POSTER RESEARCH

This is the poster for the album 'Contra' by the band Vampire Weekend. The simplicity of this poster is what made it so memorable and  think that the idea behind it could be interpreted in to our own work. Of course this woman would be replaced by Julide Ayger who featured in the music video.

As you can see in this poster, it is promoting a new single called 'Don't Look Back Into the Sun'. This poster includes a lot more detail as it not only includes the band and song name, but also the release date, other versions included and information stating that it is in fact the new single.

Digipack Research

This is the standard layout for a CD digipack which is the one we are most likely to use. It has three panels, includes a booklet and the CD. 

This is one style that could be used. Instead of folding out in to a straight line it opens up on each side of the cd with each panel displaying images. There is also a booklet with all the lyrics plus various information inside a pocket on one of the panels.

This has the similar concept although instead of being a CD digipack it is a record album. This particular album opens up as a book with each page displaying all the lyrics with additional information and artwork, also followed by the record itself. As the song we have chosen to use in our media video was released within the record era it may even be an idea to produce it in this format.

Ideas for the Digipak covers - Mexican Candy Skull

As we've previously said on the blog, the group plan to use a Mexican candy Skull design for one of the covers in the digipak. We eventually came up with the idea of drawing a candy skull onto a model (the girl who was featured in our music video) and use that as the front cover of our Digipak. 

Now, the only problem that we face is timing. We might not be able to get to her, paint her face and take the pictures that we need before Tuesday, which is the deadline for our Digipak so we've got a back up, which is using an actual skull drawing that we'll design ourselves. I've drawn a picture of a basic outline in the post before this and after i plan to modify it if my group want it to look different and colour it in with bright, vibrant colours like a conventional candy skull. 

Research for front cover of Digipak

Initial Idea:

We used the outline from this skull for our own one. We really liked it as it wasn't too weird or scary but was just right and perfect for what we needed. We also tried to recreate the colour scheme of this skull because we really wanted to have a lot of colour with our own one to go along with the colourful Mexican theme.

We were going to use this skull as inspiration but the cheekbones were just too prominent. Although we did like the circle pattern around the eyes, similar to a few of the other skulls.

The above 2 images features crosses which we really liked. For some weird reason we decided to add this to our own skull and luckily it looks very good.

The above 2 images are of actual skulls with small beads glued onto them. They have a really tribal and are very colourful, especially the second one which we like.

We were draw to the red lips of this skull mainly as we feature red lipstick and lips in our video with our main girl, Julide. In our final image, we put red lips on our skull.

Second Idea:

If we were to paint a skull design on our model and main girl in the video, Julide we would have use the above image as our main inspiration. 

We later came across images of these girls who have painted skulls onto their faces, this idea was intriguing however it was not so practical for us as we only had a week left to compete everything. Although this would have been a good idea to use on our main girl who was in the music video, we decided not to go ahead with it, instead we went back to our first idea and created a hand drawing ourselves.

Inspiration for Digipak Front Cover

This is the centre of our inspiration for our Digipak. I remembered that i had picked one up from Venice Beach, California and this is an image of my very own Mexican candy skull. When i introduced the idea of this to my group they loved it and wanted to go ahead with it but create our own design. Alex Harvey then drew a rough sketch of the skull which we decided to use. Colours were then added to it to give it the soulful atmosphere. 

Ideas for Digipak

We really like the idea of this Mexican skull head and are thinking of creating our own design based on it for our Digipak to go on the CD disk. These skulls are found in Venice Beach, California. Although the song has a mexican influence, it is still related to Mexicali, which is a part of California. Mexicali is also quoted in the lyrics of our song, "Down in Mexicali". We could take the outline of this skull and fill it in with our own design and colours to make it unique and striking. 

