Gus Visser and his Singing duck is considered as the first ever music video that is ever filmed and released in 1925, which lasts a little under two minutes. The video has a performer called Gus Visser holding a live duck with him, throughout the song the camera remains stable as there are no multi-camera shots which keeps it simple, as not much really happens. Throughout the video Gus Visser doesn’t move around the stage or does any exciting stunts, but rather he remains still which keeps him in the centre. The video seems to exist mainly for comedic purposes, as the duck will quack every seconds which interrupts the performer from singing, before continuing after a few seconds.
In 1938, a well-known classic called Heart and Soul was published with the original version being sung by Bea Wain and performed by Larry Clinton & his Orchestra. In the music video, Bea Wain is at centre singing in a large theatre stage, behind her there is a small orchestra with a piano at the side. Throughout the whole song, she is sing to the camera or possibly a crowd of people, which shows it as a performance based. She doesn’t move around the stage but rather she remains still and stable, with the camera doing most of the moving as multi-camera shots are used. With shots mainly ranging from long shots, close ups and side shots.
This features Elvis and the prison "Inmates" dancing while ELvis is singing in the jail. The filming of the music video was filmed in black and white and it has a story to it, but it is more about the song then it is about the story.
The song was based on the Beatles’ time in Penny Lane that is in Liverpool, as much of the lyrics reflects around the location and place of Penny Lane. Despite this, the video was filmed in London’s East End as the Beatles were unwilling and reluctant to travel to Liverpool just to film it, as they had already filmed the video for Strawberry Field Forever in London. However, the lyric has been visualised through the video as some street name were change to Penny Lane to make it seem like it was filmed in Liverpool. In the lyric, "shelter in the middle of the roundabout” the video displays an old bus shelter. The promotional film is a conceptive as the video is about Penny Lane, with imagery to help reflect upon it.
The song was performed on stage in the year 1963. The song was released on 29th November 1963 and wrote by John Lennon and Paul McCartney which were members of the band “The Beatles”. The song was in number-one in the charts till November. It was filmed in Black and white. This song was performance baised so it was filmed in from of a camera live.
The music video was one of the first that was in colour. This was exclusive because there was not many videos that were in colour and that at the time it was very expensive. Another thing that was included in the music video was that it included a lot of close ups of David Bowie and him playing the guitar. The close ups include the different things that are in the recording studio. This song was introduced from a real life viewpoint as the space race was going on at this time; the moon landing took place five days after this song was released. In the video there is also some effects which go across the screen which gave the effect that this was a old video.
The song incorporates several different genres, which includes opera and rock, while have changes in its tone and style. However this can also be reflected on the music video, as the song start out as an introduction with the video begins with a silhouette of the four members of Queen. As the lighting change you can then see then more clearly, as it is now shining directly as them with the background now completely black. For a brief moment there is a fade, with a close up of Freddy Mercury singing while at the same time seeing the other band members. A dissolve is used as it then move to a different set piece, this time they are dressed in bright and shiny clothing, playing in live with their instruments. Upon getting closes up of some of the band member, primarily Mercury, you can be able to see that they are wearing very pale make up with black eye liner. In the guitar solo, the camera lingers on Brian May as you can clearly see the movement of this hand as he is playing on the guitar. The video then cut straight to a silhouette of Freddy Mercury, with a quick cut it then display a silhouette of the three other people to be later revealed to be Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon. During those moments the style of the song then shifts to opera, as the video reverts back to the style of the introduction as they are back in the same pose. Some visual effects were used in this segment, as there is a part where Mercury cascading away with his face being duplicated many times over. Once the opera part was over it would then return back to the live performance as the style would change into rock, this carries on toward the end of the video. The song was mainly performance based, but it is also very artistic as seen during the introduction and middle of the video. As MTV wasn’t very big at the time, the video was featured in BBC’s Top of the Pop as the songs would be presented and played to the audience at home watching.
Michael Jacksons Thriller was one of the first music videos to have a story arch to it. At the time Michael Jackson’s Thriller was broadcasted world wide on MTV. This song was revolutionary for the time. The music video was the first of its kind in story arch and having a different sort of genre to it. During this time a lot of music videos built up a lot of revenue and the majority of them didn’t have a big budget. Michael Jackson the person who sung the song was a performance artist that means he would sing and dance in the music video. The different types of camera in this music video means that it wouldn’t just be focused on Michael Jackson it would be focused on the backup dancers that are in this music video. For the music video of Thriller they took it to themselves to hire choreography and different types of makeup artists so then the audience could really have that immersion that they were actually in a horror based movie.
