The Purpose of the Music Video

Precursors to music videos first appeared in the 40’s in the USA in clubs where they had a jukebox called the Panoram Soundie that played short videos along with the selected music track.

In the 50’s music films became popular such as the movies made by Elvis Presley.

In the 60’s, British television created music shows such as Top of the Pops (BBC) and Ready Steady Go! (ITV).

In the late 60's Easy Rider became one of the first films to use rock music to accompany dramatic film sequences.

In the 70’s Queen’s video for Bohemian Rhapsody, being one of the first to feature advanced video effects, helped pave the way for the modern music videos we see today.

In 1984 Michael Jackson released the revolutionary "music video" for Thriller, which was a 13 minute short horror film directed by John Landis.

Artist Promotion

“Year 3000” was the fifth song made by pop rock, pop punk trio Busted for their self-titled album, the accompanying music video is very different to the videos for their other songs as it contains a lot of self-promotion compared to their other videos. In the music video for “Year 3000” by Busted, the band promote themselves in many different ways. First off, almost straight away we see their signature “jump”.  We’re also introduced to the bands main style, which was a kind of teen, sixth form, pop-punk style, with a lot of hair products.

 We also see them each playing their signature instruments, the 3 of them on vocals, James and Charlie on Electric Guitar, and Matt on Bass.

Another way they promote themselves is at several points in the video we see their name, first on the number plate of the car, then we see 3 women in Busted branded attire.

Whilst they travel through the city the band encounter a billboard with their future selves on it below the name Busted.

Then when they reach the gig venue a sign outside says “Busted Live Tonight”

Then when they lock their “future” selves in their backstage room we see a sign saying “Busted” with 3 stars above it. The main way the band promote themselves in the video is that they are present throughout the video, starting off playing in their room, and after a journey to the future, finishing off playing a gig on stage with a large crowd.

At the end of the video we once again see the band’s signature jump, which turns into their logo.
In the majority of other music videos for their songs the only self-promotion they use is themselves playing/performing and their signature styles. For example, the music video for their first song “What I go to School For”, features them performing the song dressed in their school uniforms which have been altered to reflect a kind of rebellious pop punk image.

Producer Strategies

The strategies used by producers on music videos depends very much on the artist(s) popularity and how well known they are. A mainstream artist that is known worldwide will most likely be signed with one of the major record labels which consist of Sony, Universal and Warner.
These labels will put lots of effort and resources into their artists, for their albums, music videos etc... as they know they will get a return from their investment. To make sure they get a return on their investments most major labels will only sign artists with the most reach in terms of their music genre such as main stream big-name pop artists like Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. Artists signed to major labels, though they have access to more resources from their label, they find the Major label will often interfere in their work by changing/editing/censoring songs and videos.

Artists with less mainstream sounds are more likely to be signed under Independent labels, as these artists' reach a more select demographic audience with their genres such as Punk Rock, Pop Rock, Pop Punk etc... Artists signed to Independent ("Indie") Labels don't receive as much in resource terms as those signed to the major labels, however they do get a higher percentage cut of their profits as well as more room to do what they want without as much interference with the Label.

Due to Social Media and platforms such as YouTube artists that were completely unattached to any Label started to become more frequent. These artists would have to fund music videos etc... by themselves and would be able to distribute their work on sites such as YouTube and as well to social media sites like Facebook.

Extension of Outlets and Income

Artists/Record labels use a range of different outlets and platforms to release their work, the song alone will be aired on the radio, Itunes/Google Music store and Streaming sites/apps such as Spotify. Music Videos will also be available on Itunes/Google Music store as well as on TV and platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo. With most of these outlets the Record label will be payed a fee or royalties which will get split between them and the artist however this is not always the case as once the music video has been uploaded others will record and re-upload it for their own gain, in this case the money made will go to the illegal re-uploader not to the record label or the artist.

YouTube:

Itunes:

Google Play Music:

Amazon Prime Music:

Synergy

Synergy is where companies use other products to promote their own product. In the film industry there are several ways they do this that include licencing characters to be used on other products, this promotes the film as well as the product using the characters, this method of synergistic marketing is at its best when used for films and products aimed at younger audiences as they will see their favourite characters on the product and want it. As well as this another way is if the film used original music, to release the music in a soundtrack. Another way would be to hire/commission one or more artists to make/record one or more songs for a film an example of this was in 2004 punk pop/pop rock boy band, Busted, were hired to record the theme for the live action feature film Thunderbirds.

The song was used at the end of the film but was also released as a single by Busted with a Music video produced by Universal the bands label through being the Parent company of Island Records Busted's official signed Label.

At the start of the video we see Busted doing a slow-mo hero walk in "spacesuits" similar to the ones worn by the characters in the film, whilst a male voice counts down from 5 before saying "Thunderbirds Are Go" a phrase from the film and other Thunderbirds material.

For the majority of the video we see the band performing the song on one of the Thunderbirds film sets (the control room) inter-cut with scenes from the film as well as them "goofing" around on the set.

The lyrics of the song also directly reference the film (and other Thunderbirds material) such as "it always looks so cool when spaceships come out of the pool" and "'Cause now the boys are back it town, no strings to hold them down" the former line referencing the fact that Thunderbird 1 is hidden under and launched via the pool, and the latter line referencing that in the original TV series etc... the characters had strings (they were marionettes) but in this film they're live action characters. Thunderbirds used synergy in other ways than just through the deal with Busted, the film was also marketed with a range of child-aimed merchandise. One example of synergy is that they sold a box of merchandise which included stickers, character bookmarks, toys of the Thunderbird machines, and it also came with the DVD itself. (I owned this)

Another example is they sold branded backpacks, and even dress-up International Rescue costumes which looked like the 2004 film costumes rather than from previous material. (Though I cannot find a picture of the 2004 costume versions I know did existed as I owned one, it was silver with gold piping trim, which was the colour code for Thunderbird 5 (the one that orbits the earth)). Another branch of merchandise were action figures as well as toy and model ships and Tracy Island play-sets etc....
With the Thunderbird's case in-particular the Band benefited the most from this marketing deal as they shot straight to Number One on the charts with their "Thunderbirds" Single, the film on the other hand was a complete bomb at the box office which was attributed to the film being quite unfaithful to the original Thunderbirds material.

Conclusion

Why Are Music Videos So Popular?

Music videos are so popular as they are so widely available and help give an extra dimension to both the music and the artist(s). (Most) Music videos allow us to see in full glory the artists that we spend all day, singing along to/playing air-guitar to/headbanging to etc.. It gives us that extra connection to them since they become real relatable people instead just being faceless voices on the radio. To the band/artist it gives them different methods of expression, such as through their style, their actions, their representation of the world we live in, not just in sound but in image which is just as powerful.