Digipak Research

 

Digipak is a patented style of CD, DVD or BD packaging, and is a registered trademark of AGI World Ltd., an Atlas Holdings company. *

Teenage Dream by Katy Perry (2010)

Katy Perry is an American musician from Santa Barbara, California. Teenage Dream is her third album and was released on August 24th 2010 through Capitol Records. The front cover is of Katy Perry naked in candy floss which is from her first single and massive hit, "California Gurls". Sex sells and Katy has the appeal and more importantly her album cover does as well. It worked as in it's first week it sold 192,000 copies and debuted at number one on the American Billboard 200. The  album has various photos of Katy wearing candy based outfits that fit in with her food themed album. The CD it's self is designed like an American strawberry candy. The visual theme of the album is a novelty and people might just buy it because of that but it looks quite interesting and thought through. They don't just stop at the visuals with the food theme, it is printed with a candy floss scent which lasts for a long time. At first, only special copies had this which made them more sought after but now all them have it. People will buy this album mainly for the unique scent. It is quite a rare thing for a CD to have a scent and a nice one for that matter. The target audience for this album will mostly be young females but any fan of Katy Perry's will be likely to buy this and even more because of the candy floss scent.

*source: Wikipedia

Example's of different digipaks

CD Digipaks:


.

...and a DVD Digipak:

CD Advertisements Research

This is an advertisement for the American band, Eagles. The layout of it is very simple yet effective. The simple layout is very modern and probably their marketing technique to attempt to sell to a younger and influential audience. The whole page is of the desert and in a bold white font it says "EAGLES". At the bottom it says in a big font that it is "the number 1 album". This bold statement attracts the mature audience of Empire magazine. The Eagles were very successful in the 1970's and this is one of their more recent albums. The target audience for their music will be slightly vague as they have been performing for so long but this advertisement is featured in a magazine like Empire which is very respected and have a mature target audience. 

This CD advertisement is for the a 'greatest indie records of all time' which includes the hugely successful British band, The Smiths. The Smiths have done very well and to target their key audience they used an image of the band from their 'hey-day'. This black and white image also gives the advertisement a vintage feel which is very popular in culture today. The text is on a piece of paper from a notepaper and the CD that is being advertised is on it. The text is informal and slightly like handwriting, they are probably trying to give the affect that it is all scribbled down on some paper. "The Smiths" and "plus! free 15 track indie CD!" are both in red whereas the rest is in black and a slightly smaller font. Even though this is a compilation CD with various artists on from the 'indie' genre they have greatly focused in on The Smiths and used them to sell it.

Magazine advert research

Here is a magazine advert advertising the artist La Roux's new album. The entire two pages are used up for this ad and there is a seperate page for the text. This advert is quite spread out in terms of space, using a close up image of the artists face on one side of the page, with her name printed on the same page in fairly large letters.

On the other page there are ratings and quotes about the album, this is a major part of the advertisement which will attract viewers. 

Down in mexico original album cover analysis.

Before we start to create ideas for our digipak we must establish an in-depth understanding of the genre and year of release of our song. So that we can create a digipak which matches these, also it would be useful to analyse the original album cover so that we can understand the genre and band better.  

Genre: R'N'B/Soul

Year: 1959 (60s era) 

Image The image of the band is shown on the front cover of the album,  this is a conventional aspect for digipaks.

Colours A range of different colours such as yellow, green and orange in different shades,  have been used that we may not see much of in recent times on a R'n'b digipak but perhaps on a Soul one. The band are dressed in brown this co-ordinates them with the Digipak covers. 

Font and text The font of the name of the artist stands out in large white letters, the text is capitalized and so is the album name which blends in with the colours in the background 

Extras Shown on the top left hand corner is a logo - this is a conventional part of a digipak.

Research: Analysis of digipaks according to various genres.

Every Genre has its own conventions for digipaks. including images, colours, designs, text style and other conventions analyzed below. For the last two analysis' i have chosen to analyze an R'N'B and a Soul genre digipak seperately, because our chosen song for the music video and digipak is a combination of R'N'B and Soul.


POP

Britney Spears - Circus


Images The pop artists tend to use pictures of themselves on their album cover, and the image they portray in the cover of the album speaks out the theme of the album. Here, shown on Britney Spears' album cover, there is an image of her posing on the front cover, the circus theme is shown on the back cover along with the track listings and CD content. The front cover does not give as much away as the back cover, however it is still eye catching all the same, with simple borders used. 


