My CD/DVD Digipak

This is the final design for my digipak, although it looks simple there are separate things that are also added in, for example the CD insert is double sided, allowing space for both the CD and the DVD. The opposite panel is a simple insert yet also folds out to be the poster used for magazine articles, giving the buyer even more. The track listings are borrowed from the bands album Riot! I chose to use this as it was pre-existing and is the original album that the song, 'We Are Broken', is from. I also chose to keep the title of the whole digipak as the title of the song I used for my video, this is so the audience can relate to an already released song and it will be more recognisable in shops.

I feel that the design for my digipak is consistent as it is all featured around people looking over the water, the front cover image shows a couple and a friend who is 'broken' away, keeping with the theme of the song title too.

My Magazine Poster

For my magazine poster I previously analysed existing ones and took the most common and successful aspects to include in my poster. I used a bold front for the band name, the swirly design breaks it up and makes it blend in with the picture more. I then used a smaller different font for the digipak name, description and release date. The background picture, although not based around the title of the digipak still fits with the main design of it.

Kids In Glass Houses Digipak Analysis

The digipak for Kids in Glass Houses is made up of a regular CD case with a double sided CD holder for the DVD as well. The outer sleeve is made of cardboard and is beige featuring a pink shoe, the colour pink and style of design is consistent with the rest of the digipak and matches the pop punk sound of the band.

                                                      Outer sleeve - made of cardboard

The main colours used in the design are pink and green with the basic outer cover being beige. These colours, although rather different, work well to make the album cover stand out.

Inside, both of the discs are designed to be like old vinyl discs both being distinguished by the colours featured on them, again pink and green, tying them in with the rest of the digipak.

The back cover is very simple and is different on the main CD case cover and the back of the outer sleeve. The main case features a list of the track names in a block capital font and written in white on a green background, the bonus content is also listed, making the buyer aware of what they are getting for their money. The back of the outer sleeve, however, is cream and the font is featured in pink. The titles are fanned around the lollipop also used on the front of the main case, making a link between both.

All of the things featured on both the main casing and the outer sleeve are things that are used to attract an audience, the shoe on the outer casing will mainly attract females where are the seductive sketch featured on the inner case will attract more of a male audience. The font used for the band name looks fun and different, putting the first letters of the world in larger capitals makes them stand out more yet the use of matching colours to the rest of the digipak makes sure that it doesn't look out of place.

Inner case - front

Magazine Poster Analysis'

Babyshambles – Oh! What A Lovely Tour

The main features of this advert are that it is red and old looking with a vintage font design. This attracts attention as it is different to other adverts that use bold colours and fonts to attract their audience. It looks as though it is printed on card and had been worn through time whereas it would actually be printed on the paper of the magazine; this is another way in which it would attract the eye of the reader.

The Verve – Love Is Noise

This poster uses a simple and bright design to attract the reader, having the band and album name in the middle and lightest part of the poster means it is the first bit the reader will see, this immediately tells them the band name and keeps them intrigued to read the rest of it. There is a slight hint of the colour purple within the poster, breaking up the dark colours of grey and yellow.

The Best Of The Vines

The main feature in this poster is the decorative design around the text, they are immediately connected. The text is in a plain white simple section of the poster and at a diagonal angle, this breaks up the simplicity of the poster and makes the reader more intrigued. The poster also advertises a bonus track, this is a technique used to entice buyers as they feel they are getting more for their money.

Final Music Video

This is my completed video, after I showed it to an audience. there were only a few minor things to change like the timing of the clips therefore it was very similar to my first draft. Although it turned out differently from my original storyboard it still worked and fitted together well.

Filming and Changes

Filming
The majority of the filming went well and aside from the rain there were little problems, the only thing that differed from the storyboard were the shot angles and distancing, as there was only so far away from the people I could put the camera in some places, such as in the car. This also made some of them more awkward to film.

Changes

The parts of the video that were shot outside were in the rain. This meant that an umbrella was used the whole way through instead of just the flashback scene.

Some shots were taken out as there was too many and they were too long for the video.

