Reflecting back on the AS year

SUMMER LESSONS REFLECTION


From the summer lessons in June we discussed what we thought Music videos were; it's role and purpose. From that I learnt that Music videos are short films produced to give the audience visual pleasure which is one of the main purposes as well as as being a promotion to a song and album. The idea of music videos creating visual pleasure is effective as makes the viewers gain interest, which can make them to re watch and share.

Music videos tend to vary- a wide range of styles and techniques such as uses of animation, live action filming and documentaries, because of this the target audience also differs depending on the music genres.

To help us understand the history behind music videos we watched various videos and then discussed the differences and similarities. Music videos were produced first in the late 60s; characters, storyline, a short film almost and with singing/dancing. It was more appealing to the viewers and to the artist easier to sell, advertise and promote their song/album. Music videos are very effective as they can be easily accessed via social networks/sites; YouTube.

                                                     
One of the videos we watched as a class was Michael Jackson- Thriller. Despite the music video being released in 1982  it was a huge development in comparison to previous music videos aired on MTV such as Video killed the radio star- The Buggles.








Thriller was made on a $500,000 budget and was unusually long-14 minutes. I think because of the length of the video it may have been the producers intentions of presenting it as almost like a short horror film and this effectively sustaining the viewers interest. 

Thriller proved that it was a worldwide/international success and some could argue that it was because of the then popular genre; horror and romance, hence the two merging effectively together. Thriller aslo helped Jackson to receive a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. Till today some would also consider it to be one of the greatest music videos of all time.

 

MTV

MTV ; a Music Television channel, was first launched in August 21st 1981 at 12:01 am. MTV helped audiences to visualise songs as well as for artists to showcase their videos to promote. It worked effectively as it also helped usher a pop culture phenomenom and with that MTV changed the way music was consumed- audio and vision.