CHANGES TO MUSIC VIDEOS JAILHOUSE ROCK - ELVIS PRESLEY (1957)

BAD BLOOD – TAYLOR SWIFT (2015)

‘Bad Blood’ starts off with an establishing shot of a city which tells you where the music video is set. The shot is very high-quality and it’s now what people expect what they watch a music video. This is because they are becoming increasing popular with songs and can boost sales. For example ‘Bad Blood’ is very well known for the fight scene before the song even begins.

‘Jailhouse Rock’ starts off with Elvis Presley talking to the audience about how he enjoyed the music video and song and then he introduces the music video. This is not very common anymore because it’s not very interesting and people would expect to see the music video and not a message from the artist.

JAILHOUSE ROCK – ELVIS PRESLEY (1957)

BAD BLOOD – TAYLOR SWIFT (2015)

Looking at the first scene of the music video shows you a lot about how music videos have changed over time.

In ‘Jailhouse Rock’, the set looks very basic and is meant to represent a jail. It is built on a set with two levels, windows and a fireman’s pole. Comparing this to ‘Bad Blood’, it is a real set in a business block. There are also desks, computers and chairs which makes it look very sophisticated compared to ‘Jailhouse Rock’.

Also the main difference is that ‘Jailhouse Rock’ is in low-quality black and white while ‘Bad Blood’ is in high-quality colour. Improving the visuals of the music video makes it a lot more appealing.

JAILHOUSE ROCK – ELVIS PRESLEY (1957)

BAD BLOOD – TAYLOR SWIFT (2015)

In ‘Bad Blood’, a lot of mid shots and mid-long shots are used. The close ups are used on the characters in the music video and the mid-long shots are used to give an idea to the audience what is happening in the story. In this music video there are a lot of characters who have a big role. Compared to ‘Jailhouse Rock’ this isn’t the case.

In ‘Jailhouse Rock’, a lot of close ups and long shots are used. All of the close ups are used on Elvis Presley to show him singing and above-the-waist dance movements. The long shots are used to show the dance choreography for the song. Also in this music video Elvis Presley is the only main person which is understandable in a lot of music videos even today.

JAILHOUSE ROCK – ELVIS PRESLEY (1957)

BAD BLOOD – TAYLOR SWIFT (2015)

In ‘Bad Blood’, there is a storyline whereas in ‘Jailhouse Rock’ there is just dance choreography. Typically in modern music a storyline is involved which originated in the 1970s. The focus wasn’t just on the artist singing but the cross cutting between the story and the artist singing.

The development of Chroma-Key meant that green and blue screens could be used to create realistic or unrealistic backgrounds. This let artists have a large variety of options open to them, on where they wanted their music video to be set and the storyline of it. This form of special effects would be used in the editing process by compositing two layers of images or videos together.

JAILHOUSE ROCK – ELVIS PRESLEY (1957)

BAD BLOOD – TAYLOR SWIFT (2015)