I really enjoyed Silk Sonic’s new song “Smokin Out the Window,” so when the music video showed up on my YouTube recommended feed, I of course had to check it out. The video emphasized a 70’s aesthetic with the outfits and choreography, and unlike many other music videos, featured actual instruments. For me, the video adds so much to the song, to the point that I always pull up the video on YouTube rather than just listening to the song on Spotify.
This got me thinking about how music videos add an essential dimension to music today. For some songs, accompanying music videos simply amplify the aesthetic of the song. Other times, they intensify the message behind a song. A perfect example of this is Childish Gambino’s “This is America.”
Music videos have been around since the 1980s, but they have changed dramatically since then. Nowadays, many of the videos have extremely high production levels, featuring numerous visual effects and incredibly advanced camerawork. For a more detailed history on music videos, check out this article!
3 Comments
Vanessa Perez · November 29, 2021 at 6:17 pm
I totally agree! There have even been times where I did not understand the meaning of a song until I watched the music video. That goes to show how impactful and communicative imagery can be in ascribing meaning to words that may be a bit abstract.
Will Cai · November 29, 2021 at 10:42 pm
Yeah I totally agree, your example of “This Is America” is one of those songs that I personally can’t even separate from the video when listening to it. Everything about the video was so groundbreaking both with its production and its messaging and it still holds up amazingly today.
Elisa Zhang · November 30, 2021 at 3:02 am
I agree that music videos are super important — in particular, I love Taylor Swift’s music videos, especially the recent one for All Too Well
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