The History of Rock Music Videos

Music videos for the Rock genre go back a long while, mainly due to the fact that almost every song has an attached music video used to visually promote the release itself. I have chosen four music videos that I believe are influential for their time, those being; Jailhouse Rock - Elvis Presley (1957), Livin' On A Prayer - Bon Jovi (1986), Wonderwall - Oasis (1995) and Teenagers - My Chemical Romance (2006). The aim of this post is to try to establish any obvious genre conventions but mainly to compare the growth and changes that the industry has made in the last 60 years. 

Jailhouse Rock - Elvis Presley

The first Music Video is Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley. The song was released in 1957. The video itself is filmed in black and white because at the time of release most people would not have been able to view the video in colour as they didn't have colour TV's so; by filming and distributing it like this the audience was maximised. The video is not focused on any sort of narrative, instead on Elvis Presley's performance of the song itself. This is because a narrative was not needed, people wanted to watch to see Elvis who at the time was the perfect idol and was a bit of a 'lady-killer'. The video contains dance choreography, something that Elvis was controversially known for in the time, and something that was a staple of both his videos and his performances.

Elvis showing his Controversial Dance Choreography

The backups dancers are used so that Elvis isn't the only one performing, but is contrasted against the less important people to look like the centre of the show. Finally the costume and setting both relate to the theme (and name) of the song; Jail. Elvis and his backup dancers are all wearing prison 

uniforms and are in an obvious studio that has been made to look sort of like a prison with cell doors. 

Livin' On A Prayer - Bon Jovi

The second music video I looked at was Livin' On A Prayer by Bon Jovi, which was released in 1986. Having been released 29 years after Jailhouse Rock, the visual and audio fidelity is obviously improved; but the decades stereotypes have also been incorporated here. The first thing you would notice is the difference in costume and hair; Elvis went for a tight fitting outfit with groomed hair, whilst Bon Jovi all have long hair and are wearing really lary and 'out-there' outfits, the impression I
drew was that they are wearing sort of a 'mods and rockers' get-up.

'Interesting' Costume Choice

One key similarity between the two videos is that they are both based solely around performance and the over-reaction of doing so. With Livin' On A Prayer you can see Bon Jovi are very passionate about their performance, jumping around and playing in sort of a aggressive way. This was a staple for bands at the time, something that is shown in the movie Back To The Future, where when Marty is sent back to 1955 he plays his electric guitar and begins 'rocking'. Using Back to the Future as an example, this is where a growth in the performance of Rock bands has changed, as the audience to Marty's performance don't really understand what is going on.

The Future Of Rock

Livin' On A Prayer is also filmed in black and white, but this time it is more of a creative decision because Bon Jovi's other music videos are filmed in full colour.  Livin' On A Prayer contains a multitude of different camera angles, from tilts to long shots to close-ups of the artists faces. This is a contrast to Jailhouse Rock which was mostly a long shot showing all of the setting and the dancers and Elvis. Speaking of which, Livin' On A Prayer only contains the band members in the video, performing as though they are at a concert. This shows that, once again, part of selling the song itself is by selling the band (as they are the icons people look up to as the creators of the music). 

Wonderwall - Oasis

Wonderwall by Oasis has the most experimental music video out of all of the ones that I've analysed, showing that during the 90's, conventions had to be challenged in order for a song to become successful. However, some of the things the other music video's included are shown here; including the black and white filter and the fact that the video is mostly performance focused; with the lead singer Liam Gallagher looking into the camera whilst singing. Despite this; the way that even the performance aspects are filmed are still unconventional in some ways, in the example below you can see a cool reflection of lighting in the Lead Singers glasses.

Performance with a twist

The video itself starts off with a long shot of a clown walking up to a box, which turns out to be a record player, and then sets it to start playing the song. Straight off the bat, you can see that the video itself is going to have some strange themes and imagery, based on the costume/character choice for the clown. There is also a bit of interaction between the song itself and the music-video world, as we can see the song only starts playing once the record itself does. The music-video also used a lot of different camera/filming/editing techniques throughout - including shots where the lead singer is rotating around the screen like he is on a record player, the aspect ratio being different in certain shots and different transitions; particularly fades and overlays. One shot that stuck out to me was having Liam Gallagher's face shown in between the hole of a ringlet, as though he is inside the hole itself. All of these techniques produced an obvious contrast between older videos, as they were most often just straight filmed with little editing techniques or unconventional camera shots.

 Strange Vibes of Wonderwall

Wonderwall is a very good music video to look at to show the growth of the Music-video industry in the Rock genre, as it is very different to many of the videos that existed before it. As a result, it became one of the most famous, showing that the way forward is not sticking to obvious conventions but instead being innovative and fresh.

Teenagers - My Chemical Romance

My final video is much more modern than all of those I previously looked at, but isn't from the last 5 years, as I decided I wanted to look at those through my deeper analysis sections later on. The video I have chosen is Teenagers by My Chemical Romance, a video that could be seen as the start of Rock's niche branching into areas like Punk and Heavy Rock. This music video is, as expected, based on performance but the way that this is done challenges the normal conventions; with the lead singer Gerard Way acting as though in a psychotic breakdown - which is a feature of every one of there music videos. This eccentricity is what drew My Chemical Romance as an 'emo' band, as opposed to a rock one, as the effects of mental disorders are a key theme for the band. The video as a whole shows the challenges of oppression to the youth and teen violence, but also shows how people of the target audiences age often band together when music is involved. It shows that 'Teenagers' are an important part of society; and the music video tries to convey this by contradicting itself. 

'Psycho' Lead Singer

In conclusion, over time the way in which Rock Music Videos are filmed and what they involve has changed but some things often remained the same, especially the usage of black and white filming and that the videos are based mostly on the performance of the song. Otherwise, the genre has started to lean away from the main conventions as the genre became less and less mainstream; as they had to set themselves apart from the more mainstream Pop music videos.