Music Video Analysis

I have always been quite fond of music videos, or at least music videos that obviously have a lot of effort and thought put into them. In class we examined a handful of music videos pulled from different decades and they each reflected their own period of time. Starting with some very early examples of a "music video" from the early 1900s and then moving on through the century up to our current point in time. We focused on some early examples of animation and music video looking at some Silly Symphonies, The Beatles Yellow Submarine, as well as some Pink Floyd animated videos. Pink Floyd's video is something that I would like to look at a little more in depth. It was a very symbolic music video and the usage of icons like the bloody cross was very emotionally binding. Pink Floyd is known for writing about England during WWII and all of the suffering of the English people that occurred. They also take into account the rest of the world, but being form England they naturally are going to focus on their own experiences. The music video provided a visual representation of what we were listening to as the eagle, a sign of Nazi Germany, rose above the desolate land morphing into German bombers. The scene would change once again showing dead skeleton soldiers rising up and morphing into bloody crosses on the battlefield. This scene shows us how impacting a music video accompanying a song can be to an audience. The importance of music videos can sometimes be brushed aside, but there are many creative factors that can go into creating a wonderful video. Some may even move you as much as Pink Floyd's does.