Purpose of Music Videos Research

The main purpose of a music video is to promote the artist so it is primarily a marketing device. The artists need to be in the public eye as much as possible to be successful and the best way to do that is to make a music video as they can be constantly seen all over the world on the TV and internet etc. They are not just advertising the single, they are also advertising their album as the single will be one of many songs on the album of the same genre. If a single has no music video it will not be played and shown no where near as much as it would with a video because most music channels will not play it without one. Music videos are a good way of showing a genre as you can put the lyrics and whats going on in the video together and it is normally pretty clear what genre they are trying to be and what target audience they are aiming for. The people that the music video is for is depending on how successful the artist is at and at what stage in their journey as well known artist is at. They might already be big and successful and just promoting a new single/album or they might be trying to make it to that stage and are putting ideas forward to record labels or putting it out on the internet for example hoping that it is spotted. They then have the challenge of connecting with the public and making things happen for themselves with their music and video ideas. Music videos also give the artists an oppotunity to show what their about to the public in terms of personality which some people look for or apperance which may be important for some people. Music videos these days make the most of the ever improving technology including special effects, techniques and animations to help sell records as by just having a very high quality video, that alone could possibly make up for a poor song and still be a successful seller in the records sales.
Music Videos were known as a flm insert or a promotional film/clip until the 1980s and it was then and the late 70's when music videos took a big rise in popularity partly because MTV based their channel around them and later on creating VH1, United Kingon and America were the countries that started music videos popularity. An example of a popular british song that had a music video that represented the birth of music videos was the Buggles number 1 hit 'Video Killed The Radio Star', the song was released in 1979 and the video was the first shown on MTV in North America in 1981, the lyrics are about the rise of music videos. You still see some successfull songs that were made before this era come on music channels today that have no video and just feature the artist performing on stage for example the 1973 christmas hit 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day' by Wizzard. Musical films were an important precursor to music videos, there has been several well known music videos that were based around the same style based on Hollywood musicals from the 1930s - 1950s including Madonna's 1985 hit 'Material Girl' which was based on the staged performance of 'Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend'. Michael Jackson was known as a pioneer for a new era of music video and he went for a similar style in several of his well known music videos which show dance sequences from Hollywood Classics. The video for 'Thriller' directed by John Lamdis, which was at the time the most expensive music video ever made, and the video for 'Bad' which was based on the stylized fights from 'West Side Story'. Jackson went on in his career to make several inspirational music videos including 'Billie Jean' and 'Beat It' that changed the music video industry until today and also helped getting African-American artists music played on MTV. According to Internet Accuracy Project, Jockey-singer JP Richardson was the first to use the phrase 'music video' in 1959 and it's no conincidence that the rise of popular music came at the same time as the rise in popularity of TV as it gave many people who would have been passed on by Hollywood the exposure and recognition they needed as it normally required big well known names in order to attract an audience and be abox office success. The Beatles were also inspirational in the world of music video, in 1964 they featured in a feature film 'A Hard Days Night' directed by Richard Lester which was in black in white and was in a mock documentary style and it was structured to be combination of exciting musical sequences and comedic and dialogue sequences. These musical sequences would go on to be a model for future promo clips and music videos and it was big influence on the style and visuals of music videos. An example of this was succesful US TV series 'The Monkees' from 1966-1968 which featured many simialar styled musical sequences to go along with the well known songs of the band.
A good way to find out how successfull a single/music video is apart from record sales is on the internet on websites such as Youtube where People leave comments on videos expressing their opinion and in forums and dicussions where people talk about the positives and negatives and what could of been done better. Artist can also use a music videos to express themselves in a visual way aswell as in their singing and can get a message across to their fans who look up to them. Some artists are not just singers and can dance aswell so a music video is a good way to showcase their other talents such as dancing and use choreography which they can also promote. If an artist can really make an impression with a music video it can be as just as good a way of making the pubic remember it as the song itself and some of the most successful and well known videos are stilled played today on music channels and internet sites and keep records selling. Some songs have quite complicated lyrics and a story behind it which some people may not understand so by making a music video, an artist is able show and tell their story through images which some people may understand easier. Music videos have become so popular now across the world that you would not see a successful and big artist bring out a single without one as it will not get the recognition and attention the song may or may not deserve so to make a song successful you need to promote it as much as possible starting with a music video. Music