General Music video research

So, to start off the research properly, I've begun to think about and find out what kind of music videos are the landmark videos, the landmark artists and what makes a music video a music video?

So first of all, I've looked into a few of the landmark videos and artists. To start off with, we have 'Video killed the radio star' by The Buggles which was a landmark video due to the fact that it was the first music video shown on MTV, one of the most famous music video channels in the world! This song is incredibly famous and a fantastic karaoke song! I won't talk about it too much, as Carla has already done a huge post on this video, so if you would like to see more research on this music video, refer to Carla's previous post.

Secondly, a band called OK:GO! have completely changed the ideals of a music video. One of their most famous videos is the video of them all on treadmills doing a dance routine. It completely challenged the ideals of traditional music videos in that it was a dance video but not performed by scantily clad women, by bald middle aged men. Also, it isn't a narrative video as there is no story being told throughout it and I would say if anything, it is a concept music video, as it is interpretive and the audiences may not have understood it at first, even though its just a dance routine!

Here's the video so you can laugh yourselves silly at it!




Every single video that this band does is slightly obscure. For instance in their video, 'this too shall pass', there is a huge 'marble run' but with different objects. So it starts off with a car knocking over some dominoes, which then continues and knocks things over for the duration of the video and then splats the band with paint at the end of the song. It is an incredible video because it is just amazing to watch and very entertaining for the audience. Here's a still from this video at the very end, where the four band members get splattered with paint.

Ok:Go! Have also done videos involving dogs and with them dressed as marching bands etc. In an interview with a playstation magazine, they said that their videos were 'just cool ideas that pop up every now and again'. This inspired me because I would really like to do something like this as my music video because it shows that the video has taken lots of time and effort but also that it is very entertaining to watch!


Another landmark music video and also artist is the video 'Smells like teen spirit' by Nirvana. As the 80's progressed, everyone in music videos became inspired from the success of 'Thriller' by Michael Jackson. Nirvana decided to deliberately make a video that challenged the trend of music videos at the time. Nirvana is also famous as becoming one of he world's first grunge bands to make it big. As they were attempting to challenge the stereotype, they deliberately hired a director that had never directed a music video before so that he would have inexperience. His name was Samuel Bayer and he went along with whatever the band said. They said they wanted to incorporate a 'grungey' atmosphere 'almost like one of our gigs.' This video is set in a school hall where the students begin to go crazy because of the music, implying that grunge music was empowering young people of the time. A mosh pit starts and scantily clad cheerleaders are covorting about, also implicating that it is in a gig type setting.

 This is definitely a performance video, as it is universally known that the lyrics of this sng make absolutely no sense, so it couldn't be a narrative or concept video. The focal point is on the band but we also see a lot of shots of the crowd and how excited they are getting to show the exciting music and empowered young people. Nirvana used this type of music video particularly to challenge the stereotypes of music videos in the 80's and challenging the lavish production techniques that were used in videos such as 'Thriller'.

Here's the video!



Lastly, another landmark video that sparked off an age of music videos, is that of 'hurt' by Johnny Cash.  It was a landmark music video in creating serious music videos that displayed a moral or a message. This video was about Johnny Cash's life and sifting through all of his past and how much he's had to go through and showing that he was still standing. This video was particularly poignant for two reasons, the first being that the director, Mark Romanek, intercutted bits of footage that showed Johnny throughout his life along with the footage that they were shooting at the present day. This from an audience point-of-view makes it very heart-wrenching to watch because it is showing a mans life in one short video and showing all of the pain that he had to go through, e.g. the shot of him in prison.

The second reason that this music video is particularly famous is that Johnny Cash never got to see the success of this video, because he passed away seven months after this video was released in 2003. He was on his way to having a new lease of life in the music industry as '90's kids' were re-discovering his music and his life story as well as all of the old fans anticipating his new music. He died at the age of 71. For that reason this video became significantly significant because it made new fans become attracted to his music and old fans mourn the loss of Johnny cash, and could use this video to look back on his life and view images and moments of his life that they hadn't otherwise had known.
This set off the landmark 'serious' music videos that displayed a clear moral, and therefore was one of the pioneers of a new type of music videos.

Here's Johnny cash's 'Hurt'.



More posts and more research to follow! :)