Music Television (MTV) was the original platform for music videos since its first premiere on Aug. 1, 1981.
Music videos have been a visual way to interpret different artists’ songs.
For example, the first music video shown was ‘The Buggles’ and since they were first on air, they coincidentally did the song “Video Killed the Radio Star.”
Artists and bands like David Bowie, Journey and Aerosmith also had music videos played on MTV.
With all these videos coming out, there was an issue with content because television had restrictions and didn’t give the artist the power to choose their own content.
Though the videos are the artist interpretations there has been an increasing trend of the visual song not matching the lyrics.
Fast forward to 2004, YouTube is now the new platform for music videos, which also mean not a lot of artist or bands have to deal with censorship of their videos because they no longer have TV restriction.
With an open field of ideas to choose from many artists made that push to be more unique and more appealing to their fanbases.
“I’d rather listen to lyrics than watch the music video” said Delta student Denise Thoeung.
Event though that whole aspect is their job, many have strayed from their roots and now try to match the most popular or just the trend.
For example, British singer Ed Sheeran’s, original content actually never featured him in the video at all, the reason being the video was telling the story behind the lyrics.
“The video attracts me more to the song, the music video get me hype,” said Delta student Karyme Cobian. “It’s hard to follow the song if the video doesn’t match (the lyrics).”
One video that happens to be one of the ‘Top 10’ videos is Justin Bieber’s “Sorry.” This doesn’t feature him in it but it also does not match the lyrics.
“I love the choreography, I love all types of music, and I love the story behind it.” Said Delta Student Kimberly Seng. “When they don’t match the lyrics, it’s … obvious and it’s kind of stupid.”
