HMV goes into administration

On the 15th January, the UK was shocked to hear the news that worldwide entertainment store HMV was going into administration after more than a year of financial crises, delivery a further blow to Britain's embattled high streets. With over 100 stores closed across the UK and thousands of employees losing their jobs, HMV just couldn't cope with pressure from online competitors such as Amazon, and play.com.

After the closure, I'm sure many people are left wondering where does this leave the music industry? Without a doubt, the majority of music fans will be more than upset to see the music stores leave their high-streets and feel the industry would be a better place with them. There is still and always will be a large and very significant demand for people wanting to buy music and it's only a matter of time before the digital download will take over the physical form of the CD, just like the CD did with the original vinyl record. As of May 2012, according the figures compiled by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), 55.5% of the £155.8m spent on music in the UK in the first three months of the year was of digital format. This statistic alone highlights how much of an effect digital downloads have had on HMV and it would be wrong to say they had it coming. Although the digital download is a major factor towards the demise of HMV and it's stores, the dramatic rise in illegal downloading off file sharing Internet websites has also taken a significant effect on the business.

A major worry of many regarding the music industry and the administration of HMV is the effect it could have on independent record labels. With little inner city shops left, the shops were a great way for smaller bands and artists to distribute their music nationwide. But, without them, many new bands and artists may struggle to 'break through'.

As it stands now, whilst the novelty of the physical form of music whether in vinyl or CD continues to die out, the Internet seems to be taking over the music industry. In the past year or so, statistics show that as the sales of the CDs decrease, digital downloads have significantly increased. Perhaps this is a new beginning for music and the industry surrounding it. Despite the rapid failure of HMV and it's stores, music can be accessed much more easily nowadays and people don't even have to leave their homes to get hold of it. Social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are also great ways for new and old bands to market their music. Without HMV however, music wouldn't be the same as it is today and they can only be thanked for what they've done to the industry.

NME Awards 2013 - Best Music Video

Each year New Musical Express, commonly known as NME magazine is host to the NME Awards where many different alternative bands and artists are awarded various awards including Best Album and Best Music Video. Initially, as I wanted to create an indie based music video for my main task I decided to research the different music videos nominated by the readers of NME for the Best Music Video.

Some of the music videos nominated for the award were:

David Bowie - Where Are We Now? 

After ten years without releasing any new material David Bowie fans were left thinking that might be the end of the prolific musicians career. But on the 8th January 2013, Bowie's 66th birthday, he released a new single 'Where Are We Now?' with the announcement of a new album 'The Next Day' on the way in March. Directed by Tony Oursler, the video is undoubtedly unusual and the majority of it features Bowie and an unnamed female companion's faces attached to  (later to be revealed as Ourslers wife Jacqueline Humphries) conjoined ' puppets on a pommel horse. Words relating to the lyrics appear during the video including references to the Berlin Wall and Bosebrucke, the first border crossing that opening when the wall fell. The video for Where Are We Now? could be set in an artist's studio in Berlin, the place Bowie lived from 1976. The video also shows black and white footage of the city from the 70's on a screen in the backdrop. 

 

Tame Impala - Feels Like We Only Go Backwards

Tame Impala are an Australian psychedelic indie rock band who take influences from bands including Cream, The Beatles and Pink Floyd. Taken from the band's second album Lonerism, the video for Feels Like We Only Go Backwards is directed by Joe Pelling and Becky Sloan. Unlike the other two videos linked, the artist's don't feature and it's made up from over 1000 separate home made plasticine  collages animated together into a creative masterpiece. Many people would say that the video is typical of the band's genre as the video is quite psychedelic and trippy throughout. Out of all the videos nominated for NME's Best Video of 2012, Tame Impala's was my personal favourite. 

And the winner is...

Arctic Monkeys - R U Mine?

Despite it being their 'year out' Arctic Monkeys released a new single on record store day last year. The video that accompanied the song was directed by Focus Creeps and it was made to promote the release of the single on record store day, 2013. The video is introduced by radio presenter Steve Jones who actually first aired R U Mine? at that moment in time. Throughout the song, it focuses on the frontman of the band Alex Turner and drummer Matthew Helders on a journey in a car. The camera isn't on any equipment and primarily held by either Alex or Matt. The main shots include close ups of the musician's faces, there are links between the music/lyrics and visuals with them singing and drumming on the steering wheel to the beat of the song.  The two other members Nick O'Malley and Jamie Cook also make brief appearances part way through the video.  After winning the award, Matt Helders was quoting in saying: "It were a fun video to make. Pretty easy though, to be honest, took a few hours. But, I think the result was really cool." 

Other nominees included:

M.I.A - Bad Girls
Grimes - Oblivion

Haim - Don't Save Me

What is a Music Video?

Millions of people watch music videos on a daily basis through various different sources like YouTube to music video channels such as MTV. However, although we watch and enjoy music videos regularly, do we actually know what a music video is, why they're made and the history behind them? 

A music video is a short film that incorporates music, vocals and a picture to promote a song or artist. Although many people argue that the sole purpose of music videos is to simply promote a new song or album by an artist, many musicians release them purely for artistic purposes. Other purposes of music videos include - to invoke a reaction from the artists audience leaving them remembering the song specifically because of the video, to give the audience a better idea of what the song is about if performance based, to improve or increase the artist's image or reputation.

The history of music videos go all the way back to the 1940's when Jazz musicians started making early versions of music videos called 'Soundies'. Soundies were usually just short performance based films of musicians playing on set, an example of Dorothy Dandridge's 'Soundie' for her song Cow Cow Boogie can be seen below. 

Without a doubt since then, music videos have evolved and developed significantly and first came into prominence in the 1980s due to MTV basing the format of their television channel around them. Not every music video is the same, each one uses a wide range of different film making techniques, some of these include - animation, documentaries, live action filming and non-narrative approaches like artistic/abstract film. Some styles music videos are collaborated together such as animation and live action for example. 

Common editing techniques used in the development of music videos include:
-Editing to the song beat.

-Straight cuts.

-Jump cuts.

-The use of diagetic sounds on the top of the music.

-Special effects/CGI

Today, nearly every single has a music video and many are nominated for awards each year. The very first music video aired was on MTV by The Buggles and called Video Killed the Radio Star. It was the 1980's when music videos started to become more advanced by including sophisticated effects, plots and story lines with the release of Michael Jackson's Thriller video. The concept of having a short film as a music video gave the meaning a completely different look, and without that the Thriller video, many music videos wouldn't be the same as they are today. 

Examples of some well known and important music videos of the past: 

Michael Jackson - Thriller

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody  

Blur - Coffee and TV