2. BACKGROUND
A music video is a videotaped performance
of a recorded popular song, usually
accompanied by dancing and visual images
interpreting the lyrics.
They are often produced for promotional or
artistic purposes.
Music videos in the modern day are often
used primarily as a source of marketing and
promotion
3. 1926-1950S
In 1926, with the arrival of "talkies" many musical short
films were produced. Vitaphone shorts (produced by
Warner Bros.) featured many bands, vocalists and
dancers. Spooney Melodies in 1930 was the first true
musical video series.
The Panoram jukebox with eight three-minute soundies
were popular in taverns and night spots, but the fad faded
during World War II.
In the late 1950s the Scopitone, a visual jukebox, was
invented in France and short films were produced by
many French artists, such as Serge Gainsbourg,
Françoise Hardy, Jacques Brel, and Jacques Dutronc to
accompany their songs.
4. THE BEATLES
In 1964, The Beatles starred in their first
feature film A Hard Day's Night, directed by
Richard Lester. Shot in black-and-white and
presented as a mock documentary
The musical sequences furnished basic
templates on which countless subsequent
music videos were modelled.
5. THE INTRODUCTION OF THE MUSIC VIDEO
The first music video released was a1966 clip for Bob
Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" filmed by D.
A. Pennebaker was featured in Pennebaker's Dylan
film documentary Dont Look Back.
Eschewing any attempt to simulate performance or
present a narrative, the clip shows Dylan standing in
a city back alley, silently shuffling a series of large
cue cards (bearing key words from the song's lyrics).
The Who featured in several promotional clips in this
period, beginning with their 1965 clip for I Can't
Explain. Their plot clip for Happy Jack (1966) shows
the band acting like a gang of thieves.
6. TOP OF THE POPS
The long-running British TV show Top of the
Pops began playing music videos in the late
1970s, although the BBC placed strict limits
on the number of 'outsourced' videos TOTP
could use.
Therefore a good video would increase a
song's sales as viewers hoped to see it again
the following week.
7. MTV
In 1981, the U.S. video channel MTV launched,
airing "Video Killed the Radio Star“, by The
Buggles and beginning an era of 24-hour-a-day
music on television.
With this new outlet for material, the music
video would, by the mid-1980s, grow to play a
central role in popular music marketing.
Many important acts of this period, most
notably Adam and the Ants, Duran Duran and
Madonna, owed a great deal of their success to
the skillful construction and seductive appeal of
their videos.
