Secondary Research 2

This article is fromk the Daily Telegraph newspaper and talks about why certain music videos were unsuccessful with the public in the 1990′s, for example, videos by bands such as Duran Duran. Being as Duran Duran were a popular band in the 1980's, the music they performed was spearheaded by electronic sound and the artist I am using is influenced by Duran Duran, this is a useful piece of information

So, why were music videos unsuccessful during this time period?

The were a number of contributing factors relating to the decline of music videos in the 1990′s. One of the reasons for this was the fact that music videos were seen to be repetitive and unoriginal, “once such tricks has been seen, and seen again and absorbed into superficial films…therefore effects became dissipated”. This made music videos seem boring to the public, and producers were seen to have run out of ideas.

Another reason was that overall access to music channels was significantly low; Only 25% of people had access to music channels, “Only one British household in four subscribes to either (satellite and cable T.V)”.

During this time period, music videos were not considered to be a serious form of entertainment, with critics not even considering them as being “an art form”. This shows the overall disregard for music videos, and there lack of importance in popular culture. A court case even ruled that adverts are the same as music videos, and were considered to be lower than films in terms of entertainment, so as a result, were paid low wages. They were seen as adverts as “It’s not interactive. It’s not personal.” This shows the lack of relation between the audience and the music videos, disallowing the video to target the audience in a personal way, as they did not target specific people, therefore being seen as generic, and  “merely seen as pictures on top of a song.”

From reading this article, it led me to research into the advancement of music videos, and their rise in popularity through the years;

What led to the rise in popularity of Music Videos?

• Music Videos have generally become more interesting
• The advancement in technology
• Technology has become more cheaper (e.g. new digital)
• A rise in general access to multi-channel television, which consists of a large range of music channels
• Free distribution for music producers and labels (through the internet e.g. sites such as YouTube)
• They are taken more seriously due to the ammount of artists and directors who have the ability to build a reputation through their videos
• The invention of Mp4 players
• Mirrorball collections of Director’s work
• Music Video distribution through music outlets such as iTunes