Music·Vision

Author: Zhao Bo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: In the 1960s, the British music revolution swept the globe. During this British wave, music and imagery found a convergence point. Bands like The Beatles, Rolling Stone, and Procol Harum began experimenting with creating visuals for their music and screening them in cinemas. This way, even if they couldn’t perform live in a certain location, people could experience the atmosphere through the visuals, greatly boosting record sales in the area. Although most of the visuals created at the time were still quite immature, the union of music and imagery thus began. In 1975, Queen utilized a more economical and creative approach to create a truly meaningful music video for their song "Bohemian Rhapsody." This time, instead of screening it in cinemas, they released the video along with the record. Moreover, the content of the video had a more conceptual style rather than being a conventional performance. This video was a huge commercial success, topping the UK sales charts for six consecutive weeks. Across the Atlantic, American musicians noticed the success of music videos, but at the time, not many took this new art form seriously. It wasn’t until August 1, 1981, when a television channel called MTV launched, broadcasting popular music programs 24 hours a day. Perhaps no medium could surpass the immense reach of television, and instantly, MTV gained astonishing ratings. Records soared in sales, and record labels finally discovered their winning formula. Gradually, the collaboration between MTV and record labels became a standard practice. People began referring to the short TV clips on MTV as Music Video (MV), or music video. The commercial concept of Music Video is evident from its background and production intent on MTV, and it has become a major tool for record industry promotion. The early pioneers who brought Music Video to prominence were the pop superstar Michael Jackson with his three music videos: "Billie Jean," "Beat It," and "Thriller." These heavily funded videos created a sensation after being aired on MTV, propelling Michael Jackson’s "Thriller" album to sell an astonishing 40 million copies in five years. Due to the immense impact of this promotional method, record labels became extremely cautious in producing each music video, striving to reflect the musical style of the record and investing substantial funds for creative ideas. Since music videos serve the ultimate purpose of promoting records, they are often referred to as Promo Video (PV) or Pop Promo, meaning promotional (pop) video. The emergence of music videos expanded into a completely new dynamic visual art form, intertwining music and imagery to provide a synchronized aesthetic experience. For the creative industry, this art form provided artists with a platform to showcase their imaginative talents. After nearly two decades of evolution, with the changing trends of art and advancements in production technology, this unique dynamic visual form has presented a diverse and colorful landscape, nurturing a large number of outstanding creative talents. Today, music videos and television commercials have become the two pillars of the modern visual production industry, forming a highly regarded creative sector. In this collection, we gather 15 renowned music video directors from around the world. Through reviews of them and their works, dialogues, and numerous images of their work, we provide a comprehensive showcase of the creative world of the modern music video industry.