Why videos?

Why Videos? The need for the music video

A music video is used to promote a single song. Music videos use a wide variety of styles some including the artist and some not. In the video of Chris Parr (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3XEWnEgSv4 ) talking about the importance of music videos; he talks about how by creating a music video you are visually attracting consumers. Chris Parr says “a lot of people who may not have grown up listening to country music or find themselves searching it out, music videos are an entry point” By saying this he is pointing out that by creating a music video not only is it promoting the artist but the genre of the song; for example you could ask someone if they listening to a country music they may say no but if you asked them if they liked listening to country artists like Carrie Underwood they may say yes, they are most likely to have learnt who the artist was through the promotion of their music video.

The purpose of a music video is mainly to promote the artist and to extend their income. The video would promote the artist as it will allow the consumer to learn about the artist and adapt to their visual appearance as well as their music. The video will extend the artist income as consumers will also buy the video as well as the song if they enjoy it. If the music video is popular then the audience may be drawn more towards the song because they like the video. Some videos are used to promote the artist; some videos are created by filming the artist this would mainly be used if it is a new upcoming artist who the audience are trying to get to know, for example in Cheryl Cole first solo single ‘fight for this

love’ the video focused on her throughout, however if the artist is well known or has a more hidden identity then the video may be based on a storyline and may not feature the artist as much, for example in the video for Ed Sheerans ‘A Team’ he is not feature throughout however a story relatable to the song is told. Video’s that contain the artist themselves can make the artist highly popular

due to what the video contains, how the artist acts or how they dress. In some cases the video can be disliked by the fans of the artist and can bring down the sales for the artist, for example in Britney Spears’ come back single ‘Gimme More’ the reaction to the video was that the video ruined the song and the image of the artist, it changed the fans perception of the artist and due to this she lost fans and sales.

By the artist choosing to let MTV and other music channels play there music video they are gaining income as the music channels are promoting the video and single which the fans will then go out or online to buy. By having the video on the music channels it is also allows the audience to view the charts such as the top 40, and see how high the video and single are on the charts.

Some singles have been created for the use in TV, Film or an advert, in cases where the song has been created for TV or Film the music video is generated using clips from the relevant programme or film, however when a song is created or used in an advert the music video may feature the product but would not be used to create the video. For example, the

song ‘sky fall’ by Adele was created for the use in James Bond Sky fall, therefore when the video was created it used clips from the video this does not only promote the song but the movie that the song has been created for. When a song is used in advert the music video is rarely linked to the product being advertised. However the use of a song in a well-known advert can boost the sales of the single for the artist and the role can be

reversed if the song is highly popular then the use of it on an advert can boost the sales of the advertising product; for example for the I-Pod advert the song ‘Yeah Yeah’ by Willy Moon was used and within days the sales of the song where boosted for willy moon, in the reversed role in the advert for Dr Dre Beats the used the song ‘scream and shout’ by Will.i.am and Britney Spears which at the time was in the top 5 single charts, this helped boost sales of both the song and the advertising product. An example of a TV show that made a single song highly popular is ‘I’ll be there for you’ by The Rembrandts, when this single was released as the theme song for the television show friends, it was written as a 1 minute theme tune however after high popularity and demand the artists extended the song by adding more verses and re-released the song, it became world famous and stayed at the position of 17 for 8weeks in the US billboard hot 100, and came 3rd in the UK top 40 charts, the song is still one of the most popular theme tune worldwide. The music video for the song included the cast of ‘FRIENDS’ so that the song could be linked to the programme and people would know where it had come from.