A2 Media studies

3 Decades of Rock/Folk Rock Music Videos

 

1960's

 

The most prominent folk rock bands of the 1960's where 'The Beatles', who, in their music videos created narrative and performance videos to support the meaning of their lyrics. Apart from when their music became psychedelic, the videos would illustrate or amplify the lyrics. For instance, the lyrics of the song 'Penny Lane' is about a man walking along a street called Penny Lane and simply talking about what he sees. The video does almost exactly the same, it follows a man, played by John Lennon, walk down a street called Penny Lane, however, the video does change towards the end as the band members ride into a countryside by horse were they proceed to have dinner served to them as if they where royalty. The odness of the video seems to illustrate the experiemnation evident in the 1960s, while this music is only mildly psychededlic, it suggests certain elements of experimental psychedelia is still apparent in their star personas. Conventions of an experimental video is evident by some of the micro-elements, for example, the editing seems awkward, at various moments of the video, it will straight cut to a very short take of one of the band members faces. The 'royal-looking' servants serving the band also implies experimentation as the royal clothes and props seem out of place in a british country-side.

 

1970s

 

As Bob Dylan became increasingly famous from the mid-sixties to late seventies, he popularised the roots of folk rock music which lead to the retreat of psychedelia. This is exemplified by the 'The Rolling Stones' who by the mid-seventies fell back into folk rock after a psychedelic influence with albums such as 'Their Satanic Majesties'. In 1974, the Rolling Stones released a music promo for "It's Only Rock 'N' Roll (But I like It)", the music video very much amplifies the lyrics of the song. The theme of Rock and Roll is often associated with being wild and loud, therefore the video is conventional of the rock movement of the 1970s through the wild performance of lead singer Mick Jagger who dances around thoughout. The video amplifies the song because of the setting of the video as the band are playing in a tent. Towards the end of the video, the tent is filled with a foamy-soap which seems to overpower the bands ability to perform, while this has not much relevance with the lyrics, it seems to be a metaphor for the wild, unpredictable nature of Rock music at the time. This is further implied by 'Respectable', another music video from the 'Rolling Stones' which was released in the seventees, the wild nature of rock 'n' roll is further suggested throuhg the bands performance as they smash through walls with their guitars towards the end, making this type of performance a convention of the genre in the 70s.

 

 1980s

 

The 1980s saw the popularisation of the neo-psychedelic genre, a branch of folk rock heavily influenced by the 1960s psychedelic movement. Bands such as 'Echo and the Bunnymen', 'The Teardrop Explodes' and 'The Soft Boys'. A convention of this decade for this genre was the use of performance music videos, this is evident from music videos by The Teardrop Explodes such as 'It's Just a Story', 'When I Dream' and music promos by 'Echo and the Bunnymen' such as 'The Killing Moon'. However, the symbolic nature of the props and performance in many of these videos suggest that these bands used conceptual themes aswell. This is implied by videos such as 'Seven Seas' by 'Echo and the Bunnymen', the video shows the lead singer performing on a theatrical stage with the rest of the band whilst foregrounding back drops of the north pole and maps of Liverpool. As well as this, someone in a consistently changing costume is walking around the band. This can be even further suggested by the Bunnymen's other videos such as 'The Killing Moon' which seems to focus on a boat/ship with ribbons and sheets covering it.