Since MTV’s initial broadcast in 1981, the creation and distribution of music videos have experienced a number of changes. Today, music videos are no longer shared on just a few satellite services but on several platforms and commercial websites. People, as much as record labels, are allowed to share their work (as long as they do not break copyright rules) without having to be approved by a board of ten. There is no longer a strict four- to five-minute format; instead, music videos can be anything from 10 seconds to several hours. It is even allowed to add a variety of interruptions, such as the introduction of a trailer or a person speaking, and content from other genres can interfere. With all these changes, defining what music video is and what it is not has become harder to distinguish. (Vernallis, 2013).

Take, for example, the music artist Beyonce’s Lemonade album, released on April 23, 2016. The album is a sophisticated piece of art that takes many forms: a music album with twelve songs, live performances, a ‘visual album’, and an art film. The visual album is divided into 24 parts/chapters, including a lengthy credits section. In between songs, there are titles in italic, which refers to chapters that are voiced over by Beyonce reading lines based on poetry by Warsan Shire. This can remind us of elements from cinematic film format. The texts form the core of Beyoncé’s album and its examination of family, adultery, and the black female body. Each song/chapter distinguishes itself from the others but gets connected with symbols, themes and auditory leitmotifs. Verbal and visual meaning processes frequently overlap with words, and Beyonce acts, sings, and dances while performing her songs. In addition, she engages with the camera in a way that seems to be an attempt to make eye contact with the audience, breaking the fourth wall (Hartmann, 2017). All of these components help to redefine what modern music videos can be.

By Serine Mikkelsen 

References: 

Hartmann, J. (2017) Sound, Vision, and Embodies Performativity in Beyonce Knowles’ Visual Album Lemonade (2016) https://doi.org/10.4000/ejas.12415 (Accessed 23. November 2022)

Vernallis, C. (2013)  ‘Music Video’s Second Aesthetic’, Unruly Media: YouTube, Music Video, and the New Digital Cinema, 207-233

Sarah L (2016) Lemonade (FULL Visual Album) – Beyonce. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtERdsgFipVSDfp4jrW7FGOovsfm-n2dk (accessed: 23. November 2022)