1. What is considered to be the first official music video and why is it different from what came before?
When researching the topic of what is currently considered to be the first ever official music video to have been released, it is hard to find a definitive answer, with many places on the internet considering different videos to be the answer. Through my research, I came to the conclusion that the first 'music video' as we know them today was made in 1956 by Tony Bennett, setting a recording of himself walking along Hyde Park in London to his song "Stranger in Paradise". Before this point in time, videos were still at some times played alongside musical pieces, such as in 'The Panoram Soundie' jukebox made in 1941, which would play short video clips alongside the songs it would play, or with videos being made for the song 'The Little Lost Child' from 1894, although this 'video' was more so simply a series of still images projected on the screen.
2. Before the ‘first music video’ television shows existed that showed bands and artists performing their songs; name a UK and a US one and say why they existed (for the audience)
Years ago, TV shows used to be a massive part in songs successes, such as 'Top of the Pops' in the UK and 'The Music Scene' in the US. These shows used to promote artists new works or those which were in the charts at the time, placing in front of a large audience, before music videos were as big as they inevitably became, in a way replacing these shows' purposes and taking over as one of the best ways to add to a musical piece and promote it even more in an artistic way. While music performances on TV do still exist, shows revolving around them the way these used to be are a lot less common, with many performances being lessened to simple segments of 'Late Night' shows for example.
3. David Bowie released a music video in 1980, it used ground-breaking special effects – what was the song and what, do you think, is the song and video about?
David Bowie's music video to his song 'Ashes to Ashes' used what were considered at the time to be ground-breaking special effects throughout. Watching the video and its visuals while listening closely to the lyrics now, the piece seems personally to be based on David's life and his experience with fame, keeping a good image for those who watch him and his struggles with drug use, with lines such as "I never done bad things (I never done bad things), I never did anything out of the blue", "We know Major Tom's a junkie" and "Time and again I tell myself, I'll stay clean tonight, But the little green wheels are following me, Oh no, not again", alongside visuals like Bowie in a straight Jacket in a padded room and shooting a video on another planet. Saying this though, I am very aware that this is just my take on the song and its video, while knowing that many songs are made in a way to allow for many different interpretations to taken away from them by the people who watch and listen to them.
4. What massive event took place in 1981? Hint, it relates to the exhibition of music videos!
The television channel 'MTV' (standing for 'Music TeleVision at the time) was launched as a 24/7 satellite music channel in August of 1981. The channel began with only a few cable Television operators carrying it, but soon became a massive hit and a huge cultural icon.
5. In 1984, a female artist released a song that a certain TV channel refused to play. What was the song and why, do you think, they refused to play it?
The musical artist Laura Branigan released a studio album in 1984 called 'Self Control', containing a song by the same name, The music video to this song, however, was not played on MTV, due to the network refusing to air it on their channel due to, as they described it, objectionable. Watching the music video back online today, I would make the guess that this decision was made due to the scene in the video where a man in a masked man begins to become quite intimate with the woman the majority of the music video focuses on, with shots of him undressing her slightly being shown as well as some of her reactions. At the time of this videos release, what was allowed on TV and what people considered "too much" in terms of sexual content was very different than what it is today, likely causing MTV to ultimately make the decision they made, despite the video's artistic purpose and meaning behind the shots that were banned.
6. Also in 1984, Michael Jackson released, what would become, one of the most iconic music videos of all time; what was it, why was it so unusual for the time and what is so special about the VHS sales?
1984 also marked the release of Michael Jackson's music video to his song 'Thriller', now being known by many as an extremely classic and iconic piece of musical history. The video for the song was not just simply some visuals playing alongside the track's audio as many that came beforehand were, but instead was a thirteen minute 'short film', containing a storyline, 4 whole minutes of content before the track begins, horror visuals, and an eventual VHS to also release about its creation and 'making of'' process. Speaking of VHS's, the music video was also sold as one for people to purchase and watch it on, something which was not too uncommon for popular music videos at the time of its release, the difference being that this VHS in particular ended up boasting a sales number of over a million copies, making it the bestselling videotape at the time ever. Once this video was released, the concept of music videos as a whole changed, becoming considered as a serious form of art a lot more and arguably inspiring many of the music video concepts and ideas that came after...
7. In 1985, a-ha released the song Take on Me but what animation effect is used and how is it achieved / created?
Sometimes, the success of a music video can result in success for both the artist and the song the video was made for, which may not have been found if not for the video's creation. A good example of this happening is with 'Take On Me' by a-ha, with it being said that it was due to the heavy rotation of the music video that the artists' career ended up taking off to the extent that it did. The music video in question made use of an animation effect known as 'rotoscoping', making it stand out compared to other music videos of the time - this is an effect created by tracing over each frame of a live-action piece of recorded footage, then putting each traced frame back in order to create the new piece of animation. As like all animation, this is a very time consuming form of video creation, but unlike some other animation techniques, it allows the animators to create life-like characters and frames that move much more realistically for the end product.
8. Who released the video for Sledgehammer in 1986 and why do you think it was so popular?
The music video for the song 'Sledgehammer' was released in 1986, a song made by Peter Gabriel. Similar to the video for 'Take On Me', this was quite a unique music video for the time, resulting in it gaining a large amount of popularity following its release - specifically, the video execution was that of a stop-motion animation, each frame being a photo, including the singer in the centre of the screen with the visuals around him changing, resulting in lots of interesting imagery throughout.
9. In 1995, two famous siblings released a duet which, at the time, was the most expensive MV to date. Who were they and what was the video?
