The History of Music Videos

Music videos have been used as an excellent tool for band and song production for over 50 years, and with advancements in modern technology and distribution methods, have become a very important part of the music industry.

The Beatles released their music video of She Loves You - A Hard Days Night in 1964, and this was widely regarded as one of the first music videos. The video focused solely on the performance by the band, and focused on a performance of the song in front of a studio audience. Filmed in black and white, the production featured shakey camera movement, which although was used as a production technique, sometimes distracted from the performance. Behind the Scenes shots from the control room were also added - a technique that has been developed over the years.

Bob Dylan released Subterrain & Home City Blues in 196, and this focused on the Lyrics of the song.  This production focused less on the artist and performance, and more on the setting of the song, and has perhaps inspired modern lyric videos.

In the mid 1960's TV music programmes became an important part of the music industry. Programmes such as Top of the Pops charted number of singles sold every week, and encouraged people to watch music rather than just listen to it, encouraging more bands to produce promotional videos. The Rolling Stones were one of the first bands to perform, and a wide variety of shot types were used, to show both the band with mid and close up shots, along with long shots, used to show the audience's enjoyment of the song.

In 1967 the Beatles released their music video for Strawberry Fields Forever. The video used new camera, lighting and editing effects, which pushed the boundaries of technological achievements at the time. The editing also cut in time to the music for the first time, and, when compared to their videos in 1964, focused less on the performance of the song, and more on the narrative behind the lyrics. The visual action also linked to the lyrics at the time.

8 years later, in 1975, the New Bohenians released their music video for Bohenian Rhapsody. The band decided to give the video to TV networks for free, so realised that they would be better to make money from resulting record sales, instead of making money directly from sales of the promo. The video focused back to performance-based content, although the use of cross-fading techniques and camera filter techniques lifted it above the level of The Beatles' original video, released over 11 years ago.

In 1981 the TV channel MTV first broadcast. This, in a similar way to Top of the Pops, showed how important videos were as a marketing tool, and targeted mainstream music.

In 1982, Duran Duran released their music video for Rio. The production levels had improved dramatically, with cuts occuring faster, and in pace with the music. The video moved away from the urban setting of other videos, and introduced other performers, not just the band.

In 1982, Michael Jackson also released Thriller. The video was more like a film, lasting 15 minutes, and not just featuring the song. The video told a story, which people could then relate to every time they heard the song. The production cost many  millions of pounds, and linked in common themes and elements, not just dancing.

Music videos of the 1990's continued in a similar way, with big-budget productions becoming the norm. Artists such as the Spice Girls, Back Street Boys and Corona all released music videos during this period, and videos tend to focus back onto performance.

In the 2000's, music videos telling a story became more common. The way music videos were distributed also changed, and as the internet developed, services such as YouTube and social networking meant that it is relatively cheap for bands to distribute their music videos. This meant that programmes such as Top of the Pops, and TV channels such as MTV became less common due to the rise of the internet.