MTV - Creating need for Music Video's

MTV is an american networked based in New York City and it was first established on August 1st, 1981. MTV Networks is the world’s most-watched television network and the leading multimedia brand for youth. It was originally created to show music videos but now it features music, fashion and lifestyle to attitudes, politics, news and trends. It has 166 channels and 350 digital media properties reaching more than 578 million households in 162 countries worldwide. This shows how quick this channel has evolved and also shows that media has a big impact on peoples life as more and more started watching it. The first images shown on MTV were a montage of the Apollo 11 moon landing.





The 1st video ever to be played on MTV was by 'The Buggies - Video Killed The Radio Star'. The name says it for itself, that video has taken over radio and the fact that they say "Killed", it shows that it has taken over forever. Even in the video, it shows a woman trapped in a glass box, this may represent that people will be able to see moving pictures for the 1st time on TV.

History of Music Video

1900 - Edison Invents the gramophone. Music is a recorded experience for the 1st time. Fischinger experiments with recording sounds and vision on film.

1927 - 1st sound film, The Jazz Singer - People Wanted To See.

1930's - Soundies - 3 minutes musical films. Panoram invented.

1960's - Scopitone invented (Video jukebox/ music promo)

1970's - Top Of The Pop (TOTP) started to used them but still as experimental

1980's - MTV (Music Television), 24hr music channel created. Created need for musi videos, so more people started making video music, e.g. Buggies - Video Killed The Radio Star

Late 80's & 90's - Growth of genre based channel. Black music breaks into the market (Hip-Hop/R&B/ Reggae). Other companies set up music channels, some for a particular niche audience.

There was a change in the musical landscape, ehich equalled demands for niche outlets.

R&B (Detailed)

Brief history

R&B (Rhythm and blues) originated in the 1940's, so as you can see R&B hasn't been around for too long. The main origins of R&B are jazz, gospel, blues and traditional pop. It was created in the USA, at the time, for the African American. The main instruments used are the saxophone, horns, piano, organs, electric guitar, vocals and background vocalist. The name R&B originally came from the genre jazz and blues as these genres used to be the most popular at the time. R&B in Britain was developed in the 1960's.

Codes & Conventions

Some of the conventions are similar to those in Hip-Hop. In Hip-Hop, they use cars, money ladies (Half naked), drugs, and other expensive items. R&B use these aswell but not all or ots limited to how much they use it. In a urbanized location, they would use their flashy cars, money and ladies...not so much the drugs. In another type of location e.g. Beach, they'd use ladies dancing half naked and would probably show an expensive venue where they can express their love.

Editing Style

Depending on the music it will have a specific editing style. For example, if its about love and it is located in on the beach, then the editing would be smooth and the cuts would smoothly blend in to the next frame. But if it's in the city then it'll have fast and rough cuts, with none or limited smoothness. The cuts usually go with the beats or the lyrics in R&B, usually when its an upbeat music

Locations

The settings usually in the city, or any urbanized area. Because most R&B music are up beat and lively, it tends to suit the colourful and busy atmosphere. However, some are located outside the urban category for example: A tropical area, beach ect. The reason for this is that these tracks are usually about love and it suits the location as its romantic.

Costume/Prop & Colour

R&B artists have different type of style and present themselves differently. As you can see below, R&B has different varieties of cosume and clothing. Some may perfer to wear a much colourful outfit and others would like to keep it more simple and casual. R&B doesn'treally have its own unique style, that is why some artists came up with the most craziest dresses e.g. Lady Gaga. Some of the men style would be similar to those in Hip-Hop. Some R&B artist may be wearing a hoody, earing and a New Era Cap. Baggy clothing is also shown, but nowadays i think that it is becoming more casual. These style of clothing and how the artists wear it affects and influences the audience, therefore they try copy what they wear and how the wear it.

Genre Research

I have chosen 2 genres to research on, which are RnB and Hip-Hop. I've chosen them genres because i think that nowadays the music industry has been more dominated by these genres. Although the music industry is mixed, i think that Hip-Hop and R&B has the edge. Some may say that these 2 genres are completely silimar but both have its difference, for example: In Hip-Hop its more drug/crime related, however in R&B the drug/crime influence is limited. I've chosen R&B as my main genre because this is on an A2 coursework and including the Hip-Hop conventions would not be as appropriate. R&B would also give us many variety of editing choice e.g, a slow track would have smoother and longer editing whereas in an up beat track the editing would be faster and more effects can be used and both type of tracks can be used in R&B.

Lip Syncing

EVALUATION

There was area's where i found it difficult doing this task. When editing i realized that even when we sang along with it, it didn't look like they were singing along because the lips wasnt moving as much and looked as if it was staying it on place. Another is that, it is quite difficult cutting and moving the shots to match it up with the music. What worked well was the editing, as there wasnt many shots so it was quite easy to sort out. One of the singer knew the lyrics already, before the task so this made it easier for us too. Watching other peoples task i saw that the lip syncing wasnt great because their lips did not move as much so the viewer wouldnt know if they're singing, this also made it obvious that they did not really sing it. We didnt use props as we recorded it with what we had. The location was in the park, on the grass, but in different parts of the park. To overcome these issues we had to tell the person who's syncing to move their mouth more and exaggerate on the mouth movement.