Production Schedual

All filmed on 14.10.10

Shots to be filmed	Cast	Props	Location
Couple on sofa, one face, the other. Argument from outside front door. Argument from inside the door. Car pulling up on driveway. Girl standing on hill. Boy comes up behind girl. Couple hugging at the top of the hill. End – same as clip before. Bottom of the hill, arguing. Playground together. Playground apart. In car – traffic lights, arguing. Outside shot of car driving away. Flashback: bus stop, raining, he comes along, she misses her bus, he walks her home.	Georgina, Simeon	Car Car Car Umbrella	Front room Front door “               ” Driveway Oakfield park “                    “ “                    “ “                    “ “                    “ Playground “                “ Road – traffic lights Bus stop Pavement

Shot list

Long shot, featuring girl on hill.

Zooms to medium shot when boy come in.

Reverse angle shot, couple arguing at the bottom of hill.

Medium shots of playground, together on the swings, then apart.

Medium shot of arguing on doorstep. She slams the door. Cuts to each of them sliding down the door to sit on the floor.

Close up of her hand on the door handle.

Close ups of them arguing in the car, then the traffic lights changing to green.

Medium shot of car pulling up on driveway and her getting out slamming the door, he follows.

Medium shot of her at a bus stop, follows them walking away.

Medium shot of them on the sofa together.

Closer shots of each of their faces, understanding.

End shot, medium shot of them on the hill again.

Cast list

Girl – Georgina Weller

Boy – Simeon Grimshaw

Location list

My house

Oakfield Park

Oakfield Park playground

Oakfield Lane traffic lights

Bus stop on Hawley road

Prop list

Umbrella

Car

Storyboard

The storyboard for my music video was inspired by the song itself, I chose to draw it out and then scan it onto the computer so I could make it my own and add the colour afterwards. It helped me a lot to do it this way as I felt I had more control over the images and therefore the production of the music video.

Video Synopsis

Paramore - We Are Broken

The main story for my music video is about a couple that keep arguing yet work it out in the end. The story line follows the lyrics of the song.
The music video goes through a day with the couple. It starts with the girl at the top of a hill waiting for the sun to rise, she is looking down towards the bottom of the hill to where her and her boyfriend have previously argued, there she sees the scene in front of her. Her boyfriend then comes up behind her and hugs her making her forget about the argument that they had.

The next scene shows them playing in a playground, faded with them alone in the same places, without each other, these scenes are darker showing the lack of joy in them.

This is all based around them standing at the top of the hill together, watching the sunrise.

The second verse is all about the arguments that they have had, featuring one on her doorstep and one in the car, the latter resolves with him grabbing her arm pulling her into a hug. This then goes into a flashback showing when they first met, it’s a typical movie meeting where she is at a bus stop in the rain and he provides her with an umbrella, she misses the bus so he walks her home. The couple are followed down the road, making it seem like they will have a good relationship.
The third verse is slower than the rest of the song, this is the point at which the couple sit down and talk, they then realise that they are both as ‘broken’ as each other, this then leads to the resolution of their relationship.

The ending of the video is focused on them standing on the top of the hill watching the end of the sun rise.

Questionnaire Results

From these results I have found out that the main age range that answered my questionnaire were between 16 and 20, this is my main target audience and therefore it would be their opinions that most effect the decisions that I make when planning my music video. Most people listen to music everyday yet only after downloading/buying, this means the song I choose would either have to be from a popular band/artist or one that becomes well circulated after its release and as most people do download their music I think I would be better off choosing a song by a popular band. The most popular genres of music that are listened to are rock and pop, these are genres that can overlap as well as be separate, giving me slightly more choice into which genre and song I choose.  Although many people access music videos by TV and online they are still mainly concerned by videos that belong to artists that they like, this will make it harder to circulate my video to people that are not too into the band that I choose a song from. The most expected thing to come from a music video is a narrative story line, this is good for the type of video that I want to make, yet half of the people expect there to be speech if the story line is complex, this means that the story line of my song would have to be quite simple or include speech. I would rather make the story line understandable as I would have to find the right points within the song to put the speech and it could make the editing process much more complicated than it could be.

Questionnaires

For part of my research I need audience feedback so I know what direction to go in with my media product. Therefore I made two questionnaires on two different topics, one to find out how people listened to music, purchased music and how important they considered music videos to be and another to find out what my target audience expect from a music video.

Questionnaire 1 : How people listen to and purchase music and how important they consider the music video to be.

