The History of Music Videos

In this blog post I am going to be comparing 4 artists and 2 videos from each artist, 1 from a few years ago and 1 recent music video. I will compare how the videos have developed, how the artist themself have developed (their look, sound & style), how the video itself has developed (if there's a story, or production behind the lyrics and video), how much money they spent on each, and if the lyrics have changed/developed.

1. Chris Brown: No Air (2009) / Party (2017)

You can see that throughout the 8 years a lot has changed with Chris Brown's music videos. It is clear that the scenery has become a lot bigger because in the first video (2009) was set in a very common place, which was the streets of New York and an apartment. Whereas now it is set in what looks like an abandoned shopping mall. Even though the recent video is in an abandoned location, it still looks like a casual place and that Chris Brown decided not to be as advanced with the modern world and choose a scientific out of space location. This symbolises that as an artist he clearly likes average every day places. As an artist I think that Chris Brown has definitely developed in many ways. His look is more creative than 9 years ago and as he quoted "I want to be different but not so different that people think, what the hell is he wearing?" he also said that his style and fashion makes him the artist he is, as he is different from what the 'normal' or the trend is. In the older video you could tell that there was some sort of relationship between the two singers, and clearly the lyrics told a story of the two, and that has changed over the years, as now Chris Brown seems to be more of a production rather than a story behind the lyrics of the video. I feel like the money spent on the videos has definitely become a higher price as the quality of the videos has clearly become much better. Also over the years as music has developed towards more the rap music, i think that the lyrics Chris Brown uses has developed along with the trend. I think this because the lyrics used to be more emotional and about love, whereas now it is stereotypically more about the portrayal of the woman's body, drugs, sex and smoking. So as an artist, Chris Brown has really developed over the past 8/9 years, even though he is working with the trend he is also putting his own unique spin on things.

2. Ne-Yo: So Sick (2009) / Coming With You (2015)

Again as you can see that the difference between Ne-Yo's two music videos is huge, and you can tell that, just by the cover of the video. Clearly from both of the artists you can see that around the year of 2009, there must have been a trend of telling stories behind the lyrics, whereas in recent years, its more about the colour and dancing. As an artist, Ne-Yo has clearly changed his sense of style, and I think that he is a lot similar to Chris Brown, where he wanted the fashion style in the video to be different from the 'normal' or trend of that time. In Ne-Yo's recent video (2015) you can see that there is a lot more colour than the older video (2009), and that is clearly as a music industry, things have become a lot bigger and bolder. If we compare Ne-Yo's 2015 video to Chris Brown's 2017 video, the simple and everyday locations are the same but the colour used to represent the places are completely different. I think that comes down to the year that these songs were released. As an example the music video below (How Deep is Your Love: Calvin Harris & Disciples) came out in 2015 as well, and there are similar characteristics to Ne-Yo's video (2015). They both use a lot of various colours throughout the video and the video shows no story linked with the lyrics. They both focus mainly on dancing and all three videos use everyday locations: shopping mall (Chris Brown), the beach (Ne-Yo) and the ocean as well as an abandoned warehouse (Calvin Harris). Going back to compare the two of Ne-Yo's videos I think that even though there seems a lot more props in the recent video (2015) the location of the older one (2009) and the style of the house used, wouldn't be cheap to hire and even get all the equipment and people there, referencing the location, as it was filmed in Aspen, Colorado. They did say that the shooting of the video had to be postponed to a later date, due to weather conditions in Aspen, again this would've cost them more in a result of changing flights and the date hiring the venue. The lyrics of the two songs have slightly developed along with the trend, although Ne-Yo still sticks with the portrayal of love, even though he slightly starts to describe a woman's body, but not in a discriminating way. So I think that Ne-Yo's music has developed but more towards the style of video instead of the type of music.

3. Justin Bieber: Boyfriend (2012) / What do you mean? (2015)

I think that Justin Bieber's music videos have developed immensely over 3 years and as an artist his style, attitude and maturity has definitely developed as well, you can see this also with his music and videos. I don't think that as an artists sense of style that much has changed because i think that he is just following the trend when it comes to fashion, but that could come down to his age. Over the 3 years Justin Bieber has done the opposite of the other artists and instead of going from telling a story (like Chris Browns and Ne-Yo's 2009 videos) to having a production (like Chris Browns and Ne-Yo's 2015/7 videos), he has gone from a production (Boyfriend, 2012) to telling a story (What do you mean?, 2015). The way that he has produced these music videos both seem to be on the same wavelength when it comes to the amount of money and preparation in need of creating these videos, because they both have the same amount of background movement and scenery. The three artists i have compared all use simple everyday locations, which clearly shows that over the whole music genres, artists clearly prefer to use these locations that are simple, but try and make it outgoing with everything that is happening in the video. You can also see the way that he prefers to present these videos by the way that the scene and people are being introduced, so in some ways his presentation hasn't developed as much as the other two artists, although it is only over 3 years in comparison to Chris Brown and Ne-Yo who has been producing music for much longer than Justin Bieber. The way that Justin Bieber has developed the videos is that again, like Ne-Yo, the videos that came out in 2015, have a lot more colour in comparison to music videos that have come out this year. For example the music videos below (XO Tour Life, Lil Uzi Vert & Mask Off, Future) are another instance where videos are more darker and focusing on rap in 2017 than videos that came out in 2015 which clearly focused more on colour and upbeat hip hop music. In terms of the lyrics, I think that this is where Justin Bieber has developed in maturity. The lyrics in Boyfriend use the typical 'in' words like 'swag' whereas the lyrics in the recent video do not use these and instead try to focus on telling the story. So overall I think that Justin Bieber has developed in a different way to the other two artists, but not developed that much as an artist himself.

4. Rihanna: We Found Love (2011)/Dimonds(2012)/Wild Thoughts (2017)

I think that Rihanna, out of all the artists i have compared, has developed the most. She has developed in all of the categories I am evaluating because as an artist everything about her has completely changed but added this uniqueness to herself that people still like. Her style in the first two videos (2011/12) are the same, as though she is trying to act like any ordinary person, and comparing to the most recent video (2017) where she has started to be 'different' from the trends of fashion and songs. The first two music videos are similar in terms of the lyrics because it is about her emotion whereas the recent video is all about her 'wld thought' regarding sex with someone. This is shown throughout the different artists as well. Chris Brown and Ne-Yo both in there older songs where more about emotions and love, whereas the more recent the songs are, the more all the artists start singing about sex, drugs and smoking. This is how music as a whole has developed and grown more towards physical attractions and stereo-typical sexual feeling. I think this comes down to how society has developed and we start looking at genders as more of a object instead of looking at the emotional feelings, and you can tell this just with the videos I have compared. Rihanna's music videos had changed dramatically over a year in the way that the music is being presented. In the first song (2011) she is telling the lyrics through a story of herself and clearly the guy she is filming it with, in comparison to the video that came out that following year (2012), where the lyrics are being told as more of a production and her just singing her emotions. This shows us when exactly all the music videos developed from a story to a production. In terms of how much money that Rihanna spends to produce these music videos have most likely increased in spending in the most recent video in comparison to the older videos. I think that the oldest video (2011) probably cost more because of all the the props and scenery that would have been needed to be purchased. But overall the most recent video would've cost more to produce because of all the little extra things like costume, location and background activity needed.
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The History of Music Videos

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