Black Sabbath - Paranoid (1970)
Black Sabbath's 'Paranoid' was released at the beginning of the 70's, before different themes and narrative's began to become popular such as in Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' at the end of the 70's. However in terms of the style of music video, it had made progress from the 60's, in terms of quality and special effects. Although it was still in the idea of a 'performance' for the music video, technology had progressed to better quality cameras and sound to make the video clearer, and to the use of green-screens for background effect. Here Black Sabbath have introduced effects like flashing colour filters over the set, and the projection of the image of a girl into the background of the set, probably the woman that is mentioned in the first part of the song. This is to represent the paranoia and insanity of the mind that is talked about in the song, which also shows the progressive link from simple performance videos to videos that link with lyrics. Another special effect used is the use of multiple imagery of the band, one shot in particular of the guitarist, where a clip of the guitarist has been 'cut out' and layered over another clip of the guitarist, which shows how it has not been traditionally filmed in one-take, and how the director has tried to experiment more with effects and to also match the lyrics - to make it look as if something is not quite right. There are also a wider variety of camera shots compared to earlier videos, such as more close ups of the singer to represent the running theme in the music industry as the singer being the front-man of a band - the most important. Long shots and mid shots are also used to show the identity and appearance of the band, for the audience to relate to, put together with low angle shots to make the band look superior and 'cool', as if to get the audience to want to associate themselves with Black Sabbath and listen to them again and again.
David Bowie - Life on Mars? (1971)
The 70's were where the idea of music videos really began to take off, where the idea of just a filmed performance was thought to be not as visually exciting. David Bowie, for example, in Life On Mars? used a blank white studio room as a set, as opposed to a stage, whilst miming the lyrics. Within the video, Bowie introduces the idea identity when it comes to music - the representation of the artist is recognised as important for the music industry. In terms of mis-en-scene, he has created an image for himself that is unique and controversial, with brightly coloured hair and make-up, making him stand out against the blank white background, to make him seem important and the main focus of the video, and furthermore to represent how music stars are the main focus of fame and popular culture. His image is completely different compared to those in music videos in previous years, to make him stand out and seem different from the rest, making this a promo video not only for the song, but for himself. With the video being in a very bright studio, with a better quality camera, with the use of many camera angles, shots and editing transitions, it shows how technology started improving, and also how larger budgets are being used for music videos and so this technology can be used for this purpose. However, the whole video is in one setting, with no costume changes and still no idea of narrative, or many audience-grasping techniques (apart from Bowie's appearance), making the whole thing very simplistic, which shows how budgets are yet to be set even higher and more special effects and technology used for music videos are yet to be discovered.
'The Wall' by Pink Floyd was one of the first forms of music videos to have a proper theme or story to it, that matched to the lyrics. There are two parts to the video - firstly the 'real life' shots of schoolchildren rebelling, to mirror the lyrics 'we don't need no education' put with high angle shots and low angle shots to make teachers seem inferior and students superior, with fast editing pace to fit with increasing adrenaline from the students as they fought back against education. Secondly there were cartoon sequences among the shots, mostly of what appears to be a disturbing looking teacher, doing things like putting students into a mincer, alongside the lyrics 'hey teacher, leave those kids alone'. These clips within the video represent the meaning of the song that Pink Floyd are trying to portray - that education is not important because at school, students feel harassed and under pressure by teachers. In the cartoon animations, it shows a wall that has been built, which curves around to show ambush or the thought of being surrounded. The wall itself represents alienation, which further represents the feelings of the schoolchildren, and therefore the idea that they are surrounded by the thought of being outcasts - a message Pink Floyd have decided to send out in order to connect to their audience further through video as well as the song. These clips are put with the lyrics 'another brick in the wall' to show how people generally are not important alienated as an individual, but many put together can form something strong and purposeful (a wall), like a campaign for certain views. These ideas are political and sociological, which is a major step in the music industry to have music videos that represent the society around us and to portray messages, which gave way to the rise in anarchy portrayed in music. This meant more of a connection with certain audiences could be made. On a smaller scale, back to the idea of education, in the animation of this video, the teachers turn into hammers, to represent the building of the wall - that it is them that cause alienation to people through their power of education over people, and through labelling. This video shows how music started to become not just a source of entertainment, but a way of expressing opinion. The animation within the music video also gave way to new ideas including more special effects and sequences to be experimented with in later music videos, something unusual that hadn't been used much before. The lack of actually showing the band in the video also created new ideas about what was important within the music industry, where in this sort of era the promotion of political opinion and also entertainment, mattered more to success than the identity of the people singing about it. It became such a success that it was made into a film.
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