1. What age range do you fit into?

• 10-15
• 16-20
• 21-25
• 26-30
• 30+

 2. How often do you listen to music?

• everyday
• frequently
• not often

  3. How do you mainly listen to music?

• Radio
• Online (YouTube, MySpace)
• Television (music channels)
• After downloading/buying

 4. How do you purchase music?

• CD’s
• Downloading
• From friends

 5. What is your preferred music? (max of 2)

• Pop
• Rock
• R&B
• Jazz
• Classical
• Rap
• Metal
• Dance
• Folk/country

 6. How important do you think music videos are?

• Very
• Not very
• Depends on the band/artist

 7. How do you access music videos?

• TV
• Online (YouTube ect.)
• Downloading them
• I don’t watch them

Questionnaire 2: What my target audience expect from a music video.

1. What is your preferred music genre? (max of 2)

• Pop
• Rock
• R&B
• Jazz
• Classical
• Rap
• Metal
• Dance
• Folk/country

 2. How often do you watch music videos?

• Very often
• Not very often
• Only if it’s for a band I like

 3. What do you expect from a music video?

• Narrative (story line)
• Performance
• To see the artist
• Abstract scenes

 4. If the video is a narrative, do you expect there to be speech around the music?

• Yes
• No
• Depends on the complicity of the story line

I chose to incorporate both of these questionnaires into one as I felt there were no more questions I could add to either of them, this then gave me 10 questions to post online. I used the website 'freeonlinesurveys.com' to post the following questionnaire, this then allowed me to post the link onto my facebook. I found this to be an easier way of gaining results and recording them.

Questionnaire 3: the one posted online

1. What age range do you fit into?

• 10-15
• 16-20
• 21-25
• 26-30
• 30+

 2. How often do you listen to music?

• everyday
• frequently
• not often

 3.  How do you mainly listen to music?

• Radio
• Online (YouTube, MySpace)
• Television (music channels)
• After downloading/buying

 4. How do you purchase music?

• CD’s
• Downloading
• From friends

 5. What is your preferred music? (max of 2)

• Pop
• Rock
• R&B
• Jazz
• Classical
• Rap
• Metal
• Dance
• Folk/country

 6. How important do you think music videos are?

• Very
• Not very
• Depends on the band/artist

 7. How do you access music videos?

• TV
• Online (YouTube ect.)
• Downloading them
• I don’t watch them

 8. How often do you watch music videos?

• Very often
• Not very often
• Only if it’s for a band I like

 9. What do you expect from a music video?

• Narrative (story line)
• Performance
• To see the artist
• Abstract scenes

 10. If the video is a narrative, do you expect there to be speech around the music?

• Yes
• No
• Depends on the complicity of the story line

Chosen Song and Music Genre and Analysis of Music Videos Related To That Genre

My chosen song is We Are Broken by Paramore, I chose this song because they are a popular band and one that I personally like. The song is one off their album 'Riot' and hasn't been released and therefore doesn't have a video. The genre this song belongs to is pop-punk and this is the one that I have chosen to focus on when analysis existing music videos.

My target audience is teens/young adult. This seems to be the main audience for this band therefore it will be a lot more popular than if I were to target a different audience.

Finders Keepers - You Me At Six

You Me At Six are a Surrey based rock group, and their single Finders Keepers was released in May 2009. The accompanying video features performance shots of the band as well as a narrative storyline played out by actors. The performance shots dominate the video, these feature the band playing against a white background with spotlights highlighting the background yet keeping them mainly shadowed, the lead singer is highlighted by a spotlight and as the song progresses more of the band is shown. This creates a great contrast with the narrative scenes, as these are very white and bright.  The main narrative follows the lyrics, it is about a young couple, firstly having a pillow fight and getting along and then having arguments. Slow motion is used to show certain parts of the video, such as the dropping of a coffee cup and her walking away as well as the pillow fight; this allows the camera focus on the feathers as well as the people. The video ends with a wide angle shot of the band shadowed against a lit background.

Yeah Boy and Doll Face - Pierce The Veil

This video tells a narrative story about a couple in a car crash. The main actor is played by the lead singer, making a link with the band.  The story line is featured around performance shots, these being mainly shown around the dramatic part of the video, when the people are being helped out of the accident and into the ambulance.

The first part of the video shows a girl lying in a field surrounded by bright colours showing the happiness of the scene. This is cut with close ups of different parts of a car smashed in the road, these clips are dark, highlighted by the lights from nearby cars.

