The Purpose of the Music Video

The music video is a unique and mysterious art that hasn't actually been around for too long compared to other forms of moving image text. They only really became what we know them to be today in 1975 when Queen released a video for their song Bohemian Rhapsody, the first proper music video.



This isn't to say music and film hadn't mixed before then - in the 50's we had various musicals and 'rock n' roll' films like Shake, The Girl Can't Help It and Rock Around the Clock, and then music TV like our own Top of the Pops and America's equivalents like American Bandstand. Since then, the music video has grown into a real cornerstone of the industry, and an invaluable part of an artist's identity as a musician. Nowadays people can watch most any music video they want free of charge on websites like YouTube, completely legally.

So how come they're so popular? What do they do? Well, one thing that they do is provide decent promotion for not just the band itself, but also the director of the video.

Of course the artist has a lot of potential exposure through having a video for their single (Then it can be shown on TV and online as well as just the radio, not to mention the word-of-mouth attention it might get if it's unique and interesting), but it's a great way for a budding filmmaker to get some real work and get their name out there, especially if the video does well.

Take, for instance, EDM powerhouse Savant. He doesn't have too many music videos for his songs, but he asked budding YouTube filmmaker Mike Diva to make a video for his song Kali 47. After a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign the video was released a year and a half later. This is good for both parties because Savant as an artist gets more exposure from having a full video on popular channels like UKF and so on; and Mike Diva gets more exposure and promotion from fans of Savant's music and also through being promoted on the same YouTube channels.



There are also directors out there who initially found fame doing music videos. Jonas Åkerlund in particular was initially a drummer in a band, but later became more well-known for directing videos, one of the most notable being The Prodigy's 'Smack My Bitch Up':


For big artists nowadays, it's important to have music videos as part of a strong album campaign to keep them relevant in an increasingly competitive and changing industry.

But how do big-money global artists' music videos differ from those smaller, lesser-known ones? Well, big artists like, say, Taylor Swift are already well-known, so what purpose do their videos fulfil? They're there to maintain the artist's image. Here's Swift's video for Shake It Off:



With these types of artists it's important to keep in mind that they'll have teams of PR and publicity people behind them making sure that this 'image' is clearly defined and maintained.  In Taylor Swift's case, her whole 'schtick' is based on her being down-to-earth and relatable to fans, and this is shown throughout the video. We see her in numerous different sets and scenarios with professional dancers, but she's not demonstrating any particular dancing skill; she's just trying to keep up. The whole fact that she is shown as being off-guard and messing around all serves to maintain that image of being a 'regular person' like everyone else.

Big artists like Taylor Swift can be found on YouTube, but also their fame gets them airplay on music TV networks like MTV.

But what about the smaller artists? The people who make their music in their bedrooms, with just a guitar or their laptop? The independently produced/released artists? Their main aim is to become more widely recognized, and to stand out from the ocean of other people looking for the same thing.

So, as a result, these smaller artists strive for creativity. And, if done well (and with a bit of luck) they can get skyrocketed into popularity from a successful music video. Take, for example, Russian indie rock troupe Biting Elbows. They were relatively unknown until their video for 'The Stampede' was released, at which point it got extensive coverage from online news sources and became 'viral' on social media platforms. So much so, that they made another higher-budget video that continued the story, and are now in the process of wrapping a feature film shot in a similar style.



Typically these sorts of videos are made on a shoestring budget and have to resort to creativity and 'thinking outside the box' in order to stand out. As a result of their budget, they aren't usually found on bigger networks like MTV or Kerrang!, but they can be found on YouTube.

Another thing typical of the smaller artists in the scene is that they sometimes make their own videos. A good example of this is Swedish band Rymdreglage, who animate all their videos themselves. Here's '8-bit Trip':



A good thing about making your own videos as a smaller artist is that it's cheaper, and you wouldn't have to outsource a professional to make the video for you. Another good thing about it is that it can be a much more personal product, which is good if you want to make it more artistically inclined.

A good example of an 'artistic' video is the one for Chet Faker's 'Talk Is Cheap':



This video isn't just there to sell the song - it's there because it's a visual product in its own right, and as such it is its own work of art.

Aside from just looking nice, sometimes videos are there to convey a message.



This fan video for Ratatat's 'Seventeen Years' is a prime example of this. It's dripping with pro-environment ideals and really hammers home the whole 'save the environment' message.

Adding to this, going back to Chet Faker for a second - the Talk Is Cheap video also conveys a pretty strong message about mortality and the fleetingness of human life, and how it fits into the world around us.

The process of actually making money from music videos is a difficult and convoluted one these days. I didn't pay any money to bring those ones up there to my blog. And you didn't pay anything to watch them. Where does the money come from?

Before the days of YouTube the only way music videos could really get broadcast is through getting airplay on MTV and the like. How that works is that whenever a video is played, that artist receives royalties from MTV for using their product. Nowadays, on YouTube, a similar thing occurs, but the money comes from Google, who give certain video content producers money based on how many views they get (and by extension, adverts served).

The point is, it's important for networks like TV and radio to make a return themselves, without running themselves into the ground with royalty payments. So, it's important for them to make sure that a lot of people will be listening. So, they need to make sure they're playing content they know people will like.

This is the main reason that lesser-known artists don't get played so much on TV or the radio - it would be considered too much of a risk by those networks. A better option to make money for smaller artists would be to sell their own music through other avenues like Bandcamp or iTunes.

There are few 'media outlets' in play when it comes to music:

 - Streaming services (Spotify, YouTube, VEVO, Google Play Music All Access, Apple Music)

 - Online stores (iTunes, Bandcamp)

 - Radio (BBC Radio 1~6, Heart, Kiss)

 - TV (MTV, VH1, Kerrang!)

That's a much larger amount than there was 30 years ago. Especially for music videos. This can be a problem in multiple ways, for multiple people. We as the audience are lost and saturated in all these different choices and venues, and the artists themselves might get lost and unnoticed in the sea of content.

Another thing (typically big) artists can do to capitalize upon their craft is 'synergise' with commercial partners. This just means that they strike up a deal with one another, that one party will promote the other's product if the other does the same. A pretty steadfast example of this is that sometimes an artist will be commissioned to write and record a song for a film. More times than not, that song's video will allude to the film in more than a subtle way. Case in point for Pharrell Williams and his song 'Happy', which was part of the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack:



Actually a more subtle example than most, this video features the Minion characters from the film. So, the music video is promoting the movie, and through virtue of the song being in the movie, the movie supports the song too.

I think the music video as a whole is an invaluable tool to an artist to expand and grow their fanbase, and also to reach out creatively. They're popular because they allow another avenue for the audience to get inside the artist's head creatively (admittedly more so if it's a smaller artist), it's another representation for what they stand for in their craft. They also allow more ways for artists to stay afloat financially and make more money.