Way Beyond The Music: Lyric Music Videos

Why You Should Release & Use Lyric Music Videos

The old days of the MTV style videos has come and gone. Things are constantly changing in the video world and lyric music videos are the new craze! That's right, I said lyric music videos. The entire look and feel is different for sure. I can remember watching MTV all day long and waiting for my favorite Artist to put out their next music video. So, why have things changed and folks are digging on these lyric music videos???

Mike Baldo, the Senior Account Manager of Video Services at The Orchard said the following in an article on sonicbids (link listed below):

For better or worse, the days of tuning into awesome, cinematic music videos on MTV have been swallowed whole by reality TV marathons (RIP). These music videos still exist in part on YouTube and VEVO, but they're being consumed and advertised against differently than in the old days, making the ROI of a huge video production more questionable. This is both good and bad news depending on how you look at it.

Producing and shooting a classic MTV-style music video costs tens of thousands of dollars. When MTV was the only way to watch music videos, this was a painful but necessary struggle. Though these types of videos are still being made, they're no longer the unshakable standard. Since YouTube broke down the barriers of entry for publishing videos to the world, indie artists and major labels alike have found better ways to create videos for their music.

By embracing a more open community of viewers and creators, many artists have turned to lyric videos as a fast and cost-effective alternative to full video production. Because lyric videos don't necessarily require a live shoot, location, scheduling, and casting can be removed from the process. With less of a logistical headache, these videos are often faster to create and publish, which is huge if tight deadlines are imminent.

Though a great animator could still run up your production costs, you at least have options and some room to work with. By keeping your ideas simple, a good animator can get you an excellent lyric video relatively quickly and for much cheaper than a traditional music video shoot. Make no mistake though, lyric videos aren't just a cheap hack for indie artists on a budget. Huge pop acts like One Direction and Ariana Grande have used lyric videos to premiere Top 40 singles, generating millions of views.

If you have the budget to hire a crew and shoot an amazing music video, by all means do it. These are clearly the heavy-hitters of the music video world, but not always in the best way. Conversely, not having that budget doesn't mean you're limited to just Art Tracks. If you can create something in the middle with a clever, catchy lyric video, you've set yourself apart."

Still not sure a lyric music video is the way to go? Keep reading. I personally have seen this trend exploding and decided to start having lyric music videos made for each single I am releasing and pushing to radio. Radio, well we will tackle that in another post. In the meantime see what Sean Rameswaram said in an interview on his podcast.

The Internet loves lyrics.

"As soon as we could connect to the web, we used it to connect with our favorite music — and we keep finding new ways to do that.

At first it was clunky websites that gave you lyrics — though not necessarily the right ones — and plenty of ads for tracks and ringtones you didn't want. But now musicians and fans alike are getting creative with videos that showcase lyrics in new ways.

YouTube has played a big part in the rise of lyric videos, but it’s not a new concept. George Michael and Prince both toyed with the concept in the 1980s and early 1990s, when they just didn't feel like making music videos for their singles. Going further back, there's Bob Dylan's iconic, homemade cue-card video for "Subterranean Homesick Blues" from 1965.

That static style — simply words fading in and out over the audio — carried over to the Internet when fans started making their own lyric videos. ”They were just ripping the song from iTunes and putting it up,” says Kevin O’Keeffe, an entertainment writer for The Atlantic.

Then things got more interesting: For his 2010 hit "F--- You," Cee-Lo Green shot a regular music video for the radio-friendly version of the song. But he also produced a slick, animated lyric video for the R-rated original.

“It's sort of the form that we know now as the lyric video," O'Keeffe says. "It’s one blue screen and it's words appearing basically on top of each other and sliding in and out and everything. It's exuberant about it as it happens. The words 'F--- You’ literally just jump onto the screen harder than anything else.”

That song's popularity helped launch a tidal wave of lyric videos from artists like Justin Timberlake, Neko Case, Ariana Grande and Katy Perry with her "Roar" video.

Now the lyric video is even having an influence on music videos: Check out the animated lyrics all over the music video for "Lie, Cheat, Steal” by Run The Jewels.

But innovation in the lyric world doesn't end there. If lyric videos are a great introduction to a song, sites like Genius offer crowd-sourced, annotated lyrics for those who want the stories and meanings behind the words. The site started with rap, but it's since branched out to music of any genre — not to mention Shakespeare and the State of the Union address.

“For anyone who loves these facts and loves these words, it feels very helpful,” says Sasha Frere-Jones, a veteran music critic who's now an executive editor at Genius. “We’re dealing with production, culture, transmission of symbols.”

For example, find the hidden meaning in first the line of Taylor Swift's "Blank Space."

“‘Incredible Things’ is the name of her perfume, and every single person I showed it to — and they are definitely people who like and know Taylor — were like, ‘What? I didn't know that,'" Frere-Jones says. “And I'm like, 'Yep, it's product placement.' Literally nobody knew that. First of all, including me.”

This story is based on an interview from PRI's Sideshow podcast with Sean Rameswaram"

***If you are interested in having a Lyric Music Video created for your songs email me sebbymusicgroup@gmail.com and I can put you in touch with the folks that made mine. The 1st 5 people that email me will get their video made for $500 or 2 for $900 (normally $750 per video)!!! Don't delay, get your special pricing TODAY!!! ***

Here is the Lyric Music Video for my current radio single Friday Night: