Digital Media Convergence - MUSIC VIDEOS!

THOMAS SVICH - 42889774 - Music Video Convergence

Digital media convergence is neither a good nor a bad thing. While it can be the death of old media forms – it gives new life to technological innovations and can open doors that were never open before. Music video’s are perhaps one of the best examples of this phenomenon that is digital media convergence. The Music video has existed for as long as technology could accommodate it from as early as 1894 when two musicians projected still images during their performances through the 1960s when Pink Floyd and The Beatles would make feature length films scored to their own music to the present day of MTV and YouTube music videos.  As said by the Academic Hildebrand “television computer convergence has been a long expected prospect” (Hilderbrand 2007, p.48)

Back to the past however, the first music video as we could define one was actually the first ‘talkie’ move – The Jazz Singer (1927) had a synchronized soundtrack using the latest recording technology and featured four songs by the singer Al Jolson.

It was not until the 1960s that massive revolutions of music videos were created. Big Bands like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix Experience would create music clips or entire feature length films with only their music as the sound track. Perhaps the most famous “all music” feature length film was Pink Floyd’s the wall, which unlike the Beatles feature length films, had only the music of pink Floyd and no dialogue and followed the story of the album rather than having a separate plot for the movie. Below is The best example I can think of, of feature length music videos: Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'. A full 2 hour movie with only Pink Floyds music as the soundtrack.

This style of production sparked a complete revolution in which musical production was also being coincided with video production and in many cases videos or were music were made for the other. Eventually recording shows and producing music videos was the norm for big bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s era of music video.

Out of this era of rapidly increasing production of music television came the desire to bring to the public in new mediums – the beginning of convergence of music video. What may have originally only been shown at the pictures or on a public screen became available on the home television set with Australians leading the way with the revolutionary show ‘Countdown’.

The music television format that was countdown was a genre defining breath of fresh air to music video. The design was to get young Australian music groups performing live on the air and getting noticed by the public. This not only acted as a great launching platform for young artists who may have been overlooked (notoriously AC/DC) but also drew world attention to the popularity of the format.

In America, this style of “music television” culminated in 1981 with the creation of MTV – the home of the music video as a modern YouTube user would know exploded into the popular music industry with professional music companies hosting plethora’s of amazing video’s like Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Live Aid Concerts and Grease’s Summer Lovin’. MTV inspired industry created music videos that had high production values and used contemporary filming and visual techniques and effects.

However MTV rode high for 20 years as the home of music video with only upstarts like RAGE in Australia being an equivalent due to it playing any music video that was sent in to them – rather than just the top40 hits. But in the early 21^st century, a few college boys with web design potential created something that today unequivocally dominates the music video scene – YouTube.

YouTube as many scholar have said killed music television – particularly MTV which in recent days is more about reality TV shows like Jackass, The Osbournes and Jersey Shore and not about Music videos. In fact MTV’s regression from music has become so strong that they dropped “music television” slogan from their logo.

YouTube however is one of the greatest cultural phenomenons of the modern age. Originally just a video sharing website designed in a garage, it was later sold to Google for several million dollars and from then Google invested millions in server sizes, content production and support and advertising to create a home for videos on the internet that also could generate revenue without disadvantaging the producers of the content.

This caused an instant and massive shift “from Industry Made music videos to Hand Made music videos” (Sibilla, 2010: 227) That caused hundreds of independent artists of both music and film to make music video clips from the simplest forms to the most complex. An example posted below is one of Cole Roland’s cover of Skrillex’s song  ‘Bangarang’, that is filmed on high definition camera and recorded using high level boom mics, but is all done in his bedroom at home. This video sky rocketed with millions of views in a few short months.

“Culturally broadcasters are getting used to the idea that we’re moving from a world of one-way relationship with our audiences to a two-way relationship” (Orgad, Shani 2009)

The rather fast moving evolution and history has allowed “amateur content to be discovered along the way” (Hilderbrand 2007, 50) and has prompted a welcome shift from high budget and produced music video clips that were reserved for only the richest most successful bands to something that any man with a camera, a computer and good internet connection can create and enjoy.

However the total convergence of digital into the Internet has well and truly spelled a death sentence for music television (Appleby, E 2011) by making individual music videos openly available at all times and not having to be played at random on a television program, nor bad videos endured while waiting for the one you want to watch. The convergence of digital media particularly computer and television is an economic and artistic powerhouse - “television computer convergence has been a long expected prospect” (Hilderbrand 2007, p.48)

The digital convergence of music video that culminated in the internets now dominant position in the world of music videos and YouTube’s blank cheque approach to the creators of content and allowing any content whether it had high production value or was shot on the camera equivalent of a potato.

                                                                        REFERENCES

Appleby, E (2011) MTV: Why did MTV stop playing music videos regularly? Quora. 26th March. Available at: http://www.quora.com/MTV/Why-did-MTV-stop-playing-music-videos-regularly

Hilderbrand, L. (2007) 'Youtube: Where Cultural Memory and Copyright

Converge', Film Quarterly, Vol 61, pp 48-57

http://con.sagepub.com/content/16/2/185.refs.html

Orgad, Shani (2009) 'Mobile TV : Old and new in the construction of an emergent technology' Convergence, vol 15 no 2 pp 197 - 214 http://con.sagepub.com.simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au/content/15/2/197.full.pdf+html

http://www.slideshare.net/StaceyReibelt/copyright-and-illegal-downloading-cult3020 (accessed August, 2012)