To this day, the most expensive music video to have ever been created (at least at the time of its release) is one which was created back in 1995 for siblings Michael and his Janet Jackson. The video was made for their song 'Scream', from Michael's 1995 album 'HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I'. In total, the video alone is said to have costed around 7 million dollars, even gaining an official 'Guinness World Record' for the sheer cost of it compared to any other music video. Watching the video now however, it is not extremely clear what exactly about it was so expensive, as it does not look extremely unique or special, especially compared to much more modern music video concepts we have become used to.
10. Why is Missy Elliott’s 2008 single Ching-a-ling so important in the MV timeline?
The 2008 single 'Ching-a-ling' marked yet another milestone in music video history up to that point in time, doing something which yet again had never been done before and making a name for itself as a result. The music video for Missy Elliott's song was created by Dave Myers, resulting in the first ever music video to be released in 3D!
11. Which female artist reached 1 billion views in 2010 and for which song?
Not long into the 2010's. a new musical milestone was reached online, with the first ever music artist hitting a total view count of 10 digits on their official YouTube channel. A massive 1 billion views was surpassed by Lady Gaga, between all of her videos, with the upload of her song 'Bad Romance' from 2009 being considered to be the one that helped push her over to that never before reached at the time milestone, with that video itself holding the spot on the platform at one point as being the most viewed video on all of the site on its own for a while.
12. Also in 2010, which artist released Coming to Get Me, in collaboration with Doritos and why was it such a ‘big deal’?
Strangely, the company behind Doritos crisps in 2010 added themselves to the history of music videos, due to their collaboration with the artist Professor Green to create yet another new concept for a music video never done before. This time, the team-up created a music video for the song 'Coming to Get Me', with the intention of promoting the crisp brand's "Late Night" campaign they were running at the time, deciding to attempt to create a music video which allowed the viewer to interact with it, specifically by recording and producing it in a 360 degree format. Videos like this nowadays, while still not largely common, have become much less rare, with the hardware required to make them becoming a lot more accessible, such as the 360 degree cameras, while expensive, now being available to purchase online. Using these cameras, videos of this type teamed up with a Virtual Reality headset will even allow the viewer to become surrounded by the entire video at once, controlling where they want to look. That being said, this was the first of its kind and a brand new idea for what a music video could be yet again.
13. Whose 10 year anniversary was in 2015? Hint, over 300 hours of video content is uploaded to it every minute!
In 2015, the now massive online video platform YouTube hit its 10 year anniversary since its creation by Jawed Karim, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. The online platform would eventually go on to be sold to Google the following year in 2006, and since its creation has gone to become a home for all types of content, small scale or large scale, many of which being music videos and even being the place where a lot of music videos are either first uploaded or exclusively shown nowadays. Music has had a large history on the site, from the partnership and creation of 'VEVO' channels created for many of the large musical artists on the airways at the time to have their music videos placed on the site from 2009 until they were phased out in 2018, and the platform's own music exclusive paid streaming service which began in 2015 known as simply 'YouTube Music'.
14. What is a ‘Panoram Soundie’ and why is it important to consider it when thinking about music videos?
As already mentioned above, the 'Panoram Soundie' was a jukebox created in the US in 1941, which differed from all other jukeboxes of the time due to its ability to play short video clips alongside the songs it would play. These unique pieces of music player history were used in bars and clubs over the United States, and could be considered by some a very early version of what would eventually become the art of music videos.
15. Spend 10 minutes finding out the biggest stories from the past couple of years.
What iconic or important videos have been released?
Over the years, many artists have released music videos that have managed to shape the industry and inspire those coming afterwards simply due to how iconic or unique they were upon their release. One example would be the music video released alongside Donald Glover's 2018 song 'This is America' under his rap alias Childish Gambino. The song and video in question combined commented on the politics, racial and gun issues in the country at the same of its released, being filled with metaphors and imagery reflecting that and making those watching think about what it all meant, becoming extremely popular online over night.
Has technology impacted on the style of music videos released?
Technology has progressed a huge amount since the first music video was made decades ago, allowing for tons of new concepts and effects to be applied and taken advantage of in newer videos of modern of recent years. Newer recording technology has led to brand new genres of music video to exist, such as the 3D and 360 degree/virtual reality types mentioned earlier. On top of this, progression in the quality of visual effect like CGI has enabled much more intricate video concepts to be created artificially, like the video for Cold Play's 'Adventure of a Lifetime' official video, which consisted of life-like CGI monkeys singing and dancing to the song throughout - a concept which could not have been executed to that quality just a few years beforehand due to the technologies available and how much it would have costed.
Who are the big name directors in the music video field?
As of recent years, new names have come up in the music directing field which have become massive in popularity. In particular, the 24 year old behind the multimedia company 'Lyrical Lemonade' Cole Bennet, having just in the past 4 years directing music videos for huge rap artists such as Lil Pump, Eminem and Juice WRLD, making a recognisable style for himself with his editing and artist specific references sprinkled within each of his videos and making a name for himself and his brand online as a result.
Which artists are constantly recognised as producing award-winning music videos?
Each year at the Grammys since 1984, an award has been dedicated specifically to the 'best' music video of that year, having been given to over 25 different artists over its run, excluding 1988 and 1989. Videos to have received this award in the past 5 years have been 'Old Town Road', 'This is America', 'Humble', 'Formation' and 'Bad Blood', awarding the performers, directors and producers for their efforts and unique pieces of musical video art.
