Comprehensively Explain The Purpose of Music Videos - Essay

Comprehensively Explain The Purpose of Music Videos

Purpose: The purpose of a music video is the short term struggle to remain relevant while long term to make money.

Kayne West recently released a music video showing waxworks of 12 celebrities naked in bed together. Why? Probably due to the fact it will help his recent album sales as nearly every pop culture news medium was talking about it. Due to everyone talking about it, everyone watched it. Due to everyone watching it, everyone heard the song. Due to everyone hearing the song, some then bought the album making Kanye money. Kanye has mastered this. While it isn't relevant to music videos he changed his new album title 3 times. It went from 'Swish' to 'Waves' to 'The Life Of Pablo'. Why? Because people spoke about it. Back on the subject of music videos Kanye released a video to 'Power' back in 2010 where he quite literally compares himself physically to God. He released a video to a song called 'Black Skinhead' with black males dressed in black KKK costumes. Why? People talk about it. He just dyed his hair blonde and the internet preceded to collectively lose its mind. I might just talk about Kanye for the rest of the essay. He can manipulate the media in order to increase buzz, increase views on videos and therefore increasing profits entering his bank account. He is a modern master of pop culture. He understands if a music video is done right it will make money.

Artists now employ film directors to direct their music videos. This then getting them more buzz meaning more profits. Spike Jonze for example before becoming one of the best and highly respected directors around with films such as 'Her' and 'Where The Wild Things Are' he directed music videos. 3 of his most known videos are the 'Beastie Boys - Sabotage' and the FatBoy Slim tracks 'Praise You', in which he stars in, and 'Weapon of Choice' featuring Hollywood heavyweight Christopher Walken. Putting the label which is Spike Jonze on your music video gives it more attention.

While music videos are mainly made to make money I believe some to be made because an artist wanted to make a piece of art to join the music video. A band called 'The XX recently released a music video for their new single 'On Hold'. It doesn't any controversy, Hollywood directors or imaginary parties. It just features them on tour enjoying each others company. If anything its a nice break from the usual system. As friends they made the music. As friends they made the video. It wasn't designed to make money and probably wasn't designed to increase the popularity of the band; its just quite nice. I like it when artists do this.

Some music videos are made to increase the value of the music. they can accompany the music almost like art creating a better experience all together. Videos like 'Radiohead - No Surprises'. An extremely sad song the video sees lead singer Thom Yorke nearly drown himself while filming. The camera sees his head in a tank slowly getting filmed with water until he's fully submerged. The water then releases toward the end of the video and he grasps for breath. You can see not only the pain but the relief he felt breathing in. This helps the music incredibly. It doesn't help it to tell a message just helps toward a particular feeling. For example in another Radiohead video sees lead Thom dancing to the music. Its nice, a happy feeling made through the audio and video together.

Some videos are made to prove something; black lives matter. This has been a constant source of controversy over the past few years. As it does follow Kanye and his skills of creating music videos that get people talking, Kayne only really does it because Kanye can. Any messages are dulled by the immaturity of the media.
Artists that have mastered this are Beyonce and Kendrick Lamar, to name a few. Both being superb artists individually without their video accompaniments, together with the power of moving image they have created music videos worth discussing regarding our social standpoints as a society (I understand there are issues including sexuality also however I will focus on race).
Beyonce is not only a powerful figure for women but now a voice for people under scrutiny because of the colour of their skin. Releasing 'Formation' saw a heavy backlash of people asking whether she was allowed to produce material like she has done and then waves of praise by people celebrating the fact she has made the material she has done. The video featured heavy imagery suggesting she had issues with the law, how the state control the recourses regarding aid and how black people are treated. Situated in Luisiana the video saw Beyonce basically revolt against all of these things through imagery. It worked. People started watching. People started talking. People started resolving.

Music videos are made for whatever reason the artists want them to be made for.