The history of music videos

Over the years music videos have increased in popularity and in quality. The way in which an artist promotes them self is a massive part of how successful they become. When an artist releases a song, nowadays audiences expect to see a music video along with it. Whether this is completely related to the song itself, it doesn’t matter as the promotion helps the artist to sell themselves.  However it wasn’t till the early 60s that music videos actually came onto the scene and even then they weren’t as well-known as they are today. Initially the only way of artists promoting themselves was by actually performing on television and most popularly was on BBCs Top of the pops. Queen were booked to perform on top of the pops with their hit ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ but later couldn’t due to other engagements. It was at this time they then decided to spend £4000 on making a short tape of their single. However at the time bands such as The Beatles became extremely popular and became global super stars almost at an instant and because of their popularity it was actually The Beatles why initially created the first music video. Because of how popular they were TV shows had to be really lucky to get them to appear on their shows. The Beatles felt that they didn’t have the freedom and creativeness they desperately craved when it came to having to constantly travel the world to do appearances, so they decided to film a tape as part of their promotional material.

In 1965 they recorded short films that expressed their humour, down to earth personalities and most importantly their music. These tapes were seen as documentaries but in actual fact they were promoting themselves as artists. The video appeared to show The Beatles performing a number of their tracks including ‘we can work it out’ and ‘ticket to ride’. The videos were available to TV channels across the world meaning global audiences were being targeted.  They later in 1966 made more promotional films which appeared in black and white and in colour. Colour TV had been popular in America since the late 50s so this was nothing new for them however European channels were still getting used to the idea. The Beatles filmed different takes of Rain and paperback in order to give variety to a number of different channels so that they would then believe they were getting exclusives. In 1965 Bob Dylan released a tape of his single subterranean homesick blues that was near enough a music video; it showed him switching cards in a sequence that matched the timing of the lyrics. Compared to the music videos that are displayed today the difference and change is easy to pick out. In the Bob Dylan video the same camera shot was used throughout. A number of the Beatles videos were shot in different angles showing that with the right amount of money and technique a music video can have more life to it even in those days. The Beatles and Bob Dylan around that time were seen as new artists as they were the first to write their own songs.

The music videos we have today are far better quality and more creative. As technology has increased so have artist’s promotional material. Special effects were used in videos such as Peter Gabriel’s, sledge hammer. This video included many effects that were not seen in many other music videos around this time so was expectantly unique and managed to reach number 1.  Videos like his are more abstract due to the non-narrative approach. They are much more illustrated songs.  Interpretation of the lyrics isn’t something that is always done making the music videos less literal then expected.  However even though abstract music videos don’t tend to include much narrative, videos like the Peter Gabriel one, still include artist performance showing that no matter what the video shows the artist promotion is still the key element.  Queen were initially the first artists to use the special effect technique. Creating image within a video wasn’t very popular at the time and was a new thing to be done, along with the use of camera angles. They differed in ways that could make the videos more appealing to the audience and eventually different genres became more emphasised within the promotional material. For example Queen’s sound was represented by the image they created for themselves in the video. They were a rock band and so were conventionally dressed in a way that suited their style.

In 1999 Fat boy slim released the song right here right now. The music video to this song is much different to many other videos. Almost every music video shows the artist performing their track however this video didn’t show the artist or any form of performance. The video appears to show a visual narrative and one that doesn’t seem to match the lyrics however it still worked and turned out to be rather effective. Even though not all videos are specifically narrative and in complete sync with the lyrics, there are some that are self-reflective and still show performance from the artist.  In fat boy slim’s video, not many of these elements are shown yet his video still works.

The quality in music videos nowadays is something that is really noticeable. Therefore the conventions and codes of music videos have changed over the years. This is down to specific elements noted within a genre. For example in a dance video you would expect to see dancers, strobe lights and possibly a club lifestyle for the mise-en-scene as these have become the codes of what we now recognise for that particular genre. All music videos are created according to their genre it’s one of the many conventions that always takes place. Boy band Oasis released a video that was purposely meant to look ‘old fashioned’ when actually it was created in the modern day. Without the audience been aware of the codes for this particular look it would not have worked. The codes for this type of style are most commonly black and white colouring as well as the bad quality effect. The typography and sound can also play a big part as the audience will automatically know what theme and genre is that’s being portrayed just from this.

The difference in the Queen video to the Lady Gaga video stands out massively. Not only is the use of colour much bolder to see but the quality in video stands out. There is much more of a a narrative to the the Lady Gaga video as much more money has been put into the the making whereas its easy to see from the Quen video that it was early days then.