The purpose of music videos

In this post I will explore the purpose of the music video, and how in changing times, music videos have changed, and will continue to.

In short, music videos are created to aid the sales of a song. Since the birth of music television and therefore the growth of interest in the media in the late 70's, major record labels have seen to it that popular, or soon to be popular songs have been given music videos to promote the song. At this time, music television was seen as another way to promote a song, much in the same way as radio, but with the added element of video. This was soon exploited, so that the video part of the song was to be a form of advertising for the band, plastering motifs or faces of the band all over the video. Some videos choose to focus more on being more unconventional, and these sell themselves (and therefore the song) on how unique these are. Little has changed in this respect since then, but a mixture of new technologies and the popularity of a large range of genres and ideas within the industry has led to changes in nearly everything else. With the birth of the Internet, which has led to a more widespread popularity in other genres, which can all be easily and more conveniently viewed online, music television has been less and less popular, to the point where these channels only spend a few hours showing music videos, and focus more on other shows. It is fair to say that we have reached the end of the era of music television stations, in the same way that radio is also meeting its end, for the same reasons, although its deeper roots in society, as well as being a much more unique and convenient way of listening to new music than television mean that it will be several more years before conventional music radio dies.

This brings us into the current age of music videos. The purpose of the video is mainly unchanged, but audiences have grown bored with the generic staples attached to each genre of music, and so directors have branched out, leading to a much wider and more interesting range of videos, either simply making the old more explicit, re-writing the conventions, or doing something completely new and unexpected. With music television largely out of the picture, record labels have turned to online video sites such as Youtube and Myspace Video to market songs. This way, the video can still be used to advertise the band, although which band is advertised is no longer up to a higher power than the audiences - they can choose exactly what they want to see, and if not entertained by the video shown to them to promote a song, they will likely loose interest in both, and move on to another. In this sense, the importance of music videos has grown with competitive marketing. To solve this, sites are being paid to promote a video, so it appears on a homepage, for example. This is one of the two ways videos are being promoted. The other, is to rely on the less conventional, and more interesting videos, which often tell stories to make the audience think. This can be viewed as short films, and so are as such treated online, with the best receiving popularity from the community, and the others ignored. To appeal here, pop culture and unique or interesting ideas are being used, which has led to the music becoming less and less important to the video (videos such as "Windowlicker" by Aphex Twin have very long intros, where a story is introduced before the song begins). This divide in the two 'types' of video is sure to evolve in the future, as the online age becomes more and more dominant.

It is impossible to tell what will happen to the media in the near-future, with new technologies being release ever-regularly. However, in my opinion, music videos as we know them will fade in time, due to the lack of need for them in the online community. Record labels are simply tapping into the popular forms of media, and using them to promote their songs. It was once radio (which still has a specific purposes), and then television (which has far fewer), and is now the Internet. As the Internet gives us the opportunity to listen to music in the background, as well as listening to a visual take on the song, we are given the choice of what we want to listen to. With this, I find it less likely that the simple, "pretty picture" formula will stick, given the more interesting videos out there, and that these videos are simply not needed. The videos which branch out, and do something new, are interesting, and add a lot to the music, or create something completely new and interesting. The Internet has created the choice that the audience has always needed, and now the audience can choose what to do with their time, the interesting and innovative will always shine through.