The Purpose of Music Videos

Videos have been used as an accompaniment to music since the invention of the Panoram Soundie, in 1941. Since then, the development of the music video has progressed, notably, throughout the decades, starting with the musical themed films of the 50s. The early 60s heralded the dawn of the British music chart shows, such as Top of the Pops, and American television soon followed suit. In 1975, Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody sets the bar for modern music videos, introducing visual effects which were ground-breaking for the time. The 80s made way for further development, beginning with the launch of the ever-popular television channel MTV and many top quality music videos were released throughout this decade. The 2000s bring forth a new opportunity for musicians, with the creation of video distribution platforms, such as YouTube and Vimeo, which still provide even the smallest of artists access to distribution and recognition. The purpose of this essay is to discuss the purpose music videos and the means at which these goals can be achieved.

Producer strategies are the means at which a creator strives to release their product to an audience. An artist will use their video as a means to broadcast their art to their audience and even further afield, to people interested in similar music genres or even people wishing to broaded their musical interests. By having an identifiable icon or logo, the band or artist can form an image that fans and the general population can associate with their music, such as Bulletproof Bombs graffiti logo, in the music video for Suitcase. Bands such as Gorillaz use music videos to make their image or gimmicks known, and became popular very quickly due to them. Gorillaz use a unique animation style to create an identifiable and image that intrigues a prospective audience. The fact that the band members consist of 4 entirely virtual characters and a famous comic book artist and the lead singer of an incredibly popular BritPop band adds to the allure, as this lineup - along with their alternative broadcasting style - is completely unique to this band. Artists also may decide to use a specific director, due to the fame of director and the publicity gained from their popularity and previous exploits. Lady gaga often chooses well-known individuals from the artistic sector to direct her music videos, such as photographer Nick Knight, who worked on the video for Born This Way. She also selected famous director Francis Lawrence for her Bad Romance music video, because of his involvement in the film I Am Legend and her admiration for Will Smith.

Different artists use different production methods in order to attract the right audience and maintain their image. Mainstream artists, such as Beyonce, have a large fan base but less control over what they produce, due to the control their record label has. Although the label can provide them with abundant funding, the artist will need to appeal to the wider target audience and must keep up an appropriate appearance for the diverse following. This would mean that broadcasting through television, on channels such as MTV or MTV2, would be a popular choice for mainstream artists. The YouTube channel Vevo uploads many popular mainstream musicians' videos and is one of the most popular forums for mainstream music publication.
Independent artists are more likely to have less funding, due to either not belonging to a record label or, at least, not a well known one. They also have a more specific or niche audience and their videos, due to the lower budget, would most likely have a more rustic, unpolished or homemade appeal to them. These types of music videos are most likely to be featured on the artist's personal website, social media or YouTube channel or on any of their independent record label's websites or social media. Self-producing artists, like Area 11, have only their own funding and resources available, in order to broadcast their videos to their audience. Although they don't have the financial support from a record label, this also means the artist has the most control over the creative content. You will most commonly find self-producing artists' music videos on sites such as SoundCloud or YouTube.

Extension of income is the concept that, even though the track may have been released years prior, the artist (and their record label if they have one) still gets the opportunity for income, in the form of royalties, every time their song is played or the video is aired. Access to these royalties has become easier over the years, as music has spread from radio, to television and to the internet, with billions of people accessing this media every day. When an artist's audience initially came from solely audio, the ability for people to put images to the music created an innovative method of gaining income and publicity, which was only further accelerated by the ever-developing platforms upon which people can view these music videos. Now, there are many outlets available, including many varying music television channels, which broadcast 24/7 and publicly accessible sites, most notably YouTube and SoundCloud, which can be accessed whenever and wherever, globally.

Synergistic marketing is the method at which artists and  record labels can collaborate in order to increase each others popularity through association. Whenever a product is featured in a music video, like the Beats Pill featured in Miley Cyrus' music video for her song We Can't Stop, it creates a mental link for the audience and creates a association between this product, the popular artist and their song. Often, the artist and label are paid to feature this product, along with being given samples, and the company then gets a boost is sales, due to this form of promotional adverting. Seeing your favourite artist with a fancy new product is likely to cause the audience to desire it, in order to appear high class and fashionable.


To conclude, music videos offer an insight into an artist's message that may not be able to be offered by audio alone. The choice to have a popular director can spur on the growth in popularity of an artist, likewise, if they use a unique gimmick or image. They can be used for extending the target audience, depending upon what platform the artist decides to upload on and are a key source of income for many musicians. Marketing within the videos can add to the artist's image and popularity also, but this should not overwhelm the video, so much as it just becomes a glorified advertisement.