Music Video: Meet 15 Contemporary Music Video Directors

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 had begun. In 1975, Queen utilized a more economical and creative approach to produce a truly groundbreaking music video for their song "Bohemian Rhapsody." This time, instead of screening in cinemas, they released the video alongside the record, and its content had a more conceptual style rather than the conventional performance format. The video was a huge commercial success, topping the UK charts for six consecutive weeks. Across the Atlantic, American musicians noticed the success of music videos, but not many took this new art form seriously 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 MTV instantly gained astonishing ratings. Records soared in sales, and record labels finally discovered the winning formula right in front of them. Gradually, the collaboration between MTV and record labels became a standard practice. People began referring to the TV shorts on MTV as Music Videos (MV), or music videos. The commercial concept of Music Videos was evident from MTV’s background and production intent, and it has since become a major tool for record industry promotion. The early pioneers who brought Music Videos to prominence were the pop superstar Michael Jackson with his three music videos: "Billie Jean," "Beat It," and "Thriller." These heavily funded videos caused a sensation when broadcast 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 about every music video production, striving to reflect the music’s style and investing substantial funds for creative ideas. Since music videos serve the ultimate purpose of promoting records, they are often referred to as Promo Videos (PV) or Pop Promos, meaning promotional (pop) videos. 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 offered artists a platform to showcase their imagination. After nearly two decades of evolution, with the changing trends of art and advancements in production technology, this unique dynamic visual form has diversified and nurtured a wealth of talented creative professionals. 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, presenting a comprehensive view of the creative world of the modern music video industry through reviews of their work, dialogues, and an abundance of visuals.