’t always the case. This type of music video tends to be popular for a song that’s featured in a movie and you will often see scenes cut into the music video. A good example of this is ‘C U When U Get There’ by Coolio. A good narrative based video to check out would be ‘Always’ by Bon Jovi, as shown below.


Concept Based Video

This is a style of music video that is based around a single concept or idea. These types of videos tend to be fairly unusual or utilize a particular editing or filming technique. It’s not often you get a purely conceptual music video as the commercial world demands things to be a bit more accessible but a great example is ‘Monkey Drummer’ by Aphex Twin.


Most videos however, aren’t so clear cut as to have one set type. Usually videos will incorporate a mixture of these elements such as a performance by the artist alongside some narrative footage. To demonstrate this I usually think of ‘Black or White’ by Michael Jackson. The first part of the video is a narrative, followed by a performance segment then a conceptual section where the faces of different people change from one to another.

The history of music videos

Originally music videos were first developed through an early type of image projector developed in the 17th century, the 'Magic Lantern'. In 1894, sheet music publishers Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern hired electrician George Thomas and various performers to promote sales of their song "The Little Lost Child". Using the magic lantern, Thomas projected a series of still images on a screen simultaneous to live performances. This would become a popular form of entertainment known as the illustrated song, the first step toward music video.

In 1926, arrival of "Talkies" produced many musical short films which took a step closer to the modern music videos and was a big development back in their times. A "Talkies" (or better known as 'Sound Film') is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially practical. The shorts (as they were called) were mainly remembered being done by The Warner Brothers and Spooney Melodies, and they were typically six minutes in duration, and featured Art Deco-style animations and backgrounds combined with film of the performer singing.

In 1980, the New Zealand group Split Enz became one of the first bands to create an entire set of music promo clips and market them on video cassette for each song on their album, 'True Colours.' Predating MTV by almost three years, 'Video Concert Hall,' was the first nationwide video music program on American television. Premiering in June 1981, one of the first US programs to play music videos was the USA Cable Network program 'Night Flight.' Night Flight predated MTV's launch by just a few months.

In 1981, the U.S. video channel MTV was launched and it began the age of 24-hour music television. They launched the channel with the video, "Video Killed the Radio Star." Throughout the 1980s, MTV expanded to become an important tool used in music marketing. Singers like Madonna not only used music videos to promote their albums, but to create their images. In 1983, the almost 14-minute-long video for Michael Jackson's song "Thriller," was released. It became the world's most successful and influential video in music video history.

In 1985, MTV launched the channel VH1 which featured softer music for an older audience than the typical young MTV audience. In 1987, MTV Europe was launched and in 1991, MTV Asia was introduced.

In 1988, the MTV show, Yo! MTV Raps was launched. The show helped to bring hip hop music to a nationwide audience. Two of the videos that are most famous for being two of the three most expensive music videos of all time are Michael and Janet Jackson's "Scream," which cost $7 million to produce, and Madonna's "Bedtime Story," which cost $5 million. "Scream" is still the most expensively video ever made.

During the 1990s, MTV launched channels around the world that included: MTV Latin America in 1993, MTV India in 1996, and MTV Mandarin in 1997. In 1996, MTV2, originally called "M2" was launched as an alternative and older music video channel.

By the mid-2000s, MTV and many of its other channels had stopped showing a large number of music videos and began showing reality television shows.

Music Videos have played an important role in the success of many artists and the music industry.

Top 5 Music videos

The following videos are my top favorite videos, due to the way they have been produced and how they're each unique. They are not in any particular order, but each one has a description of why i like them.

The Eels - I Like Birds


The reason i like this video is due to its simpleness. It's an effective style of music video where they use imagery along with their lyrics to create a nice, although random, animation. With this video my favorite feature is how they create every thing out of a single line (or that's how its supposed to be viewed), using this concept they create a lot of unique imagery. Creating a new, fresh and simple style.

I plan on incorporating a nice simple storyline/video for my own music video and to keep to this nice and entertaining theme.

OK GO! - This Too Shall Pass (Rube Goldberg Machine version)


This music video i find VERY creative, the way they interpret the machinery into the video alongside the band members singing along is easily done but is a nice effect. The video holds a pointless idea in an inventive style, making the viewers wish to watch on until the end, where eventually our conclusion is them being sprayed with paint, dding the humor to the video making it overall and nice watch.

I wish to keep a creative side to my music video, thinking out side the box and keep things interesting.