Colours The colours shown on the front cover are pastel colours, the back cover shows the much darker, stronger and more radiant colours with are pleasing to the eye. The red used on the front cover stands out with the artists name. 


Fonts and Text The placement of the album name 'circus' is right at the centre bottom of the digipak, the artists name has been highlighted in bold colours and size above. This style is highly representative of the Pop genre (bright colours and bold lettering). 


Themes The album is called 'circus' therefore it is set around the theme of a circus, with images representing a circus-like Britney.


Extras The barcode has been shown on the back cover with the ISPN, aside some logos in small images, a website is also shown in large letters to grab the audience's attention. There is also some small print on the digipak in white text. 


R'N'B

Drake - Take Care


Images This album cover consists of the image of the artists face. There is also a parental advisory label on the front cover.


Colours The colours used are dark and an effect has been used on the artists face fading into the black. The colour of half the artists face fades from blue/green to black - rather than his full face showing. The black background highlights the text more fully especially the faded white album title shown below the artists name. 


Fonts and text The artists name is shown in white, in simple capital letters, this text, although simple, makes a statement on the front cover. this is another convention of digipaks. It is possible to assume that the artists name must stand out more than the album name, it must have a more eye-catching image. 

Themes The blue/green colour fading almost creates a slightly 'dark' theme


SOUL

Marcio Local - Says don day don dree don don 


Image This album cover has similar qualities to that of the original digipak of the song we have chosen and it incorporates shapes such as lines and also bright colours. The pop art effect of the artists face makes the digipak look artistic.

Fonts and text A range of fonts and text sizes have been used to create an unusual but interesting look. The artists image is covered in words, a look we may not see today on digipaks.

Theme The theme speaks for itself it is bright and joyful, the colours create a 'happy' feel.

Key elements of a Digipak

TEXT

• Name of band/artist
• Name of the album
• Track listing
• Price
• Bonus material 
• Website 
• Credits
• Recording information: producer where it was and when, 
• Who wrote the songs 

PICTORIAL

• Pictures of the band/artist
• Logo
• Barcode
• Website banner
• CD/DVD logo

DESIGN

• Colour and style to fit artist genre
• Unfolds
• Cardboard sleeves
• Adverts
• CD/DVD booklet & case 

First ever Digipack

Alex Steinweiss, at the time a 23-year-old designer, invented album covers for Columbia Records, albums were sold in plain brown wrappers.

The album "Smash Song Hits by Rodgers and Hart," was the very first album cover in the world.

Research on Digipak (CD/DVD package) &

To go with our music video we have been set the task to create a digipack (CD/DVD package), first and foremost we must find some examples of these, and then find ideas of conventions from these and analyse them.

Here is an example of a digipak.


Adigipak is a type of packaging for discs which fold out like a book rather than open like a conventional case, made from card rather than hard plastic and the disc is held on a thin transparent plastic tray. It is designed to be cheaper and easier to produce than a normal jewel case. The main purpose of this digipak is the promotional aspects, so the digipak conventionally must stand out and jump out at the audience. It is commonly used to package special edition CDs or DVDs due to the packaging being easily modified to hold multiple discs by being made from more panels that simply fold away, this makes the packaging more suited for multiple disc special edition releases and albums with various discs.

Digipak is a registered trademark of AGI media who originally developed the packaging style, however the term digipak has come into use for similar style packing. DVD digipaks are the same however with rectangular dimensions.


Digipak style cases grew in popularity among record labels and recording artists in the early 2000s, Folk band 'Show of hands' were one of their first bands to use a digipak, on their late 1997 album 'Dark fields'. Aside from simple design conventions digipaks seem to be relatively simple only having the artist name and disc on the cover possibly with a logo, Age ratings are not often an issue however if applicable this shows on the front cover or on the back along with the track and content listing, also record label information and barcode including small print on copyright information. An example of a logo which might be on a digipak shown below.

