History of Music Videos

What is the point of a music video?

• A music video is mainly used for promotional purposes and artistic purposes and is usually a short film involving the song and mainly the performance by the singer.

• Recently, modern music videos are prominently created for marketing purposes to increase sales of the singles and also promote the artist.

• They can be created to express the artist’s feeling through narrative and performance

• There can be a synergy across several products e.g. a soundtrack to a film such as ‘Low’ by Flo Rida featuring T-Pain where the music video includes several clips from the film to also promote the film

• They can be created for a chance to win awards and create more publicity.

The Development• Music videos have been around for decades and will

continue to be created in the most creative formats in the future

• Music videos started in the late 30s mainly starting with Elvis Presley and his first live TV performance. This was completely typical as many musicians would mainly perform live on television

• This carried on all the way to 1980s when MTV was launched where the first video released was ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ by The Buggles.

• The introduction of other channels such as VH1, Box and 4Music has also gained more attractions as a marketing tool as has YouTube.

• MTV has also made a grave impact as it provided music videos internationally for countries such as China

• In the modern day today, the music video is sometimes the symbol that stands out the most rather than the song itself

Soundies• Soundies were essentially short films with the main aim

of marketing the artist in the early days of sound film-making. Short films could be up to up 8 minutes long which was used to showcase talent by singers such as Billie Holidays and Bing Crosby which would generally be shown in cinemas as a small part of an entire programme of newsreel, cartoon and main features but focusing mainly as reels on the front runner of the video jukebox – the Panarom.

• The Panarom was a visual jukebox which was mainly used for early music videos called Soundies which were basically one song films. Lots of soundies were created within the jazz and classical genre in the 1940s.

• Soundies tended to be a group of performers singing live performances in short film musicals. Jukeboxes could often be found in restaurants and bar enabling people to play and watch the clip as the music played easily.

Rise of the Television • The first short musical film made in the USA specifically

for Televisions was the Snader Telescriptions which produced and filmed over 1000 musicals between 1950-54.

• It was in 1956 where Tony Bennett was filmed walking along The Serpentine in Hyde Park in London, England in his recording of ‘Stranger in Paradise’. This film was distributed and played in television stations in the UK and USA making Bennett the first ever person to make a music video.

The Beatles• Music video were beginning to receive attention and

reach out to wider audiences when then eventually lead onto videos to be made for specific programmes such as Hullubaloo in the USA and Top of the Pops in the UK

• Promotional clips for music groups began being produced e.g. The Beatles – A Hard Days Night which was the first big motion picture released in 1964.

• Many musical aspects have created music videos today through the use of the visual vocabulary which as had an influence on many artists and lots of rock and pop groups today in music.

• The Beatles had other work including ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and ‘Penny Lane’ which were made in 1967 and eventually made into successful films which enhanced the music video scene as they included lighting, unusual camera angles and film techniques.

Modern Era• Modern day music videos is in all the rebirth of music and videos as

audiences have been introduced to colour screening and lots of other useful effects. Equipment became a lot more concise and easier to use technology such as hand- held cameras making it more relaxed for artists to produce, release and market their videos. It eventually became more noticeable that the more money an artist earned, the more advanced and better the music they came out with would be standing out to the audience.

• During the 1980s, releasing a normal, standard music video had become dull which became clearer once The Jackson Five released their video ‘Can You Feel It’ which had millions of dollars behind it, which gained them that more commercial edginess towards viewers.

Music Videos Today• Music videos are created mainly to market an artist

nowadays. MTV continues to be a force on the television as more than 320 million TV sets in 90 countries over 5 continents tune in to watch music.

• Videos can also be watched on other media platforms such as the internet which provides sources such YouTube, Game Consoles and Mobiles.

• It can be agreed that YouTube is seen as the most modern music video marketing system today as plenty of people can make their own music videos and upload it onto YouTube gaining views and eventually perhaps record label contracts.

• Downloading music from the internet is becoming more common and can be seen as a threat to MTV as not many audiences would tune in to watch videos on TV if they can just browse online.