history of music videos

1. History of Music Videos

2. What is a music video?
• A music video is a short film or video that
accompanies a piece of music, most commonly a
song.
• Modern music videos were primarily made and
used as a marketing device intended to promote
the band/artist.

3. An early example of a music video
• St Louis Blue’s- Bessie Smith 1929 .
• The blues singer Bessie Smith featured in a two-
reel short film called ‘Saint Louis Blue’s’
featuring a dramatized performance of the hit
song. It was shown in theatres until 1932
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNWs0Lsi
mFs

4. • Music videos are often referred to as promotion
videos of ‘promos’ for short. Sometimes music
videos are termed short from music videos
to distinguish them from full length movies
which include a soundtrack.
• In the 1980’s, the term ‘rock video’ was often
used to describe this form of entertainment.

5. Disney
• In 1940, Walt Disney released Fantasia, an
animated film based around famous pieces of
classical music.

6. • The earliest music videos or music promos were filmed
in the mid 1950’s, however before then, as early as the
1920’s films were accompanied by musical scores
labelled ‘visual music.’
• The early animated efforts of Walt Disney, his ‘Silly
Symphonies’ were built around music. The Warner
Brothers cartoons were and still are based around music.

7. 1950’s and 60’s developments
• In 1956 Tony Bennett was filmed walking along The Serpentine in
Hyde Park as his recording of ‘Stranger in Paradise’ played; this film
was distributed to and played by UK and US television stations,
leading Bennett to later claim he made the first music video.
• According to the Internet Accuracy Project, disk jockey singer J.P
“The Big Bopper” Richardson (1959) was the first to coin the phrase
‘rock video.’
• Around 1960 the Scopitone, a visual jukebox, was invented in
France and short films were produced by many French artists, such
as Serge Gainsbough, Francoise Hardy and Jacques Dutronc to
accompany their songs. Its use spread to other countries and similar
machines such as the Cinebox in Italy and Color-Sonic in the USA
were created.

8. 1950’s and 60’s continued
• The defining work in the development of the modern music video was ‘The Beatles’
first major motion picture, ‘A hard days night’ in 1964 directed by Richard Lester.
The musical segments in this film arguably set out as basic visual vocabulary of
todays music videos, influencing a vast number of contemporary musicians, and
countless pop and rock music videos.
• Although unashamedly based on ‘A hard day’s night’ the hugely popular American
TV series The Monkeys was another important influence on the development of the
music video genre, with each episode including a number of specially-made film
segments that were created to accompany the various Monkees songs. The series ran
from 1966 to 1968.
• The Beatles took the genre to knew heights with their ground-breaking films for
‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and ‘Penny Lane’ produced in early 1967.
• In 1966 the clip of Bob Dylan performing ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues” filmed by
D. A Pennebaker. The clips iconic portrayal of a performance and seemingly random
inclusion of a celebrity (Allen Ginsberg) in a non-performing role also became
mainstays of the form. The clip has been imitated by a lot of artists.

10. Modern Era
• The key innovation in the development of the modern music video was of
course, video recording and editing processes, along with the development
of a number of effects such as Chroma-key. The advent of the high-quality
colour videotape recorders and portable video cameras coincided with the
DIY ethos of the New Wave era and this enabled many pop acts to produce
promotional videos quickly and cheaply, in comparison to relatively high
costs of using reels of film. However, as the genre developed music video
directors increasingly turned to 35mm film as the preferred medium, whilst
others mixed film and video.
• By the mid 1980’s releasing a music video to accompany a new
single had become standard, ad acts like The Jackson’s sought to
gain commercial edge by creating lavish music videos with million
dollar budgets; most notable with the video for ‘Can you feel it’
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW1fXL3s7bk

11. Modern Era of Music Video 1970’s
• In the UK the importance of Top of the Pops to promote a single created an
environment of innovation and competition amongst bands and record
labels as the show’s producers placed strict limits on the number of videos it
would use- therefore a good video would increase the songs sales as viewers
hoped to see the video again the following week.
• Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody also started a whole new era for using music
videos as promos.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW1fXL3s7bk
• The early self-produced music videos by Devo, including the pioneering
compilation ‘The Truth’ directed by Chuck Slater, were also important (if
somewhat subversive) developments in the evolution of the genre and these
Devo video cassettes releases were arguably among the first true long-form
video productions.

13. 1980’s
• 1981- MTV is launched. The first video aired is Buggles ‘Video killed the
radio star.’
• David Bowie scored his first UK number one in nearly a decade thanks to
director David Mallets’ eye catching promo for ‘Ashes to Ashes’
• In the early to mid 1980’s artists started to use more sophisticated effects in
their videos. Michael Jackson was the first artist to create the concept of the
short film. A sort film is a music video that has a beginning, middle and
end. He did this in a small way with Billie Jean directed by Steve Barron,
then in West Side Story directed by Bob Giraldi who also directed Beat It,
but it wasn’t until 1984 when the release of ‘Thriller’ came out as a short
film which took music videos to another level.

14. MTV
• Music video would, by the mid 1980’s grow to play a central role in
popular music marketing.
• Madonna, owed a great deal lot of her success to the skilful
construction and seductive appeal of her videos. Some academics
have compared music video to silent films, and it is suggested that
stars like Madonna have often quite deliberately constructed an
image that in many ways echo's the image of great stars of the silent
era such as Greta Garbo. Although many see MTV as the start of the
‘Golden Era’ of music videos and the unparalleled success of a new
art form in popular culture, others see it as a hastening the death of
the true musical artist, because physical appeal in now critical to
popularity to an unprecedented degree.

15. Music Video’s Today
• In the information technology era, music videos
now approach the popularity of the songs
themselves, being sold in collections on video
tapes and DVD.
• New editing techniques and modern day
cameras help to build an artist a lot more and get
them to become famous compared to thirty
years ago where you would have to watch them
in theatres to see them.