Research: History of music videos

History of music videos

There is no doubt that the popularity of music videos have increased in modern day music videos, in relation to traditional music videos. Modern day music videos are important because it has a big influence on the success of the music and also the artist. It also works as a marketing tool and builds a larger fan base to the artist and band. Music videos gradually built up to fulfil this throughout the years.

There are notable revolutionary key dates that occur in the history of Music videos. The article from ‘The Guardian’ goes through the key dates.

In 1900 ‘Buddy Bolden ‘ invents the Jazz genre. The Buddy Bolden band’s line up of their ensemble was a cornet, trombone, two clarinets, guitar and double bass this had approximated the classic instrumentation of later traditional Jazz band.

1975 – ‘Queen’ herald the modern age of music videos.

1992 – Hip hop cinema is born with the release of Ernest Dickerson’s ‘Juice

Key events in our time-line in the history of music videos

1929 – Bessie Smith – This cannot be regarded as a music video as there is limited editing and does not follow the conventions of a music video. In the 1920’s many films were accompanied by moving images, especially animations. These are not music videos, just basic editing of images to films which was a part of film during this period. The work of Bessie Smith is an example of this.

1940 – Disney ‘Fantasia’ Was an animated film about classical music. Tony Bennett - 1956 was filmed walking in Hyde Park London for his song ‘ Stranger in paradise ‘ 1964 – The Beatles Set out basic visual vocal for today’s music videos. 1966 TOTP - Artists had to create competitive videos to compete for air time on TOTP. However, TOTP had a limit on the number of music videos it showed, as it was mainly performance based. 1968 – The Monkees had their own TV show music was played and shown through their show.

1975 – Queen ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ set up the modern music video era. They were the first to create a video specifically for that song to be played on TV. Bohemian Rhapsody was the first made on the video format.  Describing this as the ‘first music video’ would be accurate as long as it isn’t confused with the ‘first promo film. 1970-1980 Key development of the modern music video was the editing process. HQ video tape recorders and portable video camera enables pop acts to produce promotional videos quickly and cheaply, rather than film which was expensive.   MTV  in 1981 launched the first video to be aired and this was Buggles ‘ video killed the radio star’

 The 1980’s included sophisticated effects in videos and added a storyline. In 1984 Michael Jacksons Thriller made a short film as a music video. This took the music video format to another level. Mid 1980’s –MTV and musical success. This time period grew to play a central role in popular music marketing. Such as Madonna’s success because of her skilful and seductive appeal in her music videos. MTV’s ‘Golden era’ was unparalleled the success of a new album in popular culture, as others could view it as the death of the artist.

How has music videos changed over time?

Music videos changed dramatically as history of music videos had commenced. Music videos has developed to becoming essential in the success of the artist/band.  The audience did not really pay much attention to the quality of the music video however especially in the 90’s and 20^th century music videos grew in significance in the audience perspective. Music videos differ depending on the genre. For example music videos for the hip hop genre enabled the lyrics of the music to have a relation with the visuals in the music video.  Therefore enhanced the popularity and fan base of the Hip Hop genre. The developments in technology made music videos more attractive to watch and enhanced the quality and effort put into music videos.

Conclusion

It is important to know about the music industry because it makes us aware of how much music videos have developed during the years and how they became so important in the music industry. Some of the ideas I have gathered is how to determine a music video.  Examples in history such as Tony Bennett and Fantasia by Walt Disney could be regarded as great works but not necessarily music videos. This enabled me to understand what the conventions of a music video is which I would include in the process of my own music video.