Music Video Timeline

1. Music Video Timeline Martin Noficzer

2. Music Videos Music Videos were originally intended to be promotional and artistic ways of presenting songs to the audience. Modern music videos are mainly used for marketing purposes in order to promote sales of albums and releases. The platform became popular when a new television channel, MTV, has been based on the concept, however the very first appearance of the early concepts of music videos were seen in 1894 by Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern who have hired an electrician and various performers to project still images while a live performance of their song was in performance. Spooney Melodies in 1930 was the first musical video series in which Art Deco style animations were presented along with film of the performer singing for an average length of six minutes. Another form of early music videos were ‘promotional clips’ in the 1940’s which were usually a band set on a movie-set and made for the Panoram visual jukebox. During the the 1960’s many bands in the UK have started producing “filmed inserts” which were intended to be played on television for when the bands were not available to perform live. The Kinks have made the first plot promo clip for their single “Dead End Street” which was a miniature comic movie. The BBC have repeatedly refused to air the clip as they claimed it was in “poor taste”. Music videos were becoming more popular and considered to be mainstream during the 1980’s, during the launch of several music shows such as MTV in the USA, Top of the Pops in the UK and MuchMusic in Canada. Several ‘landmarks’ in the industry were released that have set new standards for music videos such as the fourteen minute long video for Michael Jackson’s Thriller, along with “Beat It” and “Bad”. During the 1990’s directors were beginning to be listed and credited with music videos as they were beginning to become very high cost productions with some of the most expensive music videos being $5-7 million to produce (The most expensive is still “Scream” by Michael and Janet Jackson). In 2005, YouTube has been launched, which has meant that many music videos has been able to be spread easily to the consumers, and therefore meaning that bands has seen increased recognition. Websites like Google Videos, Yahoo! Videos, Facebook, Myspace and recently Twitter has been very popular with sharing music videos as well because of their video compatibility. Recently a lot of other social websites has seen more music videos by artists as audiences rely more and more on the internet and is a great way to share and promote music. Examples include the band OK Go, who have released videos on YouTube for their songs “A Million Ways” in 2005, “Here It Goes Again” in 2006, and also two different videos for “This Too Shall Pass” in 2010, all of which are very popular on YouTube. In 2009, VEVO was launched, which is a company the legally shares music videos artists on YouTube from which the revenue is shared between VEVO and Google (the owner of YouTube since November 2006). The platform of music videos has changed since its first appearance, as nowadays the most popular way of releasing and sharing music videos is through the use of the internet, while earlier the most popular way was through television, and before it was through jukeboxes and screenings.

3. Pop Punk Pop Punk is a subgenre of rock music, more specifically punk rock, pop and garage rock and has first made an appearance in the 1970’s. It has started becoming popular during the 1990’s with bands such as Green Day, The Offspring, and Blink 182, Sum 41 and New Found Glory later on. During the 2000’s, several bands have emerged in this genre, such as Fall Out Boy, Four Year Strong as well as the aforementioned bands continuing their work in the same or very similar genres. Kerrang! Magazine has become one that started to represent and cover content from genres similar to pop punk. From 2007 onwards, several bands have based their music on pop punk but have branched out to different geres in order to create their own music, these include A Day To Remember, You Me At Six, Mayday Parade, Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!, Bowling for Soup and Abandon All Ships. As a result, several new genres were born, and pop punk was becoming more popular.

4. Pop Punk Music Videos In 1999 Blink 182 has released Enema of the State, which has had three hit singles, “All the Small Things” which was intended to mock several at the time popular artists such as the Backstreet Boys and 98 Degrees. The music videos is still very popular and the single was number 1 US Modern Rock single. Blink 182 has also released two other very popular singles “What’s My Age Again” and “Adam’s Song” which were both number 2 singles. In 2001 Sum 41 has released their major label debut All Killer no Filler from which “Fat Lip”, “In Too Deep” and “Motivation” were very popular and have been hit singles on modern rock charts. The same year Blink 182 has released their new album Take Off Your Pants and Jacket which has included some of the most popular pop punk hit singles, “The Rock Show”, “First Date” and “Stay Together for the Kids”. The music video for “The Rock Show” was a very unique one and has become very popular amongst the fans and the audience of pop punk. The video consists of the band spending the money given to them by the recording company on random and silly things such as purchasing TVs just to smash up, throwing money on the street to the public, paying a lady in the barber’s shop to shave her head, purchasing doves so that they can dramatically release them, giving free skating equipment to teenagers and hiring a plane so that they can promote their latest album with a banner attached to the plane. In pop punk music videos, there is usually no use of any animations or CGI, however this is not always he case. Most music videos of this genre involve live action short stories along with the artist performing the song. A lot of the time the band is doing something considered silly or unconventional, such as smashing up a the set up (seen in “Thnks fr th mmrs” by Fall Out Boy and “Still Waiting” by Sum 41), or telling a story that is considered weird and unusual (seen in “First Date” by Blink 182 and “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race” by Fall Out Boy). In recent genres such as Easycore (my chosen band’s genre) the same conventions appear, although bands have branched out with their work in order to make videos their own.

5. Results Although I was quite familiar with the pop punk genre already, I have gathered a lot of useful information about the history and development of music videos. I have found notable examples and the most popular products throughout the development and I have also had an insight into how the industry got to where it is today and how it functions. I have also found out some information about some of the most popular singles in pop punk history and have revised some of the knowledge that I have known earlier. After conducting the research, I am reassured that I would like to do my work in the field of music videos, as it seems like something that I am interested in and something that I know decent amounts about in order to feel like I can make a solid start on my work once I get to it. I have also reassured myself that the genre of pop punk – easycore more specifically – is the genre that I would like to work in as I am quite familiar with quite a a lot of bands and music videos in this genre and I am genuinely interested in and enjoy music in this genre, which would make my work more enjoyable for more and perhaps mean that the outcome would be up to a higher standard.

6. Bibliography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_video http://www.youtube.com/user/TWDofficial http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easycore http://images.google.com/ http://www.youtube.com/user/chunknocaptainchunk