History of Music Videos (by Beth Fowler)

Knowing how drastically music videos have evolved into what they are today is important in understanding just how far the music industry has come. By just watching back iconic music videos made by artists such as the Beetles, Queen and Micheal Jackson just shows how much they have informed and evolved the music videos we see on the television and other devices today.

Beatles

The Beatles were one of the first bands to inform and change the music industry in such a  major way. Their music and the image they created for themselves was something completely new to the music industry and because of this they made a huge mark in the history of music. The Beatles consisted of four band members from Liverpool, UK and came into light in the 60's. The band quickly came to fame and as a result of this were aways coming up with new ideas to market themselves as artists, this is when they began to create music videos. Back then music videos were unheard of and artists had to travel all across the world to radio stations and public talks as a way of telling the public who they were (marketing strategy). However after doing this the Beatles decided there was a more beneficial way of publicising themselves, this being film. They began to harass the power of film to market their records and express themselves as artists.
    'A hard days night' is a 1964 British, black & white comedy film directed by Richard Lester and the Beatles first official film broadcast. This was the first un-intended music video form released by the Beatles featuring songs from their album throughout. The film had a very high success rate and this lead the Beatles to other ambitions. 'Should have known better' was the first dramatic music video released by the Beatles a short period after their film was released. After the success of the film they decided that by broadcasting a video that supported their music it would make a lot of profit and therefore the song would be very successful. The Beatles were correct in saying this and this then lead to  many other artist following their lead.

Queen

Queen were the next band (in follow up to the Beatles) to create a music video to be broadcast worldwide. This the meant for them that they could promote themselves without having to travel to these countries and doing separate broadcasts - Saving time & money. Unlike the Beatles performance based videos, Queen experimented with their music videos as they were established 10 years after the Beatles and therefore decided the platform of music videos had not been explored enough since the Beatles released their first music video.
    Queens first official music video supported their song 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and was a huge success. The song included many of the following elements showing their experimentation;
                                            - Dissolve, Colour, Overlay, Varied camera angles, different
                                              performance scenes, spot lighting, lens flare, different
                                              lenses, scenes multiplied.

Micheal Jackson

Jackson took music videos to a whole new level with his videos creating a personality for who he was as an artist. From when he was first established as an artists onwards Jackson began creating big budget videos with a strong narrative that enticed all viewers. 'Thriller' and 'Beat it' are two of Jackson's best music videos both with Strong narratives and iconic clothing. He began to get noticed for his clothing choices and dance moves, thus creating an image for himself that essentially was a big part in his rise to stardom.
   Micheal Jackson's videos became so iconic that they became leading inspiration for parody videos. Whilst this may be seen as a bad thing, it may not necessarily be. For a parody to be made out of them this means that Jackson's videos are very successful and well known and it also means profit for Jackson as there's a very good chance it will shed a positive light on his music videos. Two of the most known parody videos are; Eat it - Weird Al Yanovic and Eminem - Lose It.

Time Line

                                                  1940- 1946 - Jukebox's

Jukeboxes were a very popular way of listening to music in this era and were a very well know device to be held in American Dinners etc (iconic). They became symbolic as key of socialising and therefore were the prime way of listing to music. Soundies became a feature of jukebox's in the 40's and vastly became popular. Soundies were three minute films featuring music and dance performances, designed to be displayed on Jukebox like projection screens in bars, restaurants and other public spaces.

                                                  1959 - Term 'Music Video' 

According to music historians, singer and songwriter Giles Perry Richardson who went by the name of the 'Big Bopper' became the first person to use the phrase 'music video' in a British magazine interview.This may seem obvious however at the time music videos were un heard of and therefore no name had ever truly been created for what they were.

                                                  1990 - Music Videos popularity

Many more genres were introduced to the music industry during the 90's, for example; R&B, hip hop and rap. As more genres and artists were being introduced to the industry, artists found themselves needing to go the extra mile in order to achieve greater success than others. This then meant music videos were being made frequently and were constantly improving. In this decade Michael Jackson's - Scream was established as the most expensive music video ever made with a total budget of $7 million (January 1995). This caused a significant increase in music videos as music industries found themselves sin a position where they had to compete.

                                                  2003 - YouTube

YouTube was created in 2003, it was one of the first sites to allow users to upload and share videos with the world as well as viewing other peoples videos themselves. This changed the way people watched music videos, allowing audiences to stream what ever it is they want to without having to go through all of the unnecessary drama and expenses. This revolutionised music videos and then meant there was a higher demand for them as more sites were created in followup to YouTube's leading example.

                                                2010 - 1011 - Interaction

Music videos allow their audiences to interact and get involved. The Johnny Cash project allowed audiences to interact and contribute to the music video (2010). Whilst professor Green specially created a soundtrack that was produced with a 360 degree camera allowing the audience to interact, manipulate and direct the video how they desire. We have not yet seen any of this technology put into play however this could be the next step in revolutionising music videos?