History of the Music Video

1967 - Bob Dylan - Don't look back

Bob Dylan's film 'Don't Look Back' which followed him on tour was directed by Dapennebaker. Dapennebaker did not know how to start the film so thought he would start it with the first ever 'promotional film' (music video'. This music video was of Bob Dylan's subterranean homesick blues and featured one continuous long shot of Bob Dylan holding the lyrics of the song on flashcards. Although this was the first ever music video, ironically it broke all conventions of the music video we know today. The focus of this video was mostly on the lyrics which is obvious as the lyrics are in the centre of the screen, so all focus is drawn there.

1965 - Cliff Richard & The Shadows - Summer Holiday

In the mid 60's superstars such as Cliff Richard realised they couldn't perform everywhere that they were popular so not everyone could see them live, to overcome this they began incorporating their music into films. The films usually featured the artist playing a character different to themselves and had a lot of the artists songs weaved into the storyline. The 'video' of Summer Holiday was much more conventional of that of Bob Dylan's promotional film, it included lots of close ups of Cliff Richard and had lip syncing, which wasn't seen in Bob Dylan's video.

1960's - The Beatles

The Beatles were an English group that achieved international success. Again, like Cliff Richard, they knew that all of their fans would not be able to see them performing live, so they made their music more accessible by making films. However in films made by The Beatles, they played themselves, this was a good marketing technique as it allowed for the artists to create an 'image' that they wanted to present to their audiences. In 1964 The Beatles released their first film 'A Hard Day's Night' and in 1965 they released 'Help!'. Both of these films had a lot of 'music videos' in them which involved a lot of conventions that can be seen today in music videos such as the use of close ups and editing to the beat.

Mid 1960's

In the early - mid 60's, there was an explosion of technology and lots of people started to own TV's and there was a rise in small portable radios. This proliferation increased the availability of music to people and this allowed for artists to get much more popular. In 1964, The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show and were watched by 85 million people, the NYC police said that there was no crime at that time in the whole of New York City and the week following their appearance, The Beatles' songs occupied all top 5 places in the American charts; this shows how much the proliferation of technology has helped the music industry.

1967 - The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour

Magical Mystery Tour was The Beatles first promotional film released on television. They released this film on Boxing Day and the film was particularly unsuccessful as it was shown in black and white which made it appear to be quite boring. However it did include many performances that featured many conventions of modern music videos. Also this was the first time that subliminal messages had been presented via the use of technology and this allowed for The Beatles to present their own opinions on the civil unrest that was around in the country at the time.

1975 - Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

Bohemian Rhapsody was the first music video ever to be released on tape. On the release of the video, the song went straight to number 1 and spent 9 weeks there. This shows that the imagery and ideology presented by music videos was now much more important than the actual song. The video featured strong performance elements and effective lighting, this was the start of rock iconography.

Early 1980's - MTV

By the 1980's everyone had a TV in their homes. MTV was a development of the music industry and an icon of the proliferation of hardware. Music videos were frequently shown on MTV and this was the time when artists started to use their videos to present their own iconic imagery. This also made the artist more important than the actual music they were producing, the artists 'image' was the most important thing. The first video to be played on MTV was ironically, 'Video Killed the Radio Star' - The Buggles.



1983 - Michael Jackson - Thriller

This Michael Jackson was ground breaking in the music industry and has been hailed as  "a watershed moment for the [music] industry". This is because it was the most prominent combination of music and film making seen at the time. The video is 13 minutes long and follows a narrative of a Michael and his 'girlfriend' in a horror type sequence. It was MTV's first ever world premier of a video and was watched by millions worldwide, even now the video has over 200,000,000 views on YouTube, which shows just how influential it was and still is.

2005 - YouTube

As the music channels started to show more reality shows, their influence on the music industry reduced massively. The online platform YouTube almost 'took over' from music channels such as MTV as it allowed people to watch music videos online for free; also with the proliferation and convergence of the mobile phone, people can now watch music videos wherever they like on YouTube.