Clips of the accident are featured around performance shots, set in a dark place. This uses quick editing and mid-shots of the scene, as well a long shot of the car smoking in the road.

When he sits up in the ambulance he is dressed in bright colours, the girl, also dressed brightly, is motioning him to come with her, possibly symbolic of her taking him to heaven, she is also featured being in the field from the beginning. This girl is the same one that was in the car crash and is also featured covered in cuts and dressed in black, showing the morbidity of the situation.

The ending of the video features the couple together in the ambulance and he wakes up, because there is no longer the prospect of heaven they are both in darkness.

Children of the Night- The Blackout

The main concept of the video seems to be the lies that perfect families live behind and how they can become out of control. The video starts with a father pointing at the camera as if giving orders, he then dead bolts the door, as if locking someone or something out. A gramophone is turned on as children’s voices start at the beginning of the song. Shows a family sitting down to dinner, these shots are cut around shots of the band members in dingy rooms, with a close up of a gas mask and medium shots of them sat on boxes with gas masks on the wall. All of these suggest the amount of protection the family are hiding behind.

The clips alternate with shots of another time, with grainy effects and old fashioned dress. There is a close up of a man pouring liquid onto a plant. This then follow and cuts to a shot of a dark syrupy liquid pouring down the wall of the household. The past shots then become more frequent and are possibly a way of saying that the past can’t be hidden and will come back in a worse way. The family are overrun by the liquid and scatter when their house is broken into, the band members are these people and this creates a direct link with the band themselves. The video ends with the group standing in front of a door leading to light, to people's perfection.

Textual Analysis - Fall Out Boy - A Little Less Sixteen Candles

Fall Out Boy - A Little Less Sixteen Candles

The narrative of the video is that of vampires, with the band members playing vampire hunters. The story is set around the song, making the sound of fight scenes and other diegetic sounds play over the song. The video is longer than the song, leaving room for a more direct story line and speech to reflect it. 

The opening scene is set on a verge overlooking a town, it is night time, reflective of vampires only being allowed out at night. The text shown is typical of that featured in comic books, and the scene is set in the 1980s, this is apparent by the style of car. The scene itself is a pastiche of the film 'The Lost Boys'.

The video features performance scenes around the main story line, these are set in a warehouse type building, representative of the hideout at which the hunters are based at. The shots of this are mainly mid-long shots, focusing on one member of the band yet sometimes including another.

The first part of the video shows a man, presumably the leader of the vampire hunters, assessing the scene from the beginning, the music featured in the background is different from the song itself and the lead singer is narrating his thoughts. The scene is tinted by a red light, representative of blood and vampires.

The next part of the video shows the hunters training cut with performance shots, each of the band members are featured, showing them on the same team and preparing to go into battle. One of the members is himself a vampire showing that, if tried, they could all live together.

The next scene cuts to one of a group of rebel vampires taunting the good vampire with a girl, chanting ‘kiss her, kiss her’ trying to make him go against his will and drink human blood. This scene is made up of medium shots containing the whole group and close ups, focusing on specific people. Instead he bites the person holding him, letting her escape and a fight begins. Many people from other bands are featured in the fight sequence such as Travis McCoy from Gym Class Heroes, Brendon Urie from Panic! At The Disco and William Becket from The Academy Is… The group enter in a formation and, after the drop of a glove from their leader, scatter and attack people in the surrounding area.

An overhead shot of a car bonnet is shown, in the car are the vampire hunters. The two groups are dressed differently showing a distinct difference between them and their styles of living. The fight scene is mainly made up of medium shots, capturing the choreographed attack between two or three people.

Five members of the opposing group are choreographed controlling girls like puppets, showing the control they have over non-vampires. This is shot using a medium shot containing at least three of them.

The video concludes with the police intervening on the attack and arresting the hunters, the final shots are filmed from within the police car and show the view out of the window of the other hunters being arrested as well at the leader of the rebel vampire group talking with the police showing that the police were on their side. The radio in the police car sounds with mocking laughter, this is animated by the policemen in the front of the car, laughing at the expense of the hunters.  