Props we need to purchase for our music video:

instead of buying the below objects (castanets and black lace fan) we are plan on using our own. We will use a black lace fan from Katy's mum and some castanets from Alex's grandparents.

sources:
inflatable saxophone
moustache
castanets
black lace fan

The coasters

The Coasters are an American rhythm and blues/rock and roll vocal group that had a string of hits in the late 1950s. Though the Coasters originated outside of mainstream doo wop, their records were so frequently imitated that they became an important part of the doo wop legacy through the 1960s. The song 'Down in mexico' from the movie Death Proof has no music video initially it is simply shown in the movie in a scene.


Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coasters

Music Video History

Music Videos
A music video is defined as either a short film or video that is accompanied by a complete piece of music or song. Today's Modern music videos are made primarily and used to help market and promote the sale of music recordings.
Music video's came into their own in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium and later with the launch of VH1 in the United States.
The "music video" term first made popular in the early 1980s. Before that time, works of this kind were also known by various terms such as "promotional or promo clip", "filmed insert", or "film clip". In China, music videos were simply known as MTVs because the American network was responsible for making music videos popular there. Music videos are now known as MVs in Chinese entertainment.
Music videos use a vast range of different styles of film making techniques, including live footage filming, music documentaries animated clips and also non-narrative approaches e.g. abstract film. You will find that some music videos blend various styles, such as live and animated action. Music video's can show another example of creativity from the artist involved or they may not have any involvement in the music video making process at all. Some music video's that have been created may or may not have anything to do with the lyrics that are written. This can make music video's less literal than the listener may expect.
One of the earliest performance clips in 1960's pop was promotional film clip performed by English group The Animals, for their Worldwide hit "The House Of The Rising Sun". Filmed in a studio, this high-quality colour clip was filmed in a specially-built set. The performance by the group was lip-synched, as can be depicted through edited sequences of the close-ups, longshots and tracking shots.

Musicals were also a huge influence to the popularity of music videos, as several well-known music videos have imitated the style of classic Hollywood musicals betwen the 1930s and the 1950s. Madonna's 1985 video for "Material Girl" (below) which was directed by Mary Lambert, is one of the best-known examples as it was closely modelling Jack Cole's staging of "Diamond's Are A Girl's Best Friend" from the film "Gentleman Prefer Blondes". Quite a number of Michael Jackson's videos show the unmistakable influence of the dance sequences in classic Hollywood musicals, including the landmark John Landis clip for "Thriller" (below) which was at the time the most expensive music video ever made, and the video clip for "Bad", directed by legendary filmaker Martin Scorsese, was influenced by the stylised dance "fights" in the film version of "West Side Story".

The monochrome 1966 clip for Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" filmed by D.A. Pennebaker was featured in his Dylan film documentary "Don't Look Back". The clip intentionally tries not to simulate performance or present a narrative. It simply shows Bob Dylanstanding in a city back alley, shuffling a series of large cue cards which bear key words from the song's lyrics. The cards are showed in time with when the words are mentioned in the track that last for over two minutes.
The video below is the original video clip for "Subterranean Homesick Blues" but the soundtrack featured is covered by Californian band, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
MUSIC TELEVISION
UK
The long-running British TV show "Top Of The Pops" began playing music videos in the late 1970s. The BBC however placed strict limits on the number of 'outsourced' videos that they could use. So therefore, a good video would increase a song's sales, as viewers hoped to see it again on the show the following week.
In 1980, David Bowie achieved his first UK number one in nearly a decade thanks to the eye catching promo for "Ashes To Ashes"(below), which was directed by David Mallet. Another act to succeed by using the same process was Madness. For their film clips, they shot them on 16 mm and 35 mm, which constructed their clips as "micro-comedic" short films.
In 1975, the band Queen ordered award winning television director and producer, Bruce Gowers, to make a promo video for their new single"Bohemian Rhapsody", simply so they could have it shown on "Top Of The Pops". This clip is also most notable for being entirely shot and edited on videotape.

