8

Issues

Music Videos1

Music videos changed the way we listen to songs. Since their beginnings, traced back to the three-to-eight-minute mini-features showcasing Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and Bing Crosby,2 music videos were meant to be interpretations of a song and they were meant to be art. There are performance-driven videos, narrative videos, gothic videos, classic portraiture; there are futuristic videos and personal home movies; and there are animated music videos.

Early examples include Talking Heads’ And She Was (Jim Blashfield, 1985). It seems to visualize a girl’s drug trip, probably on LSD, as she sees a neighbourhood from above (her feet are often visible). The film uses paper cut-out objects. The ...

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