1981–1991: Music videos go mainstream[edit]
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. Many important acts of this period, most notably
Adam and the Ants,
Duran Duran and
Madonna, owed a great deal of their success to the skillful construction and seductive appeal of their videos.
Two key innovations in the development of the modern music video were the development of relatively inexpensive and easy-to-use
video recording and editing equipment, and the development of visual effects created with techniques such as image
compositing.
[citation needed] The advent of high-quality color videotape recorders and portable video cameras coincided with the DIY ethos of the
new wave era,
[citation needed] enabling many pop acts to produce promotional videos quickly and cheaply, in comparison to the relatively high costs of using film. However, as the genre developed,
music video directors increasingly turned to 35 mm film as the preferred medium, while others mixed film and video. During the 1980s, music videos had become
de rigueur for most recording artists. The phenomenon was famously parodied by
BBC television comedy program
Not The Nine O'Clock News who produced a spoof music video "Nice Video, Shame About The Song". (The title was a spoof of a recent pop hit "Nice Legs, Shame About Her Face")
In this period, directors and the acts they worked with began to explore and expand the form and style of the genre, using more sophisticated effects in their videos, mixing film and video, and adding a storyline or plot to the music video. Occasionally videos were made in a
non-representational form, in which the musical artist was not shown. Because music videos are mainly intended to promote the artist, such videos are comparatively rare; three early 1980s examples are
Bruce Springsteen's "
Atlantic City", directed by
Arnold Levine,
David Mallet's video for
David Bowie and
Queen's "
Under Pressure", and
Ian Emes' video for
Duran Duran's "
The Chauffeur". One notable later example of the non-representational style is
Bill Konersman's innovative 1987 video for
Prince's "
Sign o' the Times"
[36] – influenced by Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" clip, it featured only the text of the song's lyrics.
In the early 1980s, music videos also began to explore political and social themes. Examples include the music videos for
David Bowie's "
China Girl" and "
Let's Dance" (1983) which both explored race issues.
[37] In a 1983 interview, Bowie spoke about the importance of using music videos in addressing social issues, "Let's try to use the video format as a platform for some kind of social observation, and not just waste it on trotting out and trying to enhance the public image of the singer involved".
[38]
In 1983, the most successful, influential and iconic music video of all time was released: the nearly 14-minute-long video for
Michael Jackson's song "
Thriller", directed by
John Landis. The video set new standards for production, having cost US$800,000 to film.
[39][40] The video for "Thriller", along with earlier videos by Jackson for his songs "
Billie Jean" and "
Beat It", were instrumental in getting music videos by
African American artists played on MTV. Prior to Jackson's success, videos by African-American artists were rarely played on MTV: according to MTV, this was because it initially conceived itself as a rock-music-oriented channel, although musician
Rick James was outspoken in his criticism of the cable channel, claiming in 1983 that MTV's refusal to air the music video for his song "
Super Freak" and clips by other African-American performers was "blatant racism".
[41] David Bowie had also previously lashed out against MTV during an interview that he did with them prior to the release of "Thriller", stating that he was "floored" by how much MTV neglected black artists, bringing attention to how the "few black artists that one does see" only appeared between 2:00 until 6:00 in the morning when nobody was watching.
[42]
In 1985, MTV launched the channel
VH1 (then known as "VH-1: Video Hits One"), featuring softer music, and meant to cater to the slightly older baby-boomer demographic who were out-growing MTV.
MTV Europe was launched in 1987, and
MTV Asia in 1991. Another important development in music videos was the launch of
The Chart Show on the UK's
Channel 4 in 1986. This was a program which consisted entirely of music videos (the only outlet many videos had on British TV at the time
[citation needed]), without presenters. Instead, the videos were linked by then state of the art
computer graphics. The show moved to
ITV in 1989.
The video for the 1985
Dire Straits song "
Money for Nothing" made pioneering use of computer animation, and helped make the song an international hit. The song itself was a wry comment on the music-video phenomenon, sung from the point of view of an appliance deliveryman both drawn to and repelled by the outlandish images and personalities that appeared on MTV. In 1986,
Peter Gabriel's song "
Sledgehammer" used special effects and animation techniques developed by British studio
Aardman Animation. The video for "Sledgehammer" would go on to be a phenomenal success
[44] and win nine MTV Video Music Awards.
1992–2004: Rise of the directors[edit]
In November 1992,
MTV began listing
directors with the artist and song credits, reflecting the fact that music videos had increasingly become an
auteur's medium. Directors such as
Chris Cunningham,
Michel Gondry,
Spike Jonze,
Floria Sigismondi,
[45] Stéphane Sednaoui,
Mark Romanek and
Hype Williams all got their start around this time; all brought a unique vision and style to the videos they directed. Some of these directors, including, Gondry, Jonze, Sigismondi,
[46] and
F. Gary Gray, went on to direct feature films. This continued a trend that had begun earlier with directors such as
Lasse Hallström and
David Fincher.
Two of the videos directed by Romanek in 1995 are notable for being two of the three
most expensive music videos of all time:
Michael and
Janet Jackson's "
Scream", which allegedly cost $7 million to produce, and Madonna's "
Bedtime Story", which cost a reported $5 million. From this, "Scream" is the most expensive video to date. In the mid to late 1990s,
Walter Stern directed "
Firestarter" by
The Prodigy, "
Bitter Sweet Symphony" by
The Verve, and "
Teardrop" by
Massive Attack.
[47][48] During this period, MTV launched channels around the world to show music videos produced in each local market:
MTV Latin America in 1993,
MTV India in 1996, and
MTV Mandarin in 1997, among others.
MTV2, originally called "M2" and meant to show more alternative and older music videos, debuted in 1996.
information from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_video