Influential Music Video Directors.

After researching some of the history behind music videos, I decided to look up some of the directors. I found a few directors that were commonly mentioned. The music video directors I found were:

• Michael Gondry
• Spike Jonze
• Hype Williams
• and Lars Sven "Lasse" Hallstrom

All the directors listed above were known for their unique style.

Michael Gondry

He is a French music video director and has also directed films and commercials. He has been a director from 1988- present day. He is well known for his visual style and use of Mise-en-scene. Below is a music video Hyperballad which he made for Bjork.

Amazingly, no post-production or editing was used on the video, except for colour correction transfer to video.

He also directed a music video called Dance Tonight for Paul McCartney in 2007 (shown below).




The song was also used for iPod and iTunes advertisements.




The video shows a black and white Paul Mccartney walking down a street which is animated and coulourful whilst performing the song.

Spike Jonze


He is an American music director of music videos, commercials and advertisements. He has co-founded Directors Label with Chris Cunningham and Michael Gondry. He has directed a music video for the rapper Biggie Smalls, Puff Daddy, Lil Kim and Faith Evans (shown below). It was shot in a mansion in the U.S.



Hype Williams

He is an American music and film director. He displayed his work by tagging billboards, the fronts of shops and playgrounds using the name HYPE. Many of his videos he has directed use multi - coloured settings due to his artistic roots. He has worked with artists such as:

• The Notorios B.I.G
• Craig Mack
• LL Cool J
• Nas
• Missy Elliott
• Busta Rhymes
• TLC
• Kelis
• and Jay-z

Williams style which is icluded in some videos but not all, is shots placed in regular widescreen frame whilst spaces which are usually left blank are filled of other shots.

He has won numerous awards for his work. These include:

MTV Music Award in the Best Rap video for Will Smiths Getting Jiggy With It in 1998.

He has also gone on to win a BET for Best Director for Kanye Wests Gold Digger in 2006. He was also awarded with a Video Vanguard Award for his acheivements. He has also directed:






Lars Sven "Lasse" Hallstrom

He is a Swedish film director. He made many music videos for the group Abba. After the international success of My Life as a Dog he has been working on American movies. Almost all of Abbas music videos were directed and shot by him.

The Internet Becomes Video Friendly: 1992- Present

"The internet has become the primary growth income market for record companies produced music videos.

IRC was the earliest form of internet sites which provided music videos. The videos were recorded off the televison and then changed them to .mpg files via IRC channels.



iFilm hosted short videos and music videos was launched in 1997 shortly followed by Napster which was a file sharing website. The site ran between 1991 and 2001. The site enabled people to access their favourite music videos and also to share them.



In 2005 YouTube was released. The site made it faster and easier to view. Some artists such as Soulja Boy have found success due to the site. Myspace's videos (launched in 2007) has also helped artists become well known and brought them success.



In 2007, The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) tried to prevent YouTube users from sharing videos due to royalties and becuase the songs were the property of music labels. Afeter YouTube merged with Google they assured the RIAA that they would be able to pay royalties to the major record labels.

iTunes provided music videos in high quality to be watched via the iTunes application. They have also begun selling music videos for iPods that have video playback capability.

Music Videos Go Mainstream: 1981- 91

The U.S video channel launched in 1981, showing the song Video Killed the Radio Star. This began an era of 24/7 music on television. Artists used this to their advantage because of the seductive appeal of their videos. Most notably for this were:

• Madonna


• Adam and the Ants


• and Mylene Farmer.
  

In this period, directors and artists began to explore and expand the form and style of their videos. They added a storyline, a plot or mixed film.

The most successful videos of this era was Michael Jacksons, Thriller. It set a new standard for productions. It cost $500,000 to film.

VH-1 (now known as VH1) was launched in 1985. MTV Europe was launched in 1987 and MTV Asia in 1991.

In 1986, Peter Gabriel's song Sledgehammer used special effects and animation. The video went on to be a success and win 9 MTV Video Music Awards.

Hip Hop music was brought to focus in 1988 when Yo! MTV Raps debuted.

Beginning of Music Television 1974-80

United Kingdom

Top of the Pops (TOTP) began showing music videos in the late 1970's. A good video would increase a song's sales as viewers hoped to see it again the next following week. In 1980 David Bowie scored his first UK number one with David Mallets promo for Ashes to Ashes.

In 1975, Queen made a promo video for their single Bohemian Rhapsody to show it on TOTP.

Pink Floyd The Wall transformed the group's 1979 double LP of the same title into a "confrontational and apocalyptic audio-visual labyrinth of stylized, expressionistic images, sounds, melodies and lyrics."

Impact of The Beatles

Musical sequences have influenced many templates on which promo clips and music video which have been modelled. It has exerted a huge influence on the style and visual voabulary of the genre. It was infact, the direct model for the successful US TV series The Monkees (1966-68).

In 1965, The Beatles made promo clips for distribution and broadcast in other countries in order to produce wider recognition so that they could promote their new releases without having to make appearances. This strategy was also used by other bands such as the Byrds.

In 1967, the colour promo clips Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane changed and took the promo film format to a new level.





They used reversed film and slow motion, dramatic lighting, unusual camera angles and colour filtering and added in post-production.

Their psychedelic mini-films illustrated the songs in an artful manner rather than an idealised performance or a narrative plot.

History of Music Video

Music videos kicked of in the 1980's when MTV and later were on VH1. Modern music videos are mainly used to market and promote the sale if music or a song recording. Before the term music video came into usage in the 1980's, they could be known as "filmed insert , promotional (promo) clip or film clip."

Music videos are made out of various styles of film making techniques. This can include:

• Animation,
• Live action filming,
• Documentaries and
• Abstract film.

Some music videos have chosen to blend different styles such as using both animation and live action filming.

1910-50's

Lee De Forest made musical short films between 1923 and 24. This was followed by thousands of vita phone (a short film process used on features) from 1926-30. Nearly 2,000 were produced by Warner Bros. Many featured bands, vocalists and dancers.

Oskar Fischinger produced animated films (also known as visual music) in the 1920's. They were supplied with ochestral scores. Some were also made and used to advertise Electra Records' new releases.

In 1929, the Russian Dziga Vertov made a 40 minute, Man with the Movie Camera. It was an experiment on filming real, actual events.

Sergei Einstein's 1938 film Alexandra Nevsky, used extended scenes of battle chorography that had been composed before shooting began, so that the scene could be edited in accordance with the music.

Max Fleischer was an animation artist who introduced a series of sing a long cartoons which invited audiences to sing along following a "bouncing ball". The Warner Bros. cartoons Loony Tunes and Merrie melodies were initially for upcoming Warner Bros. Musical films.

In the mid 1940's musician, Louis Jordan made short films for his songs. According to music historian, Donald Clarke, these were known as "the ancestors of music videos".

Promotional clips were made in the 1940's for the Panoram visual jukebox. They were usually just a band on a movie-set bandstand. Thousands of soundries were made, mostly by Jazz musicians. Even some movies had musical intervals. Jukeboxes were popular at pubs and nightspots.

Some music videos have imitated the style of classic Hollywood musicals from the 1930's-50's. One of the best known examples in Madonna's 1985 video Material Girl.

This music video was closely modelled to Diamonds are Girls Best Friend from the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Severall Michael Jackson video show dance sequences influenced by classical Hollywood musicalls. This included the famous Thriller video which at the time the most expensive video ever made.