AUSTRAILIA
The first Music TV programmes shown in Australia were "Countdown" and "Sounds", both of which premiered in 1974. They were significant in developing and popularizing the music video genre in Australia and other countries. They also establised the importance of music video clips as a means of promoting both emerging acts and new releases by established acts.
In need of material for the "Sounds" show, Music DJ, Graham Webb approached newsroom staffer Russell Mulcahy and asked him to shoot film footage to accompany popular songs for which there were no purpose-made clips. By applying this method, Webb and Mulcahy assembled approximately clips for their show. Due to the success of his early efforts, Webb encouraged Mulcahy to quit his TV job and direct music video's full-time. From there, Mulcahy made clips for several popular Australian acts including Stylus, Marcia Hines, Hush and rock band, AC/DC.
Mulcahy relocated to the UK in the mid-1970's, and made successful music videos for several noted British pop acts. His landmark video for The Buggles "Video Killed The Radio Star" (below) which was released in 1979, became the first music video played on MTV in 1981.
"Countdown" was partly based on the 1960's Australian pop music show "Kommotion". It was also based on the BBC's "Top of the Pops"but unlike its British counterpart, "Countdown" was not restricted in its use of music videos. The program was launched in late 1974, a few months after Sounds. In January 1975, only a few weeks before color TV was officially launched in Australia, it rapidly became one of the highest-rating shows on Australian TV, thanks in large part to their 6pm Sunday timeslot and also the ABC channel's nationwide reach,

US
American alternative rock group Devo created many self-produced music videos, which were included in the pioneering compilation "The Truth About Devolution", directed by Chuck Statler and Devo's video cassette releases were arguably among the first true long-form video productions.
Video Concert Hall was created by Jerry Crowe and Charles Henderson, was the first nationwide video music programming on American television, predating MTV by almost three years.
In 1980, New Zealand group Split Enz had major success with the single "I Got You" from their album "True Colours" and later that year they joined Blondie in becoming one of the first bands in the world to produce a complete set of promo clips for each song on the album (directed by their percussionist, Noel Crombie). They also marketed these on video cassette.
Among the first music videos were clips produced by ex-Monkee Michael Nesmith who started making short musical films for U.S. late-night television sketch comedy and variety show , "Saturday Night Live". In 1981, he released Elephant Parts, the first winner of a Grammy Award for music video, directed by William Dear.
In 1981, the U.S. video channel MTV launched, airing "Video Killed The Radio Star" and beginning an era of 24-hour-a-day music on television. With this new outlet for material, the music video would, by the mid-1980s, grow to play a central role in popular music marketing. Many important acts of this period, most notably Adam and the Ants, Duran Duran and Madonna, owed a great deal of their success to the skillful construction and seductive appeal of their videos.

In 1983, the most successful and influential music video of all time was released — the nearly 14-minute-long video for Michael Jackson's song "Thriller". The video set new standards for production, having cost US$500,000 to film.That video, along with earlier videos by Jackson for his songs "Billie Jean" and "Beat It", was also instrumental in getting music videos by African American artists played on MTV.
However, such videos released prior to "Thriller" had been rare. According to MTV, this was because it initially conceived itself as a rock-music-oriented channel, although musician Rick James was outspoken in his criticism of the cable channel. He claimed in 1983 that MTV's refusal to air the music video for his song "Super Freak" and clips by other African-American performers was "blatant racism".

The video for the 1985 Dire Straits song "Money For Nothing" (video below) made pioneering use of computer animation.It also helped make the song an hit Internationally. Ironically, the song itself was a wry comment on the music-video phenomenon, sung from the point of view of an appliance deliveryman both drawn to and repelled by the outlandish images and personalities that appeared on MTV.
In 1986, Peter Gabriel's song "Sledgehammer" used special effects and animation techniques developed by British studio Aardman Animation. The video for "Sledgehammer" would go on to be a phenomenal success and win nine MTV Video Music Awards.
THE MOST EXPENSIVE VIDEO CLIPS OF ALL TIME

Two of the videos directed by Mark Romanek in 1995 are notable for being two of the three most expensive movies ever made. Michael and Janet Jackson's collaboration on "Scream" heads the list and cost $7 million to produce, and Madonna's "Bedtime Story", which cost $5 million. Madonna has had three out of the top four most expensive music video clips ever made.
Nowadays, music video's are much more faster and easily accessible, thanks to video streaming sites such as YouTube.
Such websites had a profound affect on the viewing of music videos. Some artists began to see success as a result of videos seen mostly or entirely online. Artists like American band Weezer, have found great success by including up to twenty YouTube celebrities in their music video clip for "Pork and Beans". This has resulted in them having their biggest single to date, in terms of chart success.

