History of Music VideosBy Maddison Ely

Early Days

o Before MTV music videos had a very small platform for viewing and were therefore fairly unsuccessful.

o They would only really show their performance if they went to a tv studios which was difficult due to extensive touring.

Beatles 1967

o Strawberry Fields Forever- Was a very big step for the music video industry. It encompasses a variety of complex shots and techniques like reverse shots and overlapping.

o The Beatles continued making these “promotional videos” for many of their songs when they retired for touring in 1966

David Bowie 1972

o Space Oddity was another video in the early 70’s. However they still weren’t particularly popular with tv shows such as top of the pops and the Midnight Special opting to show a performance of a band or dancers with a soundtrack.

o However by the time Thriller was released in 1983 music videos had become much more popular and with a clearer storyline rather than purely a performance.

MTV 1987/1997

o Music videos increased in popularity throughout the 80’s and 90’s and were used to promote new tracks.

o Music shows started to show music videos and then MTV came along.

o MTV changed things completely.o Music videos were created for the

sole purpose of selling the song and were aimed at a wide audience of loyal MTV fans.

o More money was put into the video accompanying the song and they therefore became far more complex.

After MTV

o After MTV, videos to accompany new tracks were common and increasing in popularity. They became more interesting and complex and didn’t always contain a performance like the majority of them in the 70’s and 80’s.

o Nowadays websites like YouTube make it almost compulsory for artists to make a music video for a hit track with many albums have a music video for every track they release.

o Compared to the 70’s when releasing a music video was a sign of how successful an artist was, it is now a statement to not make one to accompany the track.