ast week MTV announced their 2016 VMA nominees and with it, a chance to legitimize visual albums as the natural successor to music videos. Long regarded as a gimmicky afterthought not unlike director’s commentary on DVD releases, visual albums have always existed on the periphery of the music industry. It’s no small secret that music videos have been nearing extinction for quite some time now. We fondly remember MTV for making music videos popular, but they stopped broadcasting them in the early aughts. And with the exception of a few meme-able moments (“Hotline Bling,” “Gangnam Style”), music videos have become less of a necessity for churning out a mainstream hit. Musicians today understand the need to create “events” around their albums, capturing our digital “fomo” and giving us reasons to interact. It’s why we’re dealing with an exhaustive number of surprise albums — they force us to pay attention, at least for now. But Beyoncé changed the conversation by making her latest album a must-watch event, not a must-listen. It may seem obvious, but it’s an important distinction. By capitalizing on our obsession with TV, Lemonade was treated to the same coverage you’d expect to see for Game of Thrones. Though visual albums have existed conceptually for the past half-century, we’ve never truly defined what these albums actually consist of. The VMA’s clunkily-named “Breakthrough Long Form Video” is a testament to the cultural impact of Lemonade and provides us with an opportunity to understand and appreciate how visual albums have evolved over time. Here’s where it all began. The plot loosely involves Paul McCartney’s grandfather convincing Ringo to leave the venue and “experience life”— which leads the other Beatles on a frantic hunt to find their missing drummer. The Beatles A Hard Day’s Night wasn’t the first film to use a band in order to sell movie tickets (see: Elvis), but it’s influence on music videos warrants a mention over the likes of Love Me Tender. Best described as “elegant filth,” Serge Gainsbourg’s visual album is arguably the first of its kind. Part autobiographical, part Nabokov — Histoire de Melody Nelson is an album about a Frenchman who crashes into a young girl riding a bicycle and the love affair that ensues. Accompanied by the lush string arrangements of composer Jean-Claude Vannier and featuring his then-wife Jane Birkin, Gainsbourg’s Histoire de Melody Nelson is a highly influential concept album that will still challenge modern listeners. Released three years after Pink Floyd’s album of the same name, The Wall is a musical film about a rock star who builds a “wall” as a coping mechanism for his insanity and depression. The film developed a large cult following despite being written by vocalist and bassist Roger Waters after he began to feel disconnected from his fans. It’d be a shame not to mention the film based on what is widely regarded as Prince’s magnum opus, Purple Rain. Even if it doesn’t technically fit the model of a visual album, there’s enough narrative in here to separate it from being a glorified concert film. Conceptualized during recording sessions for Discovery, Daft Punk teamed up with their childhood Leiji Matsumoto (of Captain Harlock fame) to create a sci-fi film about alien pop stars who are captured by a music executive and forced to play on Earth. Though there is a story, the film has no dialogue and few sound effects — which makes this visual album hard to enjoy if you aren’t a fan of their music. A testament to the power of DIY, frontman Charlie Fink convinced his label to fund this project to go alongside the release of their second studio album of the same name. The First Days of Spring is one of the more cohesive visual albums on this list, but whether it’s considered required watching depends on your thoughts on mumblecore. Animal Collective were the first to coin the term “visual album” with their 53 minute film that doubled as the only way fans could access the soundtrack. It’s heavy on imagery and doesn’t feature any dialogue — but deserves credit for introducing the concept of visual albums into our mainstream lexicon. Written and directed by Kanye while he was still in exile from the 2009 VMAs, Runaway was originally designed to be a full visual album for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Over five years later, it feels like the prototype for modern visual albums. This one’s a stretch considering Gregg Gillis of Girl Talk didn’t actually have anything to do with this film — but it’s certainly a blast to watch. Funded through a Kickstarter campaign, Girl Walk, All Day follows “the Girl,” “the Gentleman,” and “the Creep” as they traverse NYC and scare unsuspecting tourists. Drawing inspiration from the likes of Kanye’s Runaway and Prince movies, Dirty Projector’s Hi Custodian combines surreal imagery with musical performance to create a story about spiritual death and rebirth. There’s not much more to say that hasn’t already been said elsewhere. Beyoncé’s Lemonade is without a doubt, the new standard for visual albums and a realization of the true potential of the format. Honorable Mentions: Michael Jackson — Moonwalker, TV on the Radio — Nine Types of Light, Bon Iver — Bon Iver, Bon Iver, Nightwish — Imaginaerum, Suede — Night Thoughts, and Justin Bieber — Purpose If you enjoyed reading this, please click the ♥ below. This will help to share the story with others. Follow Cuepoint: Twitter | Facebook
Taylor Swift has made a series of “music movies” as a part of Midnights’ visual album. She announced the same before releasing the teaser trailer during Thursday Night Football for her much-awaited 10th studio album. Midnights’ video series has piqued fans’ interest with features of several famous celebrities. Taylor released the complete album at midnight on October 21 and it is available to stream on multiple platforms. In addition to the 13 songs, the singer surprised fans with seven bonus tracks on Midnights 3 am Edition. The Stranger | Official Trailer | Netflix https://i.ytimg.com/vi/umIeYcQLABg/hqdefault.jpg What is a visual album?Simply put, a visual album consists of a series of videos serving as a “visual vehicle” for the songs. The videos are created in theme with the songs on the album to offer a cinematic effect. Midnights is Taylor’s first visual album. The first part of the Midnights’ visual album premiered with a video of the third track, Anti-Hero, on October 21st. Taylor reunited with cinematographer Rina Yang to create the music movies for her latest installment. She told The Hollywood Reporter: “I love storytelling, I love songwriting, I love writing videos, I love directing them. And this was a really fun opportunity to work again with the cinematographer Rina Yang.” The duo wanted to “challenge” themselves to do things differently for Midnights with a visual album. Complete cast on Midnights’ music moviesLike Anti-Hero, the rest of the tracks on Midnights will be accompanied by music videos that feature popular artists. The cast includes:
The complete list was revealed towards the end of Midnights’ teaser trailer. 3am deluxe version consists of 7 bonus tracksTaylor surprised fans at 3:00 a.m. on Friday by announcing seven bonus songs for Midnights. Along with the link to Midnights (3am Edition), the singer tweeted: “I’m calling them 3am tracks. Lately I’ve been loving the feeling of sharing more of our creative process with you, like we do with From The Vault tracks. So it’s 3am and I’m giving them to you now.” The tracks include:
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