History Of Music Videos

The History Of Music

During the 40's Jukeboxes became a way of playing music in clubs. Originating in America, Soundies were three minute films featuring music and dance performances that could be played on them, it was more like a projection machine that was accessible to people in bars. The videos you could see ranged from listening to jazz, to watching dancers and chamber musicians, to even seeing Doris Day. From 1940 to 1946 this was the earliest version of a music video that could be seen.



Jiles Richardson also
known as the Big Bopper

In the late 50's the term 'music video' had been used in a interview with Jiles Perry Richardson, a singer and song writer, known as the Big Bopper at the time. It was around this time that the rise of Rock n Roll became apparent with stars such as Buddy Holly and Johnny Mathis becoming more and more popular until the mid 50's where Elvis came on the scene, taking the Rock n Roll world by storm becoming the most popular singer of the time, making television appearances as well as topping the charts with songs like Jail House Rock and All Shook Up.

But it was apparent that in Britain the take over of American music was happening, with stars having to record versions of others songs however some of the war time stars like Vera Lynn were still able to make it into the charts and top them.

                          

Know as the musical revolution and the time of freedom, the 60's became the time of music videos, but it was also a time of influence. This came from America and was strong in Britain at the time, introducing soul and blues into the country. Bands such as The Beatles took this influence and it helped them to created there music. One song that did exceptionally well was 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' which became the groups first number one on the American billboards. However during this time the band released a number of films that were able to market their records. A Hard Day's Night was the first film they released as a band in 1964. It was

never really seen as a music video from the way it was filmed, but it proved to be a success for the band, unlike their second film 'Help' that wasn't received as well.

After the success of this many other rock and roll groups did the same, releasing promo films that were able to show off their performances. And this was seen in the 70's when Queen released 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in 1979. The creation of this short film meant the band could send their music wherever they wanted, enabling them to promote themselves. It was also the first time since The Beatles release A Hard Day's Night that more techniques were used in the making of the film, this includes:

- The use of dissolve and superimpose
- Zoom
- Stage lighting and spot lights
- Use of effects
- And even more of a performance based video

But there still wasn't a lot of opportunities during the 70's due to the fact music videos still weren't very popular but many musicians would still perform on shows such as Top Of The Pops. It was then in 1979 that 'Video Killed The Radio Star' was released by The Buggles, later becoming the first video to be shown on MTV whey they first broadcast on Saturday 1st August 1981.

As MTV had taken off, the 80's became a great time for artists as music videos became more and more popular. The time of 24 hour music also came about. With the come back of Michael Jackson and his album Thriller many other stars started to emerge, this included Madonna, Whitney Houston and Janet Jackson, who both along with Michael were some of the first African American musicians to be showed on MTV.

The 80's also saw the use of synthesisers in music videos. In Madonna's 'Material Girl' video, New Wave Music was used. This consisted of synth arrangements with a robotic voice that would repeat the hook of the song.

In 1986 Robert Palmer then released the song 'Addicted To Love'. This later became a deconstruction when Shania Twain was inspired by what he had done and remade his video in her own way when she released 'Man I Feel Like A Woman' in 1999. In her video she had men stood behind her instead of women like Robert did, the instruments the backing dancers had were similar as they were white in colour. The backdrop of the sky was again the same being red in colour.

Robert Palmer in his music video for Addicted To Love. Here you can see the white instruments that have been used and by looking at the image of Shania in her video you can see she has used similar instruments. Other similarities can also be seen.

 Shania Twain's video Man I Feel Like A Woman can be seen to have similarities to Robert Palmer's addicted to love, this includes the arrangement of her and the backing dancers, with Shania centralised like Robert was, except she is surrounded by males and he women.



Screen shot from Eminem's
music video 'Just Lose It' showing
him dressed as Michael Jackson.

The song 'Beat It' by Michael Jackson has also been made into a spoof. A man called Al Yankovic made a parody of the video called 'Eat It' getting '7,941,880' on his video and not only this from this and other videos he has made he has been able to make money from his the work he's doing, while at the same time stars are also making parody's of songs, an example of this is Eminem when he released the video to 'Just Lose It' showing that he had incorporated ideas from Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean'.



A screen shot from
the music video 'Scream'.

By the time the 90's had come around more genres of music were being introduced such as RnB, Hip Hop and rap. These became mainstream and are now common. On the 1st of January 1995, Janet and Michael Jackson had the most expensive music video with 'Scream', it cost them $7 million.

At the time, you would have also heard music from MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice, both hip hop artists with songs like 'Can't Touch This' and 'Ice Ice Baby'. British artists also did well at the time, this included bands such as Westlife and Take That, however girl band The Spice Girls also did well, getting 9 number ones throughout the decade.

In the 1990's the rise of platinum records became apparent, with more artists selling more records all the time, a 9 times over platinum record holder was Elton John with 'Candle In The Wind' in 1997 eventually becoming the best sold single of all time to this date.

However with the growth of technology, from 2000, the music industry has changed rapidly. People now have access to YouTube, allowing them to watch the music videos of thousands of artists and upload their own videos, as well as projects being set up allowing the fans of artists to take part in the making of music videos. One example of this was 'The Johnny Cash Project' allowing fans to add things to the video such as images that they have drawn.



The equipment also being used in the last few years has topped that of the previous years. Professor Green used a 360 degree camera to record his performance of 'Remedy' allowing his fans to interact with his video and allowing them to see what goes on around all of the venue.