Textual Analysis - Taylor Swift - Mine

Taylor Swift - Mine

The video itself has a narrative story line that is very traditional, it keeps to the structure of equilibrium, when they first meet and get to know each other and their relationship seems perfect, dis-equilibrium, when they’re arguing and showing how dysfunctional their relationship is, and new-equilibrium, in which they have sorted out their differences and spent the remainder of the video in tranquillity.
The video starts with a girl walking into a café, the girl is Taylor Swift, immediately the audience associates the video and song with her. In the right of the screen there is a couple fighting, as she watches them it changes to a reverse angle shot and then it went to a flashback of her parents arguing, it is then clear to the audience what happened in her childhood.
As the lyrics start the scene changes to one of her in a woodland area, surrounded by pictures strung up to the trees. This scene then becomes the performance area, this is the only place within the video that she is seen singing. The pictures around her show her memories as well as ones symbolic of her relationship.



The scene then goes back to the café and her meeting the guy that the song then becomes about. Close ups are used to show their faces and the eye contact that they had with each other, this is based around clips of performance, these shots also use close up shots of her, keeping her face at the same distance, allowing the clips to blend together better. The last clip within the café shows them at a medium shot, including the table and some of the people around them; this shot then zooms out quickly, showing the time passing between them.
As the chorus starts the scene changes to the couple on a beach, the footage fits in with the lyrics of the song: ‘by the water, you put your arm around me for the first time’. The chorus shows them together by the sea, the colours used are bright, showing the innocence of their relationship and how they’re having fun together.

The next verse is about how their relationship has progressed, the video shows them moving in together, as she unpacks her belongings she gets out a picture of her and her parents, a reverse angle shot is used, also showing her reflection in the photo frame, which shows that she is scared that she’ll become a reflection of her parents, also the lyrics say ‘you said we’d never make my parents mistakes’, this gives the audience a piece of mind that they happy couple will never argue. This is contradicted in the next line, ‘but we’ve got bills to pay, we’ve got nothing figured out’ which shows that they have reasons to be arguing and that not everything is going perfectly.

The next chorus shows them getting on well and him proposing to her, this shot is done in duller colours, making it look like an old movie scene, the clothes they’re wearing also look older fashioned.

Yet it is after this that the audience’s suspicions are proved right, the third verse is the dis-equilibrium of the song, the point at which they start arguing, she runs out of the house, this is merged with her running away from her parents as a child, this scene is set in darkness showing the bad place their relationship has gone to. Yet it plans out differently from her parents as he follows her saying ‘I’ll never leave you alone’. The following chorus is then filled with flashbacks of them at the beach and when they moved in together, going back over all the things that made their relationship great. These then progress onto their marriage, which is a medium shot of the two of them leaving the church, the colours used are bright, showing that everything is good again.



The rest of the video happens over several years, including them having two children, showing them as a family. The video ends with a shot from the beginning, of them in the café, this shows that the whole video was from their imagination as they can both see each other as their perfect partners.

Audience and Their Importance

Within any media audience is the most important part, if there’s not an audience for it then there’s no point in making it. Although there isn’t as much importance in music videos as there is TV programmes or magazines, it still makes the artist and song more popular. The more popular a song gets the more people will buy it and therefore the more money is made allowing them to make more music and videos and therefore becoming more popular. Another way in which artists make money is by doing live shows and tours, these rely greatly on having an audience that want to go to see them. These are great ways of gaining more fans as their audience may take friends that haven’t previously heard of them or have only just been introduced.
Yet another way that artists make money is by selling merchandise, depending on how popular the artist is the fans could pay a lot of money to get a t-shirt at a show, for many bands that are starting out this is their main source of income and many times, mainly when they play support shows, they man the stalls themselves to talk to existing fans and try to make more, this merchandise is a lot cheaper than that of popular artists and so the audience are more willing to pay for it.


Examples of band merchandise

Music Genres and Video Types Linked To Each Genre

Over the years many genres of music have been created and with each has come different stereotypes as to what should be featured in videos. Typically a video for a song of the rock genre would have shown the band dressed up in the fashion of the time ‘rocking out’ on a stage in front of a crazy audience, this has stuck with many videos and it is unusual for a band not to have a video that fits this. Yet recently there has been a great trend in story telling videos, ones that partly follow the lyrics of the song and tell a story, usually these are combined with clips of the band playing. These types of videos have dispersed over more that one genre of music and are just as likely to be featured in R&B videos, with clips of the artist singing. Another convention of R&B videos is that of choreographed dancing, artists seem to want to show that they have more talents other than that of singing.