SOURCE: http://www.festivalrecords.info/videos.html

The history of music video

What is a music video?

A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music (most commonly a song). Modern music videos have been primarily created to be used as marketing devices and intended to promote the sale of music recordings.

Source: Wikipedia

Music videos are often called promotion videos or promo's, due to the fact that they are usually promotion devices. Sometimes music videos are termed short-form music videos to distinguish them from full length movies. In the 1980's, the term 'rock video' was often used to describe this form of entertainment, although this term is no longer used.

Music video timeline 



Find more Music Videos on myspace music!

Source: http://www.myspace.com/pages/the_history_of_music_videos

A music video is defined as either a short film or video that is accompanied by a complete piece of music or song. Today's Modern music videos are made primarily and used to help market and promote the sale of music recordings.
Music video's came into their own in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium and later with the launch of VH1 in the United States.
The "music video" term first made popular in the early 1980s. Before that time, works of this kind were also known by various terms such as "promotional or promo clip", "filmed insert", or "film clip". In China, music videos were simply known as MTVs because the American network was responsible for making music videos popular there. Music videos are now known as MVs in Chinese entertainment.

Music videos use a vast range of different styles of film making techniques, including live footage filming, music documentaries animated clips and also non-narrative approaches e.g. abstract film. You will find that some music videos blend various styles, such as live and animated action. Music video's can show another example of creativity from the artist involved or they may not have any involvement in the music video making process at all. Some music video's that have been created may or may not have anything to do with the lyrics that are written. This can make music video's less literal than the listener may expect.
One of the earliest performance clips in 1960's pop was promotional film clip performed by English group The Animals, for their Worldwide hit "The House Of The Rising Sun". Filmed in a studio, this high-quality colour clip was filmed in a specially-built set. The performance by the group was lip-synched, as can be depicted through edited sequences of the close-ups, longshots and tracking shots. You can view The Animals clip for "The House Of The Rising Sun" below:



Musicals were also a huge influence to the popularity of music videos, as several well-known music videos have imitated the style of classic Hollywood musicals betwen the 1930s and the 1950s. Madonna's 1985 video for "Material Girl" (below) which was directed by Mary Lambert, is one of the best-known examples as it was closely modelling Jack Cole's staging of "Diamond's Are A Girl's Best Friend" from the film "Gentleman Prefer Blondes". Quite a number of Michael Jackson's videos show the unmistakable influence of the dance sequences in classic Hollywood musicals, including the landmark John Landis clip for "Thriller" (below) which was at the time the most expensive music video ever made, and the video clip for "Bad", directed by legendary filmaker Martin Scorsese, was influenced by the stylised dance "fights" in the film version of "West Side Story".



The monochrome 1966 clip for Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" filmed by D.A. Pennebaker was featured in his Dylan film documentary "Don't Look Back". The clip intentionally tries not to simulate performance or present a narrative. It simply shows Bob Dylan standing in a city back alley, shuffling a series of large cue cards which bear key words from the song's lyrics. The cards are showed in time with when the words are mentioned in the track that last for over two minutes.
The video below is the original video clip for "Subterranean Homesick Blues" but the soundtrack featured is covered by Californian band, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.