The song is largely known for its music video as begins with all the members of Queen dressed in women's clothing. This is because the start was a parody of the ITV’s Coronation Street, as the lead singer, Freddy Mercury is dressed similar to the character Bet Lynch (with a black wig) and other members of Queen being dressed as other characters. Once Mercury opens what seems like a storage room, the light then flickers with the scene moving toward the room with the line “I’ve fallen on love.” The storage room then appears to be a coal mine, as the members of Queen return back to their normal clothes (with Mercury being topless). Mercury then goes behind a white glowing box, to later reveal him sitting on top a stone playing a copper pipe. More people join in with him to perform a choreographic composition, which may be an inspiration a ballet called The Afternoon of a Faun. Once the segment was over, the line “But life still goes on” and it return back to the Coronation Street set, Mercury then walks up the stages and the scene then cuts straight back to the coal mine. The music video very much performance based with Mercury doing nearly all the singing with Roger Taylor joining in a few times. The video is quite artistic as it blends and mix parody and homage together at once, with comedy and fun and a mix of dramatic scenery, while not having it feel odd or strange. The song would become successful around the world, but not in North America, as it was banned on MTV in the US. Though the music video was popular in UK, due to the fun references and was taken as a joke.
The music video had cost Duran Duran a total of £1,000,000. Which was very expensive for a single music video at its time and was filmed in the “007 studio” at Pinewood Studios. The video was meant to be a teaser of an upcoming movie, that was never made, however the would become very success as it was named the Best British Video at the 1985 BRIT Awards. The video starts by establishing the setting to display a dystopian world, it would then cut to a bald and pale animatronics breathing fire. In the background the Wild Boy song is playing, which revealed to be from a television with the main singer from Duran Duran, Simon Le Bon singing. Later into the video, Simon Le Bon is hanging on a spinning windmill with his head being dipped in to the water with each rotation. There is choreographed dancing from the extras, as they display a number of dangerous stunts. Toward the end of the video, Le Bon is freed from the spinning windmill and is later shown victorious as he is seen with the other band members of Duran Duran with paper strips falling from the sky. The music video is highly inspired by Mad Max, particularly the film Road Warrior. As the clothing that Le Bon was wearing heavily mirrors that of Mad Max’s, which was played by Mel Gibson. The video is performance based as Le Bon is consistently seen singing even when strapped to the spinning windmill and having his head dunk, however it is also narrative based as well. As there is a story within the video, as it shows Le Bon being captured and tortured however is then later freed from the pale minions.
A-ha- Take on me “Take on me” was published in 1985, by the Norwegian band A-Ha. The song had later became a worldwide success being very popular in the United Kingdom and in the United States, being A-Ha only song to reach the top position in the UK’s Billboard Hot 100, this success was hugely thanked to the revolutionary and famous music video. The music video is very much narrative based as it show the adventure of a girl being taken into a comic book world to meet the protagonist, with a brief and small amount of performance base as protagonist starts singing to the girl with some cuts showing the other members of A-Ha performing. The narrative based then resumes when the back track is played, with two of protagonist’s rivals pursuing them and threatening them with a large spanner, causing them to enter a maze. Upon reaching a dead-end, the protagonist then makes a hole in the wall to save the girl as he sacrifice himself for her. The girl then returns back in the normal world and she later discovers him beaten and left for dead. However, it was time for protagonist to try and make the transition from 2D to the physical world. During the scenes that mix the pencil sketched and live-action together it is done through a technique called rotoscoping, this is where the animators will have to draw through the live-action footage frame-by-frame. This allows the characters to move more realistically, with around 3000 frames being rotoscoped and taking 16 weeks to complete.
Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel The song Sledgehammer is widely known for its highly unique and quite bizarre music video, which even Peter Gabriel stated in an interview that the song wouldn’t had been as successful as it is if it wasn’t for the music video. It would later garner multiple awards, being rewarded nine MTV music videos award in 1987 the most awards a single video has won. The music video with the start of human life, showing footage of gametes and then cutting straight to close up Peter Gabriel’s human features. The video shows Gabriel’s eyes and zooms out at a significantly lower frame rate, this is because it was done by using stop motion. As is everything that is to come after, during the scene with two bumper cars hitting him and singing along was done through Claymation, due to all these creativities some of his lyrics are visualised. The dancing chickens during a flute solo were oven-baked and were animated through stop motion by Nick Park. The video took an artistic approach as it had incorporated different styles of animation, while at the same time being performance based as Peter Gabriel can be singing throughout the whole thing.