Alexandra Burke - Broken Heels



The Blackout - This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

Songs that are of the rap genre however seem to feature skimpily dressed women as well as money, both of which are things that are stereotypically associated with rappers.
Mainstream music usually consists of a few genres, such as rock, R&B, rap, dance and pop, rather than that of folk or country. This could be because the radio stations are trying to attract younger people, teens – 30’s, rather than older people, or it could be because there’s not a lot of that genre being created in comparison to the other genres. This also leaves the music channels to show more mainstream music in which the videos all seem to follow the same conventions, they all contain the artists and other people of whom are not associated with them.

Ways In Which Audiences Can Access Music Videos

Music can be accessed in a variety of different ways each have their advantages to different people, thanks to the internet it has become a lot easier to access music to stream and to buy. Many people use YouTube to stream music as well as watch the videos; YouTube is the most popular website for viewing music videos. As well as this the radio is one of the most popular ways of finding new music, especially by artists that are new as well as listening to new genres. Another very popular way of finding new bands is MySpace, the social networking site allows new bands and artists to upload tracks for their audience to listen to, they often create a large fan base on MySpace before they become a mainstream artist.



Still one of the most common formats to buy music on is the CD, as they are vastly available in shops as well as online, some people prefer to collect CD’s of the artists rather than only having the mp3 version on their computer. Downloading is becoming the most used method of purchasing music, stores such as the iTunes store are easy to use and have no limit on the amount that can be downloaded, and with the option to buy single songs as well as whole albums it gives customers more choice of what they buy. ITunes also includes a program which suggests songs based on what had previously purchased, this allows customers to listen to new music that they wouldn’t have usually downloaded as well as discover new artists that may not be mainstream at the time.



With the development of the internet there was also the development of file sharing sites on which people can upload files to share with friends, this allows people to access music for free, it is not illegal but it did lead to a rise in media files that breached copyright, including the software Napster and others. It is a simpler way of downloading a lot of music without having to spend a penny although this means that the artists don’t get the royalties from the record and loose out on money.

The Music Industry

The Music Industry sells recordings, performances and compositions of music. Since 2000 sales of recorded music have dropped substantially while live music has increased in importance. Four "major corporate labels" dominate recorded music - Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI - each of which consists of many smaller companies and labels serving different regions and markets. Apple Inc. is the largest Internet based music store with iTunes Store.

The music industry is made up of various people including individuals, companies, trade unions, not-for-profit associations, rights collectives and other bodies. Professional musicians including a range of people create recordings of their music and play live shows, to publicize themselves as they are not done so by a record company. Many artists hire songwriters and composers to help make and record their tracks. These people as well as the performers get part of their income from copyright collectives and organisations such as the ASCAP and BMI that ensure the composers and performers are compensated when their song is played on the radio or used on TV. When artists make a CD or DVD the process is often coordinated by a record producer, their roles can consist of anything from suggesting songs and backing music to a full hands-on approach, coaching singers, giving advice to session musicians of their style of playing and working with the sound engineer to shape the recorded sound with the computer technology.

 Many artists sign with record labels, which are companies that finance the recording process in return for a share of the rights to the recording. Record companies manage brands and trademarks in the course of marketing the recordings, they can also oversee the production of music videos for broadcast or retail sale.
Record labels that are not under the ‘big four’ are known as independent or ‘indie’ labels. Some music critics prefer to use the term indie label to refer to only those independent labels that adhere to criteria of corporate structure and size and some consider an indie to be any that releases non-mainstream music.

 A record distributor company works with record labels to promote and distribute music; once a CD is recorded the company organizes the shipping of the CD’s to stores. When CDs are sold and songs/albums downloaded from websites such as the iTunes store, part of the money gained is then paid to the performers in the form of royalties.

Successful artists may hire a group of people from other fields to assist them. A band manager will oversee all aspects of the artist’s career in exchange for a percentage of the artist’s income. A business manager will handle financial transactions, taxes and bookkeeping. A booking agency will represent the artist to promoters, make deals and book performances. A road crew is a temporary touring organisation that travels with the artist, this is also made up of many people, such as a tour manager, staff to move equipment and set up the stage as well as doing stage lighting and instrument tuning and maintenance. The tour manager’s main tasks involve setting up accommodation and making sure it’s all confirmed, as well as this they may also be required to find equipment if the venue does not have it, for example if the band need a grand piano then the tour manager would be in charge of hiring one and making sure it is suitable for the show at hand. They would also be in charge of making sure there are replacement instruments as well as a repair person on standby.