Cage the Elephant - Shake Me Down

I simply LOVE this video! It uses a lovely, although depressing, storyline which keeps you entertained and guessing until the end, where it is revealed that the man has died and passed onto his 'next life'. The video works well with the music and is able to create a touching moment for the audience.

The whole concept within this music video is awesome and i hope to be able to input such a nice idea along with my video, keeping things turning and fresh.

Paramore - Crush Crush Crush


Within this video it is shown to be very hyped up with how the camera keeps cutting to another person majority of the time, it constantly changes it's camera shots. By doing this they present the performers in a very lively atmosphere (even though their in the middle of nowhere).

I do love this video due to how it presents the band members ina dramatics sense. the sudeience are intrigued and the main targeted audience are majoritively going to eb musician which you tell by the closes up on guitars, vocals Etc. So when lookign at this i want to take the diea of the dramatic atmosphere and show how place it with the weird adn strange which has already been mentioned. So therefore leading me to believe i may fall down the route of possibly using Live and narrative music video combinded.

Artic Monkeys - A View From The Afternoon


I really enjoy the concept of the black and white effect used within this video. it suits tthe very 'live' song which is also quite basic. With the vdieo being so simplistic yet effective on the audeience is again some thing i wish to attain when making my own music video. The drummer is contrasted in daylight adn then night-time which is quite a ncie diea to use. The spotlight limits what he (and the viewer) can see, making thigns more interesting. and the way they shot singular things, such as the sign post presesting somethign dramatic, is somethign i really like.

So when thinking about ym own video i started to think maybe when presenting my live/narrative video i could shot these random images whcih could work along with the lyrics of the song i'd choose. I also like to incorporate the daylight - night time theme into my video maybe.

MTV Networks Research

MTV Networks Europe is an owner/parent company of nine music channels, which are normally broadcaster by Sky networks. MTV Music is a 24-hour music entertainment channel, which launched on 1^st February 2011 and replaced a previous channel, MTV shows, which was launched in 8 November 2007 under the name of MTV R before they got re-branded into MTV Shows in March 2010. This channel seems to fall under the theme of Dance, Urban and Rock (or in other words the charts).

MTV Base is a 24-hour music and general entertainment channel, which was launched in July 1, 1999. MTV Base primarily focuses on music genres such as R’n’B, Hip-Hop, Reggae, Soul and Urban.

MTV Hits (previously MTV Extra) is a 24-hour non-stop music video channel, which was launched on 1 May 2001. It holds nothing but music off of a charts list (or mainstream music that is extremely popular)

MTV Dance is a 24-hour dance music channel. It was launched in 20 April 2001 and quite obviously specializes in dance/trance music genres.

­MTV Rocks (which was formally called MTV Two, MTV 2 and M2) is a 24-hour alternative music channel, which was launched in October 1998 under the name M2 which was later changed to MTV2 in and then again to MTV Rocks on 1^st March 2010. MTV Rock specializes in alternative rock and indie, with the occasional alternative hip-hop.

MTV Classic is a 24-hour music channel that was first launched in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 1 March 2010. MTV Classic replaced VH1 Classic, which originally launched on 1 july 1999. The channel focuses on music videos and music specials from from the 1960's onwards. "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles was the first music video to be played on MTV at 6.00am.

VH1 is a specialist music television channel that launched across Europe on October 10 1994. MTV Networks created VH1 as an alternative between 25 to 33 year olds. The channel VH1, aims to be "Mature, sophisticated and totally stylish for viewers who still feel young and want to keep-in-touch with whats is happening on the music scene today. The music they play consists of music from the 1970's right through to today.

Viva is a music video and entertainment channel, the channel was officially launched on 26 October 2009 by Alexandra Burke, with an exclusive live performance of her single "Bad Boys". The channel replaced TMF. The first music video to be shown on VIVA was Alphabeat's "The Spell" in The Official UK Chart Show Top 20.

What is A Music Video

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 80s, these works were described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip" or "film clip".

A2 Project Brief

Briefs

1. A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

• a website homepage for the band;
• a cover for its release as part of the digipak (CD/DVD package);
• a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

2. A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following three options:

• a website homepage for the film;
• a film magazine front cover, featuring the film;
• a poster for the film.

3. The first level of a new computer game, together with two of the following three options:

• the cover for the game's package;
• a magazine advertisement for the game;
• a radio advertisement for the game.

NOTE: All material for all tasks are to be produced by you yourself with the exception of acknowledged non-original sound or image material used in a limited way in video / radio work.

Formats - Video work must be in DVD format; audio work must be in CD format. No print item should be larger than A3 size. Games should be either in Flash format or playable on an exiting console.