The History of Music Videos

The History of Music Videos

In the modern day world technology and the Internet have become part of our everyday lives. This could be checking the weather when you begin your day, on your smartphone, or ‘FaceBooking’ likewise on the move. The music industry has grabbed hold of this concept and progressively adapted their products to suit consumer’s wants. Nowadays a music promo is an essential part of an artist’s song release and is the driving force to provide both entertainment and that need to purchase their product. The first music videos to suit this purpose were developed in the 1950s, however as far back as 1894 short films with accompanying music had been produced for experimental and entertainment intentions. 

Perhaps considered one of the most revolutionary and important music videos since the idea came about is The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” in 1964. The video is so vital to the very creation of promotional videos because it attracted a great deal of attention from combining short film with original music. The video contains many clips of humorous nature as well as including narrative as to whom the band were and the mania that surrounded them. The inclusion of this was key in how successful the video would be because not only did it encourage more Beatle-mania but it demonstrated that the four were normal people like everybody else. This therefore allowed fans to relate to the band more. The majority of the film is shot in steadycam format which again gives the audience a sense of involvement and first hand action. 

Following the video an increase in the number of music promos gradually being produced rose including Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues’. If it can be called a music video, this promo showed Dylan himself shifting through a series of flashcards to represent the last word of each line in the song or to put emphasis on particular words with meaning (or not). The rapid progression of promotional videos in the music industry saw them being played in cinemas nationally and thus ‘Top of the Pops’, a live performance show of the hit-acts of the week, was created. The show reeled on showcasing the performers, such as Mick Jagger, housing in close-up shots of him and the audience’s reactions. This created a necessity for more music promos to be directed and produced.   

With the huge expansion of the industry production costs were able to rise and more experimental and ‘arty’ videos were arriving. “Strawberry Fields Forever”, again by The Beatles, was one of these videos and introduced new artistic methods of creating entertainment. These included distorted images, special effects, fast cuts to represent meaning in the song, as well as new transitions and camera filters. The use of these techniques allowed the audio and video to bind together building upon narrative and purpose.  

As this concept of promotional music videos built the audience did too and America shortly followed. The hit TV comedy The Monkees is one example of this where a group of four young men partake in humorous and wild activities. Short musical clips were introduced into the show and in 1967 they released ‘A little bit me, a little bit you’ again demonstrating these new editing and cinematography techniques such as surrealism and jump cuts. The Monkees could be and have been considered the ‘American Beatles’. 

  In 1981 a revolutionary new television channel launched by the name of MTV and was the first of it’s kind to bring solely music and music videos to television. The channel was run 24 hours a day 7 days a week that again was a new but controversial idea that surprisingly paid off.  

Duran Duran brought big budgets to the game in 1983 when their music video for ‘Rio’ was released. The promo cost a whopping £1m to develop which may not sound like much today but had never been seen or done before by any artist in the industry. This was the beginning of almost movie-like productions for bands and groups and this is shown in the opening scenes of the video which are presented in this movie format. Humour is also included and perhaps referenced from the originality of The Beatle’s ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ and in particular The Monkees. 

That year Michael Jackson saw out his single ‘Thriller’ that packed-a-punch with its launch bringing new development in the techniques and methods brought to life in videos. The promo included a considerable amount of narrative, more than anything had ever had before, special effects and also a voiceover. This built upon the ideas of matching the meaning behind the lyrics through video and this film-like aspect as it told a short story.   

The development of promotional videos across this era gradually constructed and moulded the building ground for the music industry’s output in today’s society. They also stemmed key aspects behind the purpose of modern music videos including to create controversy and to shock, informing and to entertain. Although music videos have lost their place where they began on MTV, sites on the internet such as YouTube and Vimeo have regurgitated nostalgia for the older generation and brought excitement and possibility for the new.