Grammy Award for Best Concept Music Video

The Grammy Award for Best Concept Music Video was an honor presented to recording artists at the 30th Grammy Awards in 1988 and the 31st Grammy Awards in 1989 for quality concept music video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

s. The Grammy Award

Grammy Award

A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

s, an annual ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, are presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences

National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences

The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc., known variously as The Recording Academy or NARAS, is a U.S. organization of musicians, producers, recording engineers and other recording professionals dedicated to improving the quality of life and cultural condition for music and its...

of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position".

Beginning in 1982, the Academy began to honor quality music videos with the Video of the Year

Grammy Award for Video of the Year

The Grammy Award for Video of the Year was an honor presented to recording artists at the 24th Grammy Awards in 1982 and the 25th Grammy Awards in 1983 for music videos...

category. This category was discontinued with the establishment of the MTV Video Music Awards

MTV Video Music Awards

An MTV Video Music Award , is an award presented by the cable channel MTV to honor the best in music videos...

in 1984 and was replaced with two awards: Best Video, Short Form and Best Video Album. Criteria changes for the 1988 and 1989 ceremonies resulted in the Best Concept Music Video award being presented alongside the award for Best Performance Music Video

Grammy Award for Best Performance Music Video

The Grammy Award for Best Performance Music Video was an honor presented to recording artists at the 30th Grammy Awards in 1988 and the 31st Grammy Awards in 1989 for quality performance music videos...

. Best Concept Music Video award recipients were the English rock band Genesis

Genesis (band)

Genesis are an English rock band that formed in 1967. The band currently comprises the longest-tenured members Tony Banks , Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins . Past members Peter Gabriel , Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips , also played major roles in the band in its early years...

for "Land of Confusion

Land of Confusion

"Land of Confusion" is a rock song written by the band Genesis for their 1986 album Invisible Touch. The song was the third track on the album and was the fourth track from the album to become a single, which reached #4 in the US and #14 in the UK in early 1987. It made #8 in the Netherlands...

" and the American singer "Weird Al" Yankovic

"Weird Al" Yankovic

Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...

for "Fat

Fat (song)

"Fat" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a parody of "Bad" by Michael Jackson. It is the second parody Yankovic did of a Jackson song, the first being "Eat It", a parody of Jackson's "Beat It"...

". The Academy returned to the previous format in 1990, though the categories are now known as Best Short Form Music Video

Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video

The Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to performers, directors, and producers of quality short form music videos...

and Best Long Form Music Video

Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video

The Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video is an accolade presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally named the Gramophone Awards, to performers, directors, and producers of quality videos or musical programs...

Background

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences began to honor quality music videos with the Video of the Year

Grammy Award for Video of the Year

The Grammy Award for Video of the Year was an honor presented to recording artists at the 24th Grammy Awards in 1982 and the 25th Grammy Awards in 1983 for music videos...

category in 1982. The first two award recipients were former member of The Monkees

The Monkees

The Monkees are an American pop rock group. Assembled in Los Angeles in 1966 by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968, the musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork,...

Michael Nesmith

Robert Michael Nesmith is an American musician, songwriter, actor, producer, novelist, businessman, and philanthropist, best known as a member of the musical group The Monkees and star of the TV series of the same name...

for the hour-long video Elephant Parts
Elephant Parts
Elephant Parts is a collection of comedy and music videos made in 1981 by Michael Nesmith, former member of the Monkees. Nesmith produced the video through his company Pacific Arts, using money he inherited from his mother, the inventor of Liquid Paper...

(also known as Michael Nesmith in Elephant Parts) as well as Olivia Newton-John

Olivia Newton-John

Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...

for Olivia Physical
Olivia Physical
Olivia Physical is a 1982 video collection featuring the singer Olivia Newton-John and various of her songs, most from the album Physical. A somewhat expanded version of the video was aired as an ABC prime-time special, Let's Get Physical, which was in the top 10 of the Nielsen ratings...

. The Video of the Year category was discontinued with the establishment of the MTV Video Music Awards

MTV Video Music Awards

An MTV Video Music Award , is an award presented by the cable channel MTV to honor the best in music videos...

in 1984

1984 MTV Video Music Awards

The 1984 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on September 14, 1984, honoring the best music videos from May 2, 1983, to May 2, 1984. The show was hosted by Dan Aykroyd and Bette Midler at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City....

, the top award of which is also presented for Video of the Year

MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year

The MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year is the main award handed out at the yearly MTV Video Music Awards. It was first awarded in , when The Cars won it, and has been given out since. Eminem has been the most nominated solo artist, male solo artist, and act in this category, having been...

