History of music video

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What is a music video?

Does it have to have a story? Does it have to conform to conventions? Does the artist have to feature in it? How long should it be? Does it have to be orginal idea? Does you have to have a big budget in order to make one?

A music video is a creative video to watch while listening to music. The video lasts as long as the song, and conforms to the genre it is presenting, in order to captivate the target audience. What is in the video depends on the genre of music and what they are trying to present. However, some artists challenge the conventions of their video as it makes for a unique video which could make it a lot more interesting. A music video is predominantly made for promotional and artistic purpose. It is a form of art, which allows different elements of creativity to be used

In 1926, with the arrival of ‘talkies’ many short films were produced

In 1930 cartoons began to feature some musicians Early animated Walt Disney films such as Fantasia,

featured several interpretations of classical music and were built around music

Soundies, produced and released from 1940-1947, were musical films that normally involved short dance sequences, similar to modern music videos.

In the mid-1940s, musician Louis Jordan made short films for his songs, some of which got put into a film called ‘Lookout Sister’. These films were, according to music historian Donald Clarke, the "ancestors" of music video.

History

Musical films were another important element to the development of music videos, as several well-known music videos have imitated the style of classic Hollywood musicals from the 1930s to the 1950s. One of the best-known examples is Madonna's 1985 video for "Material Girl" (directed by Mary Lambert) which was closely modelled on Jack Cole's staging of "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" from the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, which starred Marilyn Monroe

Scopitone is a type of jukebox featuring a 16 mm film component. Scopitone films were a forerunner of music videos. The Italian Cinebox/Colorama and Color-Sonics were competing, but were lesser-known technologies of the time.

The first Scopitones were made in France, by a company called Cameca on Blvd pool.

Late 50s- The Scopitone

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, it interspersed comedic and dialogue sequences with musical tones.

Concert films were being released in the mid-1960s, at least as early as 1964

During the late 1972–73 David Bowie featured in a series of promotional films directed by pop photographer Mick Rock, who worked extensively with Bowie in this period. Rock directed and edited four clips to promote four consecutive David Bowie singles, one was—"John, I'm Only Dancing" (May 1972)

The long-running British TV show Top of the Pops began playing music videos in the late 1970s, but the BBC did place strict limits on the number of 'outsourced' videos Top of the Pops could use. A good video would increase a song's sales as viewers hoped to see it again the following week; this highlights the benefit of music videos

In 1981, the U.S. video channel MTV launched, airing "Video Killed the Radio Star" and beginning an era of 24-hour-a-day music on television.

This was a huge development in the music industry, as it gave artists a huge platform allowing them to constantly advertise and promote there music. MTV allowed them to gain a wider target audience, through the use of visuals as well as music

Today music videos play a key role in the promotion and advertisement of artists- I feel that they are particularly important for new and upcoming artists as it gives the audience an insight into there personality and style of music which they play.

Music video channels now include: 4 music, MTV HITS, The Box, Vevo, Kiss TV, etc…

Music Videos are more of an essential now for a band to do well; particularly because of the evolving technologies and digital media. The younger generation find bands on TV and the internet now rather than through other platforms; this shows the importance of a video as well as a song.

Music Videos today