Music Video Budgets (Week 8)

Music video budgets started not too long ago. Anything fairly new at the time, no matter how cheap or expensive, how beautiful or ugly, if it was something that nobody has experienced before, it would earn a "wow." Back in the days of when music videos emerged, such as Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", it was something new and exciting, just like when radio emerged. It wasn't about the quality back then, it was the experience.

After the who phenomenon of music videos emerging with music, it demanded more sophisticated, creative ways to make music videos which had a huge impact on record sales. It had to be made in such a way that it would now appeal to the largest possible audience. This is when music videos started becoming mainstream and expensive videos started emerging, such as "Video Killed The Radio Star" on MTV. The further we advanced, the more money we spent in order to make the impossible, possible. Until......

Youtube.

Advancing from television, to the internet and now to the current "Web 2.0" there is much more input and interactivity between the internet and normal users such as you and me. You can now make people celebrities and with the input of a true audience instead of a select powerful few. Homemade video productions are now the star of YouTube and all you need is a camera, computer and internet connection. Compare this, to the costs of making a professional music video such as Plain White T's video "Hey There Delilah" which was released in the same year as OK Go's music video "Here it Goes Again." The production differences between these two videos is enormous, yet OK Go's music video has about 7 million more views than the Plain White T's.

It just goes to show us that now with YouTube, homemade productions are cheap, and can get you as much attention as mainstream media would.