The music video been filmed in 1990, but it is still in black and white.The costumes are in a old fashion because of the style that the music video is in. Madonna is trying to be like Madalin Monroe in the music video. In the music video all of the scenes switch to different time periods, this is shown by the costume that are worn in the song. The dance moves include a different types of dance aswell. Other types of props show that they are switching between different eras.
The video features fire in the true old Rammstein fashion. This music video features a video full German and another version partially English. This is good because Rammstein might have fans that are English. The song is featured in some Movies and TV shows such as 'The Matrix' and Gilmore Girls.
The music video is very futuristic and science fiction as it begins with an opening shot of a spaceship. Which, it would then cut straight to the lead singer, Justin Hawkins, with the other member of the band joining in afterward. The lead singer is later transported to a planet to fight a giant crab as it hurls boulders at him. The camera then cuts back straight to the spaceship with a guitar solo. After that all of the band members can all be seen in one shot, with the two guitarists at the side with the lead singer and drummer at the middle. As the camera pans closer to the lead singer, they are later attacked by a giant octopus. But, through the power of electricity generated by the guitars they are able to fight it off. The music video was made to be over exaggerated and completely over-the-top, with scenes where Justin Hawkins can be seen breaking the fourth-wall as he looks directly at the camera and gives thumbs up to the audience. It is mostly performance-based as Justin Hawkins is consistently seen singing, but it can be narrative based as it shows a wacky space adventure with the Darkness.
The music video is heavily inspired by the work of Busby Berkeley, as he is known for using a large number of showgirl and props in his renowned Broadway musicals. For this song the lead singer is Mark Owen, instead of Gary Barlow. As the video start off with Owen walking down a flight of gold and silver stairs, with the other members of band sitting down below him. A few moment later showgirls dressed in primary gold walk down the stairs with the three members of Take That, while Barlow is on the piano. It then cuts straight to a golden tower sending out a signal. A while later a cut is made with Owen dressed in a white suit walking through a parallel line of piano being played by showgirls. Soon after the showgirls are then dressed in skin-tight silver clothing, doing some choreographed dancing with the band’s members joining in around the piano. The video is performance based as it is mainly focused on the member of Take That singing, as much of the time, the director choose to get close up of the a single member singing and use wide shots to show all of the singers in one shot.
This video features a different type of animation that might have not been used before. This features chimpanzees playing instruments. They used this by modelling after the bands face and then digitally replacing them for apes. At the end of the video they have normal cloths on. Most of this music video is CGI which means that it is a animation. At the beginning of the music the sound is muffles and then gets the quality goes up when the beats pill gets to closer to the apes ear, this was a product placement.
From the title of the song, Lazarus, relates closely to death as it is said in the Bible that Jesus had brought him back to life, after four days of remaining dead. This music video was released was released on 7 January 2016, which was three days before Bowie’s death. The video starts with Bowie lying down, being blindfolded with a cloth with two black buttons located where his eyes would be. The camera is pans out of the close up and reveals that his is lying on his death bed. The camera cuts to show the bottom of the bed with a pale woman out there, trying to reach out to him. It continues to film around him, as it moves from one side of the bed to the next. At the bottom of his bed, the woman is now gone, with a single high heel left behind. A cut is made which changes the set piece, when the lyric reads, “By the time I got to New York, I was living like a King”. As Bowie is standing up, wearing a black top with white stripes singing straight to the camera. Another cut is made returning back to him on previous set on his bed, he seems more active this time as he widen his arms, as if he were flying. The next scene shows him dramatically opening a fountain pen and trying to think what to write, this could his will or a letter. It later shows the pale girl from before, under his table. At the very last scene, he slowly shifts backwards to the wardrobe. It then cuts to black, as the video ends. The video is a conceptive and symbolic, as it is clear that it is based around death. As Bowie had intended it to be his “Swan song”, his gift to the world before he died. The setting is unsettling and small, which gives a claustrophobic feel to it. The colouring is dark and gloomy, as there are no bright or eye-catching colours. On top of this the lyrics of the song plays a large part of the tone of the video, with some that includes “look up here, I’m in heaven” and “I got nothing left to lost”. The music video had a unusual aspect ratio of 1:1, which is very strange as many popular music videos (and all videos in general) are normally filmed in something like a 16:9 ratio resembling a rectangle, rather than a square like this video.
We'd love to hear from you. Please send questions or feedback to the below email addresses.
Before contacting us, you may wish to visit our FAQs page which has lots of useful info on Tiki-Toki.
We can be contacted by email at: hello@tiki-toki.com.
You can also follow us on twitter at twitter.com/tiki_toki.
If you are having any problems with Tiki-Toki, please contact us as at: help@tiki-toki.com
Close