THE BEGINNINGS OF MUSIC TELEVISION PROGRAMS

Australia
The first Music TV programmes shown in Australia were "Countdown" and "Sounds", both of which premiered in 1974. They were significant in developing and popularizing the music video genre in Australia and other countries. They also establised the importance of music video clips as a means of promoting both emerging acts and new releases by established acts.
In need of material for the "Sounds" show, Music DJ, Graham Webb approached newsroom staffer Russell Mulcahy and asked him to shoot film footage to accompany popular songs for which there were no purpose-made clips. By applying this method, Webb and Mulcahy assembled approximately clips for their show. Due to the success of his early efforts, Webb encouraged Mulcahy to quit his TV job and direct music video's full-time. From there, Mulcahy made clips for several popular Australian acts including Stylus, Marcia Hines, Hush and rock band, AC/DC.
Mulcahy relocated to the UK in the mid-1970's, and made successful music videos for several noted British pop acts. His landmark video for The Buggles "Video Killed The Radio Star" (below) which was released in 1979, became the first music video played on MTV in 1981.
"Countdown" was partly based on the 1960's Australian pop music show "Kommotion". It was also based on the BBC's "Top of the Pops" but unlike its British counterpart, "Countdown" was not restricted in its use of music videos. The program was launched in late 1974, a few months after Sounds. In January 1975, only a few weeks before color TV was officially launched in Australia, it rapidly became one of the highest-rating shows on Australian TV, thanks in large part to their 6pm Sunday timeslot and also the ABC channel's nationwide reach,



United Kingdom
The long-running British TV show "Top Of The Pops" began playing music videos in the late 1970s. The BBC however placed strict limits on the number of 'outsourced' videos that they could use. So therefore, a good video would increase a song's sales, as viewers hoped to see it again on the show the following week.
In 1980, David Bowie achieved his first UK number one in nearly a decade thanks to the eye catching promo for "Ashes To Ashes" (below), which was directed by David Mallet. Another act to succeed by using the same process was Madness. For their film clips, they shot them on 16 mm and 35 mm, which constructed their clips as "micro-comedic" short films.
In 1975, the band Queen ordered award winning television director and producer, Bruce Gowers, to make a promo video for their new single "Bohemian Rhapsody", simply so they could have it shown on "Top Of The Pops". This clip is also most notable for being entirely shot and edited on videotape.


United States
American alternative rock group Devo created many self-produced music videos, which were included in the pioneering compilation "The Truth About Devolution", directed by Chuck Statler and Devo's video cassette releases were arguably among the first true long-form video productions.
Video Concert Hall was created by Jerry Crowe and Charles Henderson, was the first nationwide video music programming on American television, predating MTV by almost three years.
In 1980, New Zealand group Split Enz had major success with the single "I Got You" from their album "True Colours" and later that year they joined Blondie in becoming one of the first bands in the world to produce a complete set of promo clips for each song on the album (directed by their percussionist, Noel Crombie). They also marketed these on video cassette.
Among the first music videos were clips produced by ex-Monkee Michael Nesmith who started making short musical films for U.S. late-night television sketch comedy and variety show , "Saturday Night Live". In 1981, he released Elephant Parts, the first winner of a Grammy Award for music video, directed by William Dear.
In 1981, the U.S. video channel MTV launched, airing "Video Killed The Radio Star" and beginning an era of 24-hour-a-day music on television. With this new outlet for material, the music video would, by the mid-1980s, grow to play a central role in popular music marketing. Many important acts of this period, most notably Adam and the Ants, Duran Duran and Madonna, owed a great deal of their success to the skillful construction and seductive appeal of their videos.

In 1983, the most successful and influential music video of all time was released — the nearly 14-minute-long video for Michael Jackson's song "Thriller". The video set new standards for production, having cost US$500,000 to film.That video, along with earlier videos by Jackson for his songs "Billie Jean" and "Beat It", was also instrumental in getting music videos by African American artists played on MTV.
However, such videos released prior to "Thriller" had been rare. According to MTV, this was because it initially conceived itself as a rock-music-oriented channel, although musician Rick James was outspoken in his criticism of the cable channel. He claimed in 1983 that MTV's refusal to air the music video for his song "Super Freak" and clips by other African-American performers was "blatant racism".

The video for the 1985 Dire Straits song "Money For Nothing" (video below) made pioneering use of computer animation.It also helped make the song an hit Internationally. Ironically, the song itself was a wry comment on the music-video phenomenon, sung from the point of view of an appliance deliveryman both drawn to and repelled by the outlandish images and personalities that appeared on MTV.
In 1986, Peter Gabriel's song "Sledgehammer" used special effects and animation techniques developed by British studio Aardman Animation. The video for "Sledgehammer" would go on to be a phenomenal success and win nine MTV Video Music Awards.



