80's!

MTV came about in the 80's, which made is easier for people to see music videos, therefore bands and artists spent more money on making their videos more creative, and here are a few examples.

Michael Jackson - Thriller (1982)

This music video was very different at the time, because it was nearly 14 minutes long, and very much like a short film rather than a music video. A storyline had been created, costumes and effects had been used to create an eery atmosphere, and cleverly thought out dance routines had been thought up using a large cast. It uses a strong narrative to keep people interested, and it incorporates the song by having it playing at different parts of the video, with the main character (Michael Jackson) singing it and then dancing to it. He wears red which connotes danger, and when he is laughing at the cinema rather than being scared like everyone else, this suggests that something is not quite right about him, which we see later on that he is one of the zombie dancers, and then at the end he turns around and he has yellow eyes, which is like the rest of the zombies in the video. The song is called Thriller, and when the title appears near the beginning, it is written in red writing which looks like blood, implying that it is going to be like a horror film. The video fits very well with the song as the song is about scary things, and the video is full of scary things, such as the night time setting (typical for a horror film), the theatrical make up and costumes, the sound effects, etc. There are lots of low angle shots of Michael Jackson and high angle shots of his girlfriend which suggests that he is more powerful than her. There are also lots of close ups of her face at the end when she is scared so that we see the emotion on her face clearly. 

Bon Jovi - Livin' on a Prayer (1986)

This is music video very much like a video from the 60's, as it is of the band performing the song. But it is an advancement, as it has very different camera angles, cutting speeds, and the song is played over the top with the singer miming rather than the sound being a live recording. The video is sort of in two parts, as the first half is in black and white, and then when the song kicks in, it goes into colour. The first half is of the band rehearsing and the second half is of them performing to an audience, and I like this idea because it shows the whole process of them preparing for a gig and we see them acting natural and at one point we see the guitarist miming "Who is that?", as if he didn't know they were being filmed. I think this is an effective way of doing a music video, and fairly low budget too. 

The La's - There She Goes (1988)

This is a simple yet effective way of making a music video, as it is just footage of the band playing their instruments in different places with interesting camera shots. All the footage has been mixed up so that it will cut from them, for example, playing in an alleyway, and then them playing outside a house, and then them on stage, etc. I like this because it makes it interesting to watch, and you want to keep watching to see where they will be next. All the band members seem very laid back and they seem very n
atural, which is very different to Michael Jackson's well thought out Thriller video. There are some good shots where the camera is above the guitarist, like a bird eye view, and we just see him playing his guitar as if he doesn't know he is being filmed. There is also another interesting shot where the camera is filming the top of a building then it pans down to reveal the band playing their instruments. I like how the band are just wearing their own clothes, doing their own thing, because it shows us what kind of people they are, which gives them their own image.