History of Pop Music Videos

We have chosen the genre 'Pop'. Pop music is hard to define but it is an abbreviation of the term 'popular music', so in one sense pop music is whatever happens to be popular at the time. As a genre, pop music is very electric, often borrowing elements from other styles.
At first, in the 1950s and 1960s, pop music was the same as rock-and-roll music, but slowly it developed into it own genre. The most important features of pop music are:

• It is easy to listen to and appeals to most people
• It is a fairly short song 3-4 minutes with repeated chorus's and regular verses 
• It encouraged dancing by using a beat that is easy to dance to
• It is written in a basic format with melodic tunes and catchy hooks

Here are some music video's from 2000 to the present:

'Fallin' by Alicis Keys - released in 2001

This is a great pop song with memorable lines and a great music video. I like the way it doesn't have a story line, but it uses a series of the same shots to flow with the song lyrics, and I love the use of extreme close ups on the singer. You can really see how fashion has changed because music video always represents what's popular at that time. 

'Whenever Wherever' by Shakira - released in 2002



This pop video focuses on the singer with most shots only including Shakira dancing. I think videos have developed to show more versatility in there shots and mise-en-scene.  This video is almost serial 'walking bare foot on the snow' and in place you would normally visit making it more appealing to the viewers. 

'Hero' by Enrique Iglesias - released in 2003



This video has more of a story line with many cross shots that help almost explain what's going on. It also concentrates on the love bond between the two characters I like how they show this with many close ups of them separate then of them together.

'Toxic' by Briteny Spear - released 2004


This type of music video create unforgettable recurring characters that reflect the song. They almost make up there own story and keeps you intrigued and interested. The music video also use computer effects and CGI which works well and shows an improvement from earlier videos. 

'Since you've been gone' by Kelly Clarkson - released 2004 



You can see how the videos have become more diverse for example the video still focuses on the singer using close up shots but using the actual singer at a concert, I really like this idea. Also the shots especially in the middle of this video have more speed and a couple only lasting a second. The pace of the shots in videos have definitely got faster and this inspires me.

'Umbrella' by Rihanna - released 2007



You can definitely see how pop music videos have improved using this one as an example. The shot changes have more range using the water theme to help them, the close us shots don't necessarily show the main character looking directly at the camera up looking up into the camera giving the shots a more sexual vibe. The use of a number of backing dancers instead of just the main singer dancing is also an improvement. The outfits also in this music video have become more revealing, representing how it is more socially expectable. However in some shot Rihanna is bare foot rather serial like the Shakira music video.

'Someone Like You' by Adele - released 2011



This music video uses colour to express the songs genre and atmosphere, for example shots are in black and white and the song has a sad slow tempo. Also the close ups again the singer is not looking directly into the camera giving a feeling that you are watching them and are actually there which is more technical. I like the shot where the camera follows Adele and like how smooth the shot is and how it just flows with her walking. I also think you can see the difference in technicality of editing as there is more techniques in the later music video's for example in this near the end you get the stark overlap of shots with her eye and the scenery.

'I Knew You Were Trouble' by Taylor Swift - release 2013




Increasingly the more recent music video's have a start before the song starts were you tell the beginning of the story relating to the song. This music had a beginning and end to tie the video all in. I like the short fasts shots of this video having recurring shots mostly close ups in the same mise-en-scene embedded with scenes playing from her memory I think I whole idea is very clever.