Music Video Function

How does music video function as a marketing and promotion tool within the popular music
industry? How important is video? Did video kill the radio star?

The media is so diverese in the 21st century we can do almost anything with our diverse technology.Music videos are the most powerful marketing tool to help artists showcase their talent and uniqueness. A music video can also spawn buzz in the industry and help musicians gain exposure. The music video has progressed over time and now has become the most successful marketing tool in promoting artists. For example 'Odd Future' have many music videos expressing their idenitity by 'Tyler The Creator' doing bizzare things such as eating a cockroach and throwing up in his music videos. Music videos are a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Obviously the music video is going to be a powerful marketing tool as it can advertise on many different mediums e.g. TV, Internet, billboards which then attracts a mass of people where they can then share the video and the arists can become recognisable over night.

1926-1959 - The era of Talkies, soundies and Shorties
In the early period of 1920s many musical short films were produced.

1960 - 1973 - Promotional clips and others
In the late 1950s the Scopitone, a visual jukebox, was invented in France and short films were produced by many French artists, such as Serge Gainsbourg, Françoise Hardy, Jacques Brel, and Jacques Dutronc to accompany their songs

1974-1980 - The long bristsh Tv hit show Top of The Pops  began playing music videos in the late 1970s, although the BBC placed strict limits on the number of 'outsourced' videos TOTP could use. Therefore a good video would increase a song's sales as viewers hoped to see it again the following week.In 1980, David Bowie scored his first UK number one in nearly a decade thanks to director David Mallet's eye catching promo for "Ashes to Ashes"

1981-1991 - Music Videos go mainstream
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. MTV has now 24 hour music videos everyday. In 1983, one of the most successful, influential and iconic music videos of all time was released: the nearly 14-minute-long video for Michael Jackson's song "Thriller", directed by John Landis. On March 5, 1983, Country Music Television, or CMT, was launched,^[31created and founded by Glenn D. Daniels and uplinked from the Video World Productions facility in Hendersonville, Tennessee

Music videos are the key to all advertisement of Artists. As an audience we enagage in the Arists life and look at their persona shown in their music videos. The video is the most important as it is the visual stimulus which makes us decide whether we like this person based on Apperance voice and character.