History of Music Videos

1960’s/1970’s – Promotional Clips

• The Beatles used film to promote their music. They used feature films such as ‘Help’ and ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ to go alongside an album release. Throughout the feature films, which used narrative, the band also are seen performing songs.

• Penny Lane by The Beatles, produced in 1967, features elements that are seen today in music videos such as: Dramatic Lighting, large array of camera angles, and rhythmic editing.

1980’s

• This decade saw the launch of MTV, a channel dedicated to showing music videos. This changed the music industry forever as the focus was not about just producing music, but also about producing a piece of film.

• Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles was the first (and 1 millionth) video to be aired on the channel in 1991.

• In 1983, ‘Michael Jackson’s Thriller’ was broadcast for the first time on MTV, this video was a 13 minute long production with cinematic elements preceding the actual music video.

• In 1984, MTV launched the award ceremony the VMA’s (Video Music Awards). This ceremony congratulated artists and producers on the work they have done to produce music videos.

• 1986 saw the production and broadcast of Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer. The video featured new techniques never really seen in music videos such as claymation, pixelation and stopmotion. The video won a record 9 awards at the 1987 VMA’s. The music video allowed Peter Gabriel to win the number 1 spot in America.

1990’s

• The most expensive music video ever made was produced in this decade.

• In 1995 Mark Romanek directed Michael and Janet Jackson’s video, ‘Scream’. The video is said to have cost $7 Million. An all time high in the industry.

2000 - Now

• In 2005, iTunes video was launched. With the launch, iTunes released feature films, TV programmes, and music videos. This gave an instant access to music videos for the audience as they were instantly available as a download. This also boosted the sales of songs as 1 million songs were downloaded in the first 20 days since the launch.

• 2007 youtube• Music videos – more interactive• More creative – prosumer• Editing real life footage• Independents are able to produce• Democratic – not just one company• More freedom• Internet and technogy advance • Interactive nature• Social network – facebook, twitter, myspace music.

• 2007 saw the birth of YouTube, the video sharing website. This allowed videos to be readily available on demand. It is also free which adds the element of ‘prosumers.’ This allows consumers to also produce music videos. The site has raised in publicity since and is the number one source for music videos in todays age.

• Technology has advanced since 200 alone and new sites such as VeVo and sites such as Myspace have been reborn. These sites give a more concise service as they are both platforms created from a musical direction. Justin Timberlake re-launched Myspace as a musical social network, this has allowed artists and fans to interact in ways never seen before.

• Music videos are now seen as big productions:

• Some videos also allow the artist to become a worldwide sensation: