Musical videos and movies. Essay.

Written by Lucy Galvis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRpVBTVlQSI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wb0Jmy-JYbA

I´m just listening Love Song from Godfather movie performed by a gypsi musician Diego “El Cigala”. This relationship with musical movies and videos is very special for me because I found many stories related to myself. ¡I´m always relating audiovisual products to my daily life! When I was a child I decided to be an alien because I saw many tv shows as Mork and Mindy and ET, and this was decisive in my actitude toward science and investigation. Most of the time I´m watching material on YouTube, I love looking for something new in my timeline about movies with sound and mainly with soundtrack. I think I like much more soundtracks than movies.

Movies were first made due a brothers Lumiere invention. Photography as well as Filmaking Technology changed arts concepts and processes. The first silent movies were accompanied by an orchestra on the teather. We still use different equipment to catch images and sound for filmaking and then we take all this material to a computer for assembly, though nowdays it is possible to catch images and sounds in a phone camera as well and processes it as in tv technical way to get a movie for internet, televisión and cinema.

When sound was feasible, the first documentary works appear only with natural sounds but any music, later on, filmakers included sound effects, voice-over and music not only for the cover but to follow main actions and emotions on screenplays.

And I started talking about The Godfather because most of the Luciano´s fortune at that time, 20´s, ended on entertainment industry. People liked to pay for theatrical music shows with nuded dancers, pubs and gambling, so during first days of Hollywood, filmakers took to big screen dance staging with box-ofice success. This period is characterized by the WWI and a wealth growth of US economy because of the income related to the given help to Europe in uniforms and arms, but US never felt war impacto n its territory. Instead, people continue consuming goods and servicies and dancing on streets. After 29 Crisis, people deepen alcohol consumption and due the Prohibition the organized crime erned more money than ever and entertainment industries grew in the whole continent.

Next in movies history 40´s and 50´s, we can found many latinamerican and spanish musical movies from argentina´s Singer Sandro de América; brazilian Singer living at tehe United States Cármen Miranda with music by jamaican composer Harry Belafonte, the same fo 90´s Beetlejuice; and Mario Moreno Cantinflas from Mexico, he wasn´t a singer but an actor who used to dance in many of his filmography, while at the States we can find vocal góspel assemblies, and the advent of the huge music figure, Elvis Presley. Though musical videos as we know right now, for tv programming, don´t appear until 80´s.

In 50´s, one innovation is the production of musical flims for children, titles as Mary Poppins and The Wizard of Oz. This leds toward a new gendre which was going to mark a time, the opera rock.

Contraculture at 60´s was characterized by a series of social movements that were fighting human rights not only at the US but in Europe. This movements have to do with the end of WWII in 1945. After Nuremberg Trials, United Nations Organización was created as well as the Red Cross and Red Crescent in order to prevent world of a new confrontation later on. They stand human rigths as a must and youth manifests troughout music and arts this belief.

During and after Spanish Civil War, artists expressed their feelings in movies like the rare done by surrealist painter Salvador Dalí and Walt Disney, and gypsi music related to poet García Lorca. In Germany we can found experimental films against war by the art group Fluxus integrated by Joseph Beuys, Jhon Cage and Yoko Ono, between others. Important musical videos of this period are “Ballet Triádico” a conceptual dance stage and films of dancer Isadora Duncan.

The deal music – films explodes during 60´s and 70´s. In the opera rock we can find titles as Tommy by psicodelia band Deep Purple starring by Jack Nicholson; Jesuschrist Superstar and Cats, theatricals montages taken to film with music by composer Andrew Lloyd Weber, between the most outstanding, while The Beatles ventures in cinematography with movies from their famous song like Yellow Submarine, and Lucy in the skies with diamonds.

Recently there is a movie constructed from The Beatles music called Across The Universe (2007).

At this time is very important to stand out the newest satellite communication technology that led to retransmisions of musical events as George Harrison´s Concert for Bangladesh accompanied by Eric Clapton and that is going to be very important on cinema buildings construction because digital technology joined to telecommunications let us nowadays to have the retransmission of any movie at many places at a time.    

All these 60´s and 70´s movies have the intention of getting the highest quality and are characterized for the best talent called, music, art design, color, actors, staging, shooting and all they are classics of its genre.

A chorus line, a movie about dancers on a stage is one of the best moviese ver film of this period.

Later on we could see on screen the movie Good Morning Vietman starring by Robin Willians related to 60´s facts.

One characteristic of 80´s musical films is the interest on people participation and representation, that´s why appears on stage musical proposals as YMCA band concept; Alan Parker´s Fame with main Singer Irene Cara; and spanish director Almodovar´s films representing people from all social levels and ethnicities.

In this period show up Jhon Travolta as a prominent figure of Holliwood industry in movies like Staying Alive directed by Sylvester Stallone, and Grease with singer Olivia Newton Jhon.

80´s brought too the advent around the world of well known singer Michael Jackson´s musical videos which impulsde music industry using screen writers to construct a story around the topic of the song. This breakthrough evolution into the industry business appears to us on today as new transmedia proposals because media manager started to mix all options of entertainment for all audiences haunger of a variety of contents if different forms including advertisment.

Late 80´s strengthen the idea of music as one of the best seller topic on film industry. New movies show up, Flashdance. Footloose. Breakdance. Purple Rain with stories about young people that either want to dance or to succed on any performative arts.

At 90´s we have outstanding movies as Chicago with excelent coreographies, and Pulp Fiction, that is not a musical film but that has an important dancing scene on cinematography. Soundtrack concept consolidated not only for film but for televisión. And in Latin America we have new musical proposses like colombian punk movie “Rodrigo D” that uses music to show Medellin social problems; and argentinans “Tango Feróz” with a story about a well known rock musician, and “La noche de los lápices” about the Argentina dictatorship.

Documentary is a very important genre on film and we can find music as topic wide world around. 2000 brought out the cuban film Buena Vista Social Club about old “soneros” in the island, follow by argumentative movies like Salsa and a movie for televisión about Hector Lavoe´s life. It´s usual to find on cable telefilms about singers from different continents.  

To close, films have had many brilliant composers, figures like Vangelis, Chariots of Fire, Blade Runner; Harry Belafonte, Beetlejuice; Jhon Willians, Shark Attack, Superman, E:T; Ennio Morricon with music for more than 500 movies like Kill Bill, The Untouchables, The exorcist, and The good, the bad and the ugly; and Hans Zimmer, music for Lion King, and Gladiator.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao3vOCDZd-Y