Music Video

Introduction

A Music Video, sometimes is a visual aid that combines videos created for commercial or artistic objectives with a song or album. The main purpose of  Contemporary Music Videos is to enhance the sales of music records through their creation and usage as a tool for music marketing. These videos are mostly aired on Music-related Television Programs and on website that streams videos, including YouTube. Less frequently, they are shown in theaters. They are available for purchase as video albums or video singles for home video.
The phrase illustrated song, filmed insert, promotional film, promotional clip, promotional video, song video, film clip, video clip, or just video have all been used to describe the medium.

Even though Musical Short Films gained popularity as soon as recorded sound was added to theater screenings in the 1920s, it wasn't until Paramount Global's MTV developed its format around the medium in the 1980s that Music Video gained widespread recognition.

History of Music Videos

The introduction of "talkies" led to the production of several Musical Shorts.  Warner Bros. created Vitaphone Shorts with several bands, singers, and dancers. A modern-day karaoke machine resembled the "bouncing ball" that animation artist  Max Fleischer created in his Sing Along Short Cartoon Series, Screen Songs. The audience was asked to join in on popular songs by following the bouncing ball.

In the early days of cartoons, prominent singers would perform their hit songs live on camera between cartoon breaks. Walt Disney's Early Animated Films, including the Silly Symphonies Cartoons and, most notably, Fantasia, which included several renditions of classical works, was centered upon the music. At first, the Warner Bros. Cartoons—which are still referred to as Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies today—were designed around certain songs from future musical Warner Bros. Films. Additionally,  Live-Action Musical Shorts with well-known performers like Cab Calloway and his Band were shown in cinemas.

A music video's style was also greatly influenced by Musical Films, of which there are many well-known examples. These films were produced in the 1930s through the 1950s. One of the most well-known instances is the 1985 Mary Lambert-directed music video for Material Girl -Madonna (2013), which was heavily influenced by Jack Cole's rendition of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" from the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Several videos featuring Michael Jackson also clearly demonstrate the dance routines from Classic Hollywood Musicals.

Bands with the power to pull it off—the Beatles, above all—had started replacing live TV appearances with video clips in the late 1960s, and a decade later, bands shunned by traditional media—punks, above all—were among the first to realize the form could be used as an agitprop and a sales pitch. However, it wasn't until 1981, with the launch of MTV (Music Television), that music videos became a nearly essential tool for song promotion. The Beatles also provided their artistic basis through A Hard Day's Night and Help!, whose director Richard Lester liberated music on film from even a loose subordination to storyline or context, substituting Silent-Movie Antics with a new purpose of celebrating an attitude.

As the 1970s drew to a conclusion, music videos started to air on television more often throughout several nations. For instance, the music videos were intercut into different shows or shown in Weekly Music Programs. During the late 1970s, music videos were aired on terrestrial networks in the United States on programs such as Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, The Midnight Special, and infrequently on talk shows.

Mainstream Music Videos

The creation of visually striking effects using methods like picture compositing and the introduction of reasonably priced, user-friendly video recording and editing technology were two major advances in the evolution of the Modern Music Video. When high-end color videotape recorders and portable video cameras appeared, many pop groups were able to create promotional films more rapidly and affordably than they could have with film, especially considering the comparatively high expense of utilizing film. This was in line with the DIY mentality of the new wave era.

During this time,  filmmakers and the performers they collaborated with started to explore and develop the genre's form and style. They did this by incorporating film and video, employing more complex effects, and giving the music videos a narrative or plot. There were occasionally non-representational videos created without the musical performer visible.

Bill Konersman's avant-garde 1987 video for Prince's "Sign o' the Times" is a noteworthy example of the non-representational approach. It was inspired by Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" clip and contained just the song's lyrics.

Streaming of Music Videos at Present:

Around 2006, when television shifted to the internet and sites featuring user-generated content became more popular, Independent Filmmakers started to record live sessions for their films to be seen online. Vincent Moon's work with The Take-Away Shows, In the Van Sessions, a platform similar to this one, and the Dutch VPRO 3VOOR12, which releases  Music Videos shot in elevators and other small, guerilla filmmaking-type locations in a similar tradition called behind, are examples of this new way of creating and presenting a music video. These quickly shot video pieces are all produced on a shoestring, with visuals reminiscent of the Early Nineties lo-fi Music trend. Originally the sole way for obscure  Indie film musicians to get their name out there, it provided a way out of the increasingly onerous cost constraints of elaborate movie-style clips.

In the late 2010s, some artists began releasing alternative vertical videos tailored to mobile devices in addition to music videos. These vertical videos are generally platform-exclusive. They are often shown on Snapchat's "Discover" section or within Spotify playlists.

A Lyric Video is a kind of music video where the song's lyrics serve as the main focal point. Because of this, they are quite simple to make and frequently act as an addition to a more conventional music video. The 2010s saw a rise in the popularity of lyric videos as artists found it easier and easier to distribute their videos on platforms like YouTube.

Commercial Release of Music Videos

Music Video Album:

Commercial releases of music videos have been made available on tangible media including DVD, Blu-ray, LaserDisc, and VHS. A Music Video Album is a long-form publication that includes several music videos on a disc, much like an audio album. Compared to audio albums and audio singles, the market for video albums is far lower. One of the early video albums was Eat to the Beat (1980) by American Rock Band Blondi.

Music Video Single:

A Music Video Single is limited to three music videos on a DVD, LaserDisc, or VHS. The Human League, a British synthpop group, released The Human League Video Single, first commercial video single, on VHS and Betamax in 1983.

Unofficial Music Videos:

Unofficial, Fan-made Music Videos are usually created by tying the song's existing material from other media, such as Movies or Television Shows, together. Kandy Fong made the first known fan video, or songvid, in 1975 by putting still photos from Star Trek into a slide carousel and playing the music along with it. Videocassette recorder-produced fan videos quickly followed. With the advent of easy distribution over the internet and cheap video-editing software, fan-created videos began to gain wider notice in the late 1990s.

A well-known example of an unauthorized video is the one created for Danger Mouse's illegal mashup of the Jay-Z song "Encore" from his The Grey Album, which features music sampled from the Beatles' White Album. The video combines hip-hop dancers and concert footage of the Beatles with Jay-Z.

The band Placebo received a claymation movie that a South African fan produced for the song "English Summer Rain" in 2004. They were so pleased with the outcome that they put it on their DVD of best hits. A Flash animation for the Beatles song "Come Together" was featured on The Beatles Blu-ray disc in 2016.