Why Music Videos Are So Important

From the start music videos were a way of publicising artists that were perhaps not mainstream enough to receive radio play, as more music video channels were launched more music videos were shown as were a wider variety of genres. Many people saw the release of the channel MTV and the beginning of an era, where music isn’t just focused on the singer’s vocal ability but of what else they can do. Yet there were also many that considered this a bad thing as music would be related a lot more to the looks of the artists and not their singing.
Yet they were not as important as they are today, people have expectations that if a single is released then there will be a video to accompany it. There are many people that start to like a song because they had seen the music video first, this is one reason why music videos are so important, if the audience can relate to either the song itself or the actions within the video then they are more likely to buy the song, creating money and publicity for the artist/band.
There are many artists that have became famous because of one of their music videos, such as OK Go with their single Here It Goes Again, the video they made to accompany it was filmed on treadmills in one continuous take, it won the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video and the 2006 YouTube Award for Most Creative Video. Since it was released on 31^st July 2006 it has been viewed over 52 million times.

Ok Go - Here It Goes Again

History of Music Videos

Music videos originally developed from composers displaying still images during live performances this was developed into musical short films produced by Warner Bros that featured bands, vocalists and dancers. They were usually about six minutes long and featured animations in art deco style accompanied by film of the performer singing the song. These shorts can be considered the earliest music videos.

 After this many animations were built around music including Fantasia and the short, Silly Symphonies. Warner Brother’s cartoons such as Looney Tunes were initially fashioned around specific songs from upcoming Warner Brother’s musical films.
 An early version of the music video came around in ‘Soundies’, these were three minute musical films produced between 1940 and 1946, the last ones being released in March 1947. They were available to watch on the Panoram, a coin-operated jukebox located in nightclubs, bars, restaurants and amusement centres.
 Musical films are another precursor to music videos, several music videos have imitates the style of classic Hollywood musicals from the 1930s to the 1950s. One of the best known example of this is ‘Material Girl’ by Madonna which was closely based around Jack Cole’s ‘Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend’. Another artist that used Hollywood influences is Michael Jackson, in his videos for Thriller and Bad, the latter directed by Martin Scorsese and influenced by the stylised ‘fight’ scenes in West Side Story.

Madonna - Material Girl

Top - Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend. Bottom - Material Girl

The rise of popular music was very much down to the rise of television as it allowed for many artists that would have been passed over by Hollywood to be exposed.
 One of the earliest performance clips was the promo video made by The Animals for their first hit ‘House Of The Rising Sun’. The clip was high colour quality and filmed in a specially designed set using tracking shots, close-ups and long shots as the band walked around the set in a series of choreographed moves.
 Music TV was introduced in the late 1970s with the long-running show Top of the Pops, and although the BBC places strict limits on the number of ‘outsourced’ videos they could use, people still tuned in every week to see if the good videos were shown again.
 In 1981 the video channel MTV launched airing ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ and marked the beginning of 24-hour- a-day music TV. By the mid 1980s music videos played a central role in music marketing by allowing more artists to promote their music. Many influential artists of this time such as Adam and the Ants, Madonna and Duran Duran, owe much of their success to the construction and appeal of their videos.



The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star

As time went on and more music channels were introduced there was a greater output for different genres and in 1996 MTV2 launched showing more alternative and older music videos. In 2005 the website YouTube allowed easier and faster access to videos and allows unknown artist to upload their material and be discovered. As the internet developed there are many other sites from which to watch music videos and with such programs as iTunes, they can be downloaded and put on portable devices, allowing for an even wider range of viewing.

Over the years many music videos have been deemed unsuitable for a television audience, the first of which was ‘Body Language’ by Queen because of lots of skin and sweat, however they did air ‘Physical’ by Olivia Newton-John, one that featured male models working out in string bikinis. In 2004 family groups and politicians wanted the video for ‘Call on Me’ by Eric Prydz due to women dancing in a sexually suggestive way, yet it wasn’t actually banned. Lady Gaga is also an artist to have her videos banned for inappropriate content, yet clean versions have been released for public viewing.