The mainstream rise of music videos can be traced back to the 1980s, when MTV famously first aired “Video Killed the Radio Star”, by The Buggles. This kickstarted an obsession with the consumption of music videos as a way for artists to gain exposure while maintaining accessibility for wide audiences. Music videos remained a crucial part of artists musical identity and media presence with audiences making references to iconic scenes in everyday conversation. Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” is a legendary example of the popularity music videos once carried. He was a pioneer in the domain as his video was essentially a short film and utilised cinematic elements to engage viewers. During the 2000s and 2010s, music videos transitioned from being cinematic pieces to shorter and cheaper productions that were less cinematically engaging. This change was to accommodate shorter attention spans as social media apps were becoming more popular.
In the current age of goldfish attention spans, the trivialization of music videos has become a significant phenomenon. Historically, music videos served as a crucial way to advertise a band or artist and construct a visual component. Now, music videos are an additive to an artist’s specific sound or niche – making them less necessary. As of recently, music artists like Ariana Grande and Charli XCX have released videos that appear to try and revive the use of cinema and artistic identity in music videos.
“Petal”, by Grande, follows the trajectory of an aspiring actress, Petal, who sits amongst her peers, all trying to audition in front of a deeply critical male panel. Despite trying out several times, Petal is continuously rejected and receives notes of “not good enough.” She tries on a variety of characters in order to successfully market herself to the panel of men, but is never accepted — she eventually cracks and slaughters the men in a morose set with a distinct red background juxtaposed with black silhouettes. Through the short video, Grande is clearly paying homage to several films: “Kill Bill” (Quentin Tarantino, 2003) and “Pearl” (Ti West, 2022) being two of the most notable. Her inspiration from these films directly represents that her music video is not just a piece of content — but a piece of cinema. Furthermore, Charli’s video, “Camera”, is representative of her desire to take artistic liberty as she is the director on a chaotic set, with Vincent Cassel, known for “La Haine” (Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995) and “Black Swan” (Darren Aronofsky, 2010), starring in her film. Cassel struggles with a difficult day on set and poses the question of what it actually means to be an actor. Her music video is filmed exclusively in black and white — creating a distinct mood that feels nostalgic of past cinema.
Both music videos reflect similar themes of never being enough, and the ingenuity of Hollywood now. This is reflected in both artists deconstructing what it means to be a celebrity — always being stage ready, permanent relevance, and eternal adoration. The videos expose the harsh reality of how exhausting it is to put up a facade and the constant reminder of the past greats. This style of music videos carrying artistic commentary represents a shift to a more self conscious celebrity and the significance of artistic identity; with identity being especially important in a time of social media when all music and artists can easily amalgamate because of mass consumption and trends. As today’s generation is painfully aware of how celebrities are manufactured, music videos are imperative to create a clear identity to differentiate themselves from the mainstream media.