. The Academy replaced the category with the awards for Best Video, Short Form and Best Video Album beginning with the 26th Grammy Awards. For the awards held in 1988 and 1989, the criteria changed and honors were presented for the categories Best Concept Music Video and Best Performance Music Video

Grammy Award for Best Performance Music Video

. The Academy returned to the previous format in 1990, though the categories were renamed Best Music Video, Short Form and Best Music Video, Long Form. In 1998, the categories were retitled Best Short Form Music Video

Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video

and Best Long Form Music Video

Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video

, respectively.

Recipients

For the 30th Grammy Awards (1988), Best Concept Music Video nominees included David Bowie

David Bowie

David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

for "Day-In Day-Out

Day-In Day-Out

"Day-In Day-Out" is the first track on David Bowie's album Never Let Me Down. It was issued as a single ahead of the album's release.The song criticised the urban decay and deprivation in American cities at the time, concerned largely with the depths a young mother has to sink to in order to feed...

", Kate Bush

Kate Bush

Kate Bush is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic vocal style have made her one of the United Kingdom's most successful solo female performers of the past 30 years.In 1978, at the age of 19, Bush topped the UK Singles Chart...

for The Whole Story
The Whole Story
-VHS and Laserdisc Editions:-Personnel:*Kate Bush - Keyboards, Vocals, Producer*Ian Cooper - Cutting Engineer*Jon Kelly - Producer*Andrew Powell - Producer-Charts:-Certifications:...

, the English rock band Genesis

Genesis (band)

for "Land of Confusion

Land of Confusion

", David Lee Roth

David Lee Roth

David Lee Roth is an American rock vocalist, songwriter, actor, author, and former radio personality. Roth was ranked nineteenth by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Singers of All Time....

for David Lee Roth, and Janet Jackson

Janet Jackson

Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years...

for Control – The Videos Part II . The music video for Bowie's "Day-In Day-Out", directed by Julien Temple

Julien Temple

Julien Temple is an English film, documentary and music video director. He began his career with short films featuring the Sex Pistols, and has continued with various off-beat projects, including The Great Rock And Roll Swindle, Absolute Beginners and a documentary film about Glastonbury.-Temple...

, included "offending" scenes such as a man urinating

Urination

Urination, also known as micturition, voiding, peeing, weeing, pissing, and more rarely, emiction, is the ejection of urine from the urinary bladder through the urethra to the outside of the body. In healthy humans the process of urination is under voluntary control...

on Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

's Hollywood Walk of Fame

Hollywood Walk of Fame

The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...

star but was edited for television broadcast. Bush's "imaginative" video sampler accompanies her greatest hits album of the same name and includes music videos for songs that span her career. The music video for "Land of Confusion", a song that appeared on the band's 1986 album Invisible Touch
Invisible Touch
Invisible Touch is the 13th studio album by the band Genesis, released in 1986. It reached No.1 in the UK where it remained in the charts for 96 weeks, making it by far the most commercially successful album of their career, eventually selling over 15 million copies worldwide...

, contained Spitting Image
Spitting Image
Spitting Image is a British satirical puppet show that aired on the ITV network from 1984 to 1996. It was produced by Spitting Image Productions for Central Television. The series was nominated for 10 BAFTA Awards, winning one for editing in 1989....

puppet

Puppet

A puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by an entertainer, who is called a puppeteer. It is used in puppetry, a play or a presentation that is a very ancient form of theatre....

s of Reagan, Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...

and other people. David Lee Roth's self-titled video consisted of promotional clips created for his debut solo EP

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

Crazy from the Heat and album Eat 'Em and Smile. Jackson's video collection, which was certified

Music recording sales certification

Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...

gold in the United States, contained six promotional videos recorded for singles

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

from her album Control
Control (Janet Jackson album)
Control is the third studio album by American recording artist Janet Jackson, released on February 6, 1986 by A&M Records. Her collaborations with songwriters and record producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis resulted in an unconventional sound: a fusion of rhythm and blues, funk, disco, rap vocals,...

. Awards were presented to members of Genesis (Tony Banks

Tony Banks (musician)

This article is about the musician. For other people named Tony Banks, see Tony BanksAnthony George "Tony" Banks is a British composer, and multi-instrumentalist, who performs as a keyboardist and a guitarist...

, Phil Collins

Phil Collins

Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....

, Mike Rutherford

Mike Rutherford

Michael John Cleote Crawford Rutherford is an English musician. He is a founding member of Genesis, initially as a bassist and backup vocalist. In later incarnations of Genesis, he assumed the role of lead guitarist. He is one of only two constant members in Genesis . He also fronts Mike + The...

) as the performing artists, Jim Yukich and John Lloyd as the video directors

Music video director

A music video director is driven by a given music track. These are called music videos and are then used as promotional tools for popular music singles...

