1.3 Research - The Growth of Music Videos

1941 - The Panoram Soundie hits the clubs and bars in the USA allowing people to watch short video clips whilst the music is playing.
1956 - Hollywood discovers the genre of music-centered films, Rock Around The Clock, Shake Rattle and Rock were some of the rock and roll videos that were made.
1960 - The Scopitone a reinvention of The Soundie was made in France which gained limited success.
1961 - Ricky Nelsons Travelin Man video was shown on television.
1962 - Top of the pops, Ready! Steady! Go! were two music shows invented in England which became huge hits.
1965 - Bob Dylan filmed Subterranean Homesick Blues with two alternative takes.
1966 - The first conceptual promos are aired for The Beatles, Paperback writer and Rain.
1967 - The Beatles ground-breaking promotional films for Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever.
are released.
1969 - Easy Rider features one of the first uses of rock music to accompany sequences in a dramatic film.
1970 - The record industry discovers these TV-Shows as a great opportunity to promote their artists. They focus on producing short Promos, early music videos which started to replace the live performance of the artist on the TV-stage.
1973 - The first of forty-six different Schoolhouse Rock music videos begin airing during Saturday morning cartoons on ABC.
1974 - Swedish group ABBA pioneer the use of "Promos" with their clips, directed by Lasse Hallström. These contain innovative effects, camera angles, and a less static look than is the norm at the time. The band continue using such videos throughout the 1970s.
1975 - Bohemian Rhapsody, a groundbreaking video released by Queen, marks the beginning of the video era and sets the language for the modern music video. The video is considered one of the first to use advanced video effects.
1979 - Devo releases The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprise, which is the first music video to include computer animation, as well as traditional animation.
- Another 1979 video with computer animation is Computer Games, by New Zealand band MiSex.
1980 - Ashes to Ashes, considered a groundbreaking video, is released by David Bowie.
1981 - MTV, the first 24-hour satellite music channel, launches in August. Initially few cable TV operators carry it, but it rapidly becomes a major hit and cultural icon.
1982 - Pink Floyd The Wall is released in theatres.
1983 - Night Tracks debuts on SuperStation WTBS (later known as TBS) with up to 14 hours of music videos each weekend
- This allows nearly all U.S. households with Cable TV to view music videos regularly, as MTV still isn't widely available at this point in time compared to WTBS.
- Friday Night Videos debuts on the NBC television network, allowing nearly all U.S. households to view music videos regularly. Michael Jackson's Billie Jean video is released on TV, and for the first time a black artist's video is featured in heavy rotation on MTV with the video for his Beat It hit single.
1984 - Laura Branigan's video for her hit song Self Control is refused airplay by MTV, who demand certain cuts be made to remove content they find objectionable.
- Prince releases the movie Purple Rain, and its soundtrack is nominated for an Oscar. The soundtrack album sells 15 million copies
- Michael Jackson's short film Thriller is released, changing the concept of music videos forever. The Making of Thriller home video is also released in 1984. It is the first ever video about the making of a music video and it becomes the best selling VHS to date.
- MTV presents its first Video Music Awards, hosted by Dan Aykroyd and Bette Midler.
- The Grammys award Best Short Form Music Video, as well as Best Long Form Music Video.
1985 - a-ha find instant stardom with their hit song Take On Me, significantly due to heavy rotation play of the song's video, which features a combination of live action and rotoscoping animation. The groundbreaking video wins several awards and is consistently rated as one of the best for decades to come.
- Madonna's video for her hit single Material Girl is released. It is largely based on Marilyn Monroe's performance of Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes A huge storm of interest explodes for the video. The video is considered one of the most memorable and always comes up in The Best Videos lists.
1986 - Sledgehammer, the groundbreaking video from Peter Gabriel, furthers the revival of animation in music video, utilizing stop-motion photography and winning several awards.
1989 - MTV renames its Video Vanguard Award the Michael Jackson Vanguard Award" in honor of the pop star's contributions to the art of music video.
- Madonna's controversial video for "Like a Prayer" is released.
1990 - MTV bans Madonna's Justify My Love video. It is released as a video single, the first of its kind.
- First 3D music video is produced: Love Can Build A Bridge starring country music superstars The Judds.
1991 - Nirvana release the Smells Like Teen Spirit video, catapulting Kurt Cobain and the grunge genre into the American and Worldwide mainstream.
- First use of the now-familiar morphing special effect in a music video, with Michael Jackson's Black or White.
- Garth Brooks' award-winning The Thunder Rolls is banned by CMT and TNN. Popular demand and critical acclaim force its return to the airwaves.
1992 - MTV begins to credit music video directors.
1995 - Release of the most expensive music video ever Scream, from Michael Jackson's History album, a duet with his sister Janet.
- TLC's video for their hit song Waterfalls becomes a groundbreaking video for Girl groups and received massive airplay on MTV.
1996 - Pop-up Video is first aired on VH1.
- M2 is launched as a 24-hour music video channel, as MTV has largely replaced videos with other content.
1999 - M2 is renamed to MTV2.
- Making the Video, a series chronicling the production of a music video, premieres on MTV.
2001 - Björk releases the video for Pagan Poetry which was controversial for its depictions of sexual acts and body piercings.
2002 - MTV Hits is launched, as MTV2 is gradually showing fewer music videos.
2007 - Musicbox is launched by Sony BMG. This online portal signifies the first free streaming effort owned and operated by a major label.
2008 - D videos are made by Dave Meyers and Missy Elliott for her single Ching-a-Ling / Björk also makes one for Wanderlust.

1.2 Research - Genre Comparative Study

Although both The Pussycat Dolls and Girls Aloud seem very different they have produced some music that fits in the same genre, the genre being pop. This is why I have decided to focus on these two bands to do my genre comparative study, the songs I will be comparing are Don't Cha by the Pussycat Dolls and Love Machine for Girls Aloud.

Girls Aloud appear to be more of a traditional girl band following the pop genre, they seem to target there music towards girls in there teenage years, obviously because of there beauty boys and men are attracted to them and therefore watch there music videos. However in comparison to Girls Aloud, The Pussycat Dolls are maybe a little more raunchy, in all there videos they are seen with very revealing clothes on, they add that little bit extra to there music videos, therefore with the provocative dancing and very few clothes they may target themselves to teenage girls like Girls Aloud however they may also try and aim themselves at men on purpose unlike Girls Aloud.

The video Love Machine shows Girls Aloud entering a night club all dressed up ready for a night out, there appearance is the usual appearance for the band, immaculate hair and make-up with clothing that doesn't reveal much but allows them to look sexy. Similarly to many of the bands videos there was the narrative part of the video and then the performing of the song, the girls are sat in the famous “Eskimo Club” drinking champagne flirting with the male waiters. During the individual performance of each girl singing the backdrop is black with flashing lights, however none of the other girls are in the shot allowing the singer to be in great focus. This then continues throughout the song allowing every band member to get a solo shot. Unlike the narrative the dancing in the actual performing of the song is very slow and very still. Throughout the video there are many long shots of the group, but when the girls are shot individually they are in close-up focusing just on the girls faces, with the background out of focus.

Don't Cha by the Pussycat Dolls was one of the first videos released by the band where we got to see exactly what PCD were about. Immediately we meet all the dolls, through the use of individual shots and group shots of them, unlike Girls Aloud they obviously are wearing revealing clothes and dancing provocatively for the male audience, no matter what scene it is during the video there is always more shots on the lead singer Nicole Sherzinger, she is the one shoot with Busta Rhymes and the one driving the buggy, which gives her the look of more power and greater importance in the band. The constant dancing through the video allows the girls to show of there individual talents until they all have to group dance, the pace of the song is matched by the pace of the video with the dancing and actions of the girls.

One of the biggest differences between the two videos is the way each band is portrayed, Girls Aloud come across as vulnerable and needy compared to the feisty Pussycat Dolls, PCD come across as a very confident independent girls, which is shown through there dancing and whole attitude through out the music video. Although both songs are from the pop genre they are both very different, the Love Machine video is more of a traditional girl band video with the pretty dresses and usual girl band dancing compared to the feisty attitude that the Pussycat Dolls bring in there video with there cut up clothes, PCD bring a different vide to the industry of pop, there a lot raunchier with there lyrics, clothing and dancing. The lyrics of Don't Cha fit in perfectly with the video, with the provocative lyrics to match the dance moves, the lyrics are trying to lure men in relationships to want the girls and as soon as they show some interest the Dolls aren't interested, they want to show how every man wants there girlfriend to be like them.

1.1 Research - 6 Stage Analysis

The chosen video I decided to analyse was “The Promise” by Girls Aloud, before I began to analyse the video I had a think about the conventions I expected to see in the video, I could do this because certain conventions are used throughout all the videos they have produced. This allows people to link Girls Aloud with certain things, allowing Girls Aloud to create a motif.

So before watching the video I decided that I would expect all 5 of the girls to be very glamorous looking with lots of make-up, nice hair and a few costume changes. I thought this because in every video they are never shown with no make-up, but portrayed as very glamorous sexy women. I also expected all 5 of them to wear similar things just with small difference for each girl, this is done throughout all there videos when the only difference may be the colour of the dress.

After watching the video I realised that the conventions for the band had been continued to yet another song, there hair was big and they did have similar outfits to one another with lots of make-up on, however I also saw them go against one of there biggest conventions I associate with Girls Aloud. Usually I believe they are portrayed as vulnerable needy women in the majority of there videos however I believe in this 1960's themed video they go against this and become quite independent. Following the 60's theme and the typical girl band conventions they do have big hair and make-up but following the 60's theme.

The video itself at the outdoor cinema and the fair ground rides continues to follow the 1960's theme, then like most of there videos there is a performance, this performance is when we see Girls Aloud become The Supremes. The big hair and tight fitting gold dresses has been related to a performance The Supremes did in very similar outfits. At the start of the video we see the band perform the song up on stage whilst the girls then watch, up on stage there is the band in the background however there faces aren't seen giving more emphasis on the girls whilst there singing. The quick change between the performance to the narrative depends on who is singing, whilst Sarah Harding is performing the video then cuts to the narrative of what she is doing allowing the audience see each individual person of the band perform as well the there narrative character.

Throughout the performance the dresses are shimmering which allows the video to jump from the performance to the narrative emulating the films of that time era. Similarly to all girl bands there is a dance to go along with the performance this is done by all 5 girls when the group are singing together however when someone starts to sing alone they don't perform the dance, this allows the audience to focus on either the singer or the rest of the girls depending on what they wanted to do, to link into making the singer stand out the focus on the 4 girls who are dancing and not singing becomes less obvious and instead focuses on the singer, the outlines of the other 4 dresses can be seen but there faces can't.

This all changes when Sarah Harding starts to sing her part and it shows her narrative character getting up and walking in front of the screen and standing and singing like the band are, after listening to the words and watching the video, I decided that “the promise” they made had something to do with men, the men in the car next to them are constantly flirting and being friendly and as the song goes on they start to realise that maybe they aren't that bad as it “starts to fade.”

By doing a video like they have, Girls Aloud have proven that they can come out of there comfort zone and perform a song that maybe doesn't follow there pop genre which has a video the exact same, this therefore should show that they can be different and sometimes it does work for bands to be different.