THE MOST EXPENSIVE VIDEO CLIPS OF ALL TIME

Two of the videos directed by Mark Romanek in 1995 are notable for being two of the three most expensive movies ever made. Michael and Janet Jackson's collaboration on "Scream" heads the list and cost $7 million to produce, and Madonna's "Bedtime Story", which cost $5 million. Madonna has had three out of the top four most expensive music video clips ever made.
But "Scream" still remains the most expensive video of all time, for a list of the most expensive music videos click here



Nowadays, music video's are much more faster and easily accessible, thanks to video streaming sites such as YouTube.
Such websites had a profound affect on the viewing of music videos. Some artists began to see success as a result of videos seen mostly or entirely online. Artists like American band Weezer, have found great success by including up to twenty YouTube celebrities in their music video clip for "Pork and Beans". This has resulted in them having their biggest single to date, in terms of chart success.
You can view Weezer's video for "Pork and Beans" below.

SOURCE: http://www.festivalrecords.info/videos.html

History of the Music Video

The first sound movie ever made is said to be "The Jazz Singer" which is an American musical that was made in 1927. In the 50's Elvis Presley was a massive success and as music video weren't around he would instead promote his music and himself through films, for example "Blue Hawaii". He would play himself and sing his own songs in a way to advertise his music. Elvis would also rarely appear on television and perform his music where he would move his hips so much that they had to show him from only the waist up which consequently gave him the infamous nickname "Elvis the Pelvis."
The 60's was a very revolutionary era, with the rise of the 'teenager' a lot drastically changed. Teenagers stopped dressing like their parents and going along with the rules of society they started to rebel. The Beatles were a huge phenomenon in the 60's. Their 1964 mockumentary entitled 'A Hard Day's Night' directed by Richard Lester is essentially one big advertisement for The Beatles. Richard Lester is known for working in television and advertising which would mean he has a lot of experience and knowledge to be able to represent the band the way they needed to be at the time. The only music used in 'A Hard Day's Night' is by The Beatles. Whenever their music is played the scene is basically a music video for it, for example 'Can't Buy Me Love' is a very respected scene as it is said to have been the first modern music video which lead the way for others. In this scene the band run a round a huge field having fun which has no relevance to the song or film at all. It is cut to the beat which is very effective and used a lot in music videos today. One of the most important parts of it is that it featured innovative cinematography. Crane/Ariel shots of the band were used and were very new at the time.
In the 1970's music videos changed slightly, a lot more were live performances, some from festivals. These concert films from open air rock festivals were a lot cheaper than having a huge production. They would also give unrestricted access and band promotion. In 1975, one of the most recognized and iconic music videos was realized by the legendary band, Queen with "Bohemian Rhapsody." It was a risky video as it was a whole 6 minutes, about twice the usual length and had live performance in it. Because of the video, the song was top of the charts for 9 weeks running and still a 'classic.'
In the 80's music changed when MTV was introduced. MTV (launched in 1981) was a regular television network that showed the newest and hottest music at the time. The first music video to be shown on MTV is "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles. By 1985, MTV has 18 million viewers worldwide and because of it it had record sales soaring. Another music video of the time which was very influential was "Thriller" by Michael Jackson. The whole video is around the 13 minute mark which is very long but it has a narrative and similar to a short or a film. It subverts the 'norm' as other music videos before hadn't been as long or even been in the horror genre. People say that the video even influenced horror films let alone other music videos. The success of this music video is shown through it's insane 35 million copies sold worldwide and still selling and very iconic.
Music videos became essential in the 1990's and many had huge productions that became very expensive such as the video for "November Rain" by Guns N' Roses. "November Rain" was a very ambitious and cinematic/dramatic video with many different sets, huge orchestras, etc. The music video has now become a media tool/product in it's own right. Nowadays there has been a decline in the profile of music videos. With the rise of digital technology, anyone can make a video or viral video with makes the music videos less special and important. On a more positive note, this means that up and coming musicians and directors can use it as a platform as it is so accessible.