, as well as Jon Blair

Jon Blair

Jon Blair is a South African born writer, producer and director of documentary films, drama and comedy who has lived in England and the United States ever since he was drafted into the South African army in the late 1960s...

as the video producer.

Nominees for the 31st Grammy Awards were the Hampton String Quartet

Hampton String Quartet

The Hampton String Quartet considered by many to be one of the founders of the "alternative music" genré of chamber music is a string quartet specializing in rock music and other popular styles, playing serious chamber music arrangements of songs using classical composer influences and frequently...

for "Get a Job

Get a Job (song)

"Get a Job" is one of the best known doo-wop songs of the 1950s. Recorded by The Silhouettes in October 1957, the song reached the number one spot on the Billboard pop and R&B singles charts in February 1958....

", former member of The Beatles

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

George Harrison

George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...

for "When We Was Fab

When We Was Fab

"When We Was Fab" is a song written by George Harrison and Jeff Lynne about the days of Beatlemania, when The Beatles were first referred to as the "Fab Four". The song appears as the sixth track on Harrison's 1987 album Cloud Nine and was later released as the second single from that album in...

", the American rock band Talking Heads

Talking Heads

Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...

for Storytelling Giant
Storytelling Giant
Storytelling Giant was a 1988 compilation of ten music videos produced by Talking Heads during the 1980s. The videos are linked by apparently real people telling stories from their lives. The stories have no logical connection to the videos....

, "Weird Al" Yankovic

"Weird Al" Yankovic

for "Fat

Fat (song)

", and Neil Young

Neil Young

Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...

for "This Note's for You". "Get a Job", a song originally by the American group The Silhouettes

The Silhouettes

The Silhouettes were an American doo wop/R&B group whose single "Get A Job" was a #1 hit on the Billboard R&B singles chart and pop singles chart in 1958. The doo-wop revival group Sha Na Na derived their name from the song's lyrics. "Get A Job"' is included in the soundtracks of the movies,...

, appears on the Hampton String Quartet's album What If Mozart Wrote "Roll Over Beethoven", a collection of 1950s R&B

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

and pop music

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

songs performed in the style of Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

, Debussy

Claude Debussy

Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...

, Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

and other composers. "When We Was Fab", a song from the album Cloud Nine
Cloud Nine (George Harrison album)
-Personnel:The following personnel was credited in the liner notes.*George Harrison – vocals, guitars, keyboards, sitar*Jeff Lynne – guitars, bass, vocals, keyboards*Eric Clapton – guitar*Elton John – piano*Gary Wright – piano*Ringo Starr – drums...

, is constructed from quotes about when The Beatles were famous and features Harrison playing a sitar

Sitar

The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...

. The music video contains Elton John

Elton John

Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...

dressed as a walrus

Walrus

The walrus is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the Odobenidae family and Odobenus genus. It is subdivided into three subspecies: the Atlantic...

(a reference to the 1967 song "I Am the Walrus

I Am the Walrus

"I Am the Walrus" is a 1967 song by The Beatles, written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. Lennon claimed he wrote the first two lines on separate acid trips. The song was in the Beatles' 1967 television film and album Magical Mystery Tour, and was the B-side to the #1 hit "Hello,...

"). Storytelling Giants is a collection of the Talking Heads' music videos along with additional material to "link" them together. Two of the nominated music videos had connections to Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

: "Fat" was a parody cover version

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

of Jackson's song "Bad", and the video for "This Note's for You" contained a Jackson look-alike

Look-alike

A look-alike is a person who closely resembles another person. In popular Western culture, a look-alike is a person who bears a close physical resemblance to a celebrity, politician or member of royalty. Many look-alikes earn a living by making guest appearances at public events or performing on...

's hair catching fire (a parody of an incident that occurred to Jackson during a shoot for a Pepsi

Pepsi

Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...

commercial

Television advertisement

A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...

in 1984). In the "Fat" video, Yankovic "balloons" into a "grossly overweight guy" through the use of cosmetics

Cosmetics

Cosmetics are substances used to enhance the appearance or odor of the human body. Cosmetics include skin-care creams, lotions, powders, perfumes, lipsticks, fingernail and toe nail polish, eye and facial makeup, towelettes, permanent waves, colored contact lenses, hair colors, hair sprays and...

and special effect

Special effect

The illusions used in the film, television, theatre, or entertainment industries to simulate the imagined events in a story are traditionally called special effects ....

s and leads a group of hefty people on a parade. The award was presented to Yankovic as the performing artist, along with Jay Levey as the video director and Susan Zwerman as the video producer.

External links

Official site of the Grammy Awards

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Background

Recipients

See also

External links