It's hard to pin a bottom line monetary figure on what a music video does for a band. If there are statistics I haven't found them yet, and the music industry is notorious for not chucking out balance sheets on what is sold. So, that aside, what we can do is look at the EFFECT certain music videos had for artists, especially at PIVOTAL moments in their careers.
We can also look at how the music video CONTENT also helped to sell the band to the public. Whether that be because it contained a lot of the artists themselves (a nice introduction and a form of person branding in itself) or by the creativity and flair in the video, which is then reflected back on the artist and once again, helps to build her BRAND. (good example of this would be Lady Gaga's videos, which are very much, well, Lady Gaga-ish)
We can also try and find what Music Producers and Management have said about the importance of the music video and that to, is an equally valid way to work out their importance.
BRANDING
But first, a little on what Branding is. I don't like the word, and most artists deplore it, because it is a word used a lot in advertising and advertising, for a lot of artists, is akin to fishing around in toilets bowels and selling what you find.
However, this is the modern world, sigh, so we can't avoid it.
Put in short terms, branding is the strategic development of a relationship between a product and its public.
YOU are the PUBLIC. The PRODUCT is the music.
The REASON? If you have an idea of the BRAND in your mind, and that idea is favourable or just known, then chances are you'll buy something related to that brand.
So, here is it explained, in lovely graphics. Just don't get sucked in...
So, with what you've learnt there, you can see how important BRANDING is to music. U2 is a brand, in some ways. So is COLDPLAY. So are the SEX PISTOLS. And the type of brand and the message they want to put across is reflected in everything they do - especially their MUSIC VIDEOS, which are, like it or not, a visual way of building the brand.
Look at this video. It's a little bit hard on the eyes, but this company want to BRAND twenty people (experts on something) and they set out to do so by attacking the media with their publicity and going on tour. Sound familar?
I might sound cynical. It's good to keep a critical distance from this stuff. You can get carried away. However, branding is not a bad thing. It's just a way for people, on a mass scale, to get to know you. Churches, Governments, Dictators, Bands, everyone is at it because they are in the business of working with masses of people and the best way to do that is visually.
MUSIC VIDEOS THAT HELPED MOVE THE GAME ON
So, branding tour completed, back to the meatiness of the unit: music vids.
THRILLER
Since the unit wants you to look at a music video and what it did for the different people invovled, you could worse than start at one of the most popular music videos of all time. Thriller.
Thriller changed lots of things, not only for Michael Jackson's popularity and position.
Up until Thriller, no one had ever spent that much money on a music video. And as you'll see the money didn't come from the usual sources, i.e. the record label.
It also made a tonne of money for everyone as well. Even those people who were against it at the start!
What it did for Jackson's Brand is establish him (or re-establish him) as a superb dancer, a great live act, a creative force and a little bit dangerous, maybe even sexy? That was then. It's no doubt they chose this kind of music video because Jackson, A. Could dance like a demon, B. He made just as much money from his live shows and this was a good showcase for them and finally C. His ambition was to be the biggest act in the world, the biggest music brand in the world - to do that you need to make the biggest music video in the world, and they did.
Here's one link. I thought this was a well written background to the story, gives a lot of interesting facts and is based on the Director's book.
http://awesomewithasideofsweet.blogspot.com/2009/08/story-behind-thriller.html
RADIO HEAD
Radiohead took a massive departure musically for their next album, Kid A, in October 2000.
What's interesting I think for us, is how they branded themselves and marketed the album. They didn't make any music videos for a start. Radiohead, in particular, Thom Yorke, had grown depressed at the potential of Radiohead becoming conventional and ultimately boring. Instead of letting their label dictate terms they stripped everything back and did a series of live gigs to build up word of mouth.
Of course, recordings from the gigs went up on the Internet and this allowed fans to get a hold of the music before it came into the record stores.
Then, instead of traditional music videos they released BLIPS. Which, if you remember your music video history, are not a new idea, but something that was being done fifty years before, except they were called PROMOTIONAL CLIPS. However, the BLIPS themselves are very much in keeping with the Radiohead brand. They are ABSTRACT, non narrative, IMPRESSIONISTIC pieces of film. Perfect for Radiohead fans, allowing them to make up their own minds.
The Wiki article on it is quite good and worth a look.
The record was a massive success, it went platinum in a week.
The band were able to change their style and the marketing of the record reinforced that. This contributed to the continuing belief of radiohead as an iconic band; a band whose records were worth buying by a loyal and devoted fan base.
Interestingly. The band would go on to control their own fortunes by essentially taking control of their sales and marketing and not being beholden to a label.
For the original Wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kid_A
OK GO
It's hard to talk about contemporary music videos and not talk about the band OK GO. These innovative music videos have got everyone talking about the band; upbeat, fun, a little edgy, they communicate all these branding emotions and reflect them back onto the brand and ultimately help push sales and gig tickets along.
This is their new one.
FATBOY SLIM
Fatboy Slim's Praise You video won lots of awards. And lots of awards means lots of BRANDING and potentially lot of sales too.
Would the song have done as well without the video? Is a song's worth now intrinsically linked to its video? Hard to know. Maybe a little. But the video idea, originally intended as a prank gift by creative wunderkind Spike Jonze, was so original it got people talking and eventually listening to the song.
See if you can find out more about how the music video affected the sales of the song. This was 1998.
The Wiki article on PRAISE YOU is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praise_You
A much more informative article on Spike Jonze, the director of films such as Being John Malcovich and Adaptation is here:
http://nymag.com/nymetro/movies/features/1267/
The video itself is here.
OVERALL
There are tonnes more examples but what you'll notice overall is how the music video reflects the BRAND IDENTITY of the band/artist themselves and this helps to keep in people's minds exactly what that band is and what they mean to you, the buying public.
Do some digging on this yourself, see what you can find. Talk to local bands and see what they think about it.
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