The History of Music Videos

The History of Music Videos

Music videos have evolved over the decades but have always been filmed for the sole purpose to advertise an artist and their musical talent. Queen released the video of Bohemian Rhapsody in 1975 and it was considered the first major music video to make a song go from a minor to a major music hit. However, music videos can be dated as far back as the Second World War.

The relationship between music and visual material can be dated back to the 192’s where Oscar Fischinger created image and music synchronisations and visual interpretations of music. These were short films which were used to promote artists work. These films were up to 8 minutes long and show cased work from artists such as Billie Holiday and Bing Crosby. These short films were shown in cinemas.

In 1939 the Panarom was created and displayed a wide variety of music. The Panarom weighted over 2 tonnes and had a 20 inch screen which is projected music videos onto. Panaroms were used in music bars and had more sexual content, appealing to a male audience. The Panarom died out by 1946 to make way for new technology. In the 1960s, France had created the Scopitone. This machine provided a selection of 36 short films, which could be changed and rewinded. It showcased song and dance numbers which were filmed on cheap stages or outdoors, and displayed a large amount of provocative female dancing to again attract a male audience.

Elvis Presley set the trend for concept films as he was first with ‘jail house rock’ as the music video was filmed in a prison, linking to the concept of the song. In the 1960’s the Beatles created a new dimension for music videos by using stylistic devices within their videos. The USA then created The Monkees to rival The Beatles, and were chosen for how well they would look performing on TV. The Monkees can be linked with today’s music talent shows such as The X Factor with the creation of boy bands not just on how well they sing, but their whole image.

The 1970’s saw the rise of serious rock emerging from mostly the USA, increasing the number of bands getting airplay on TV. However the real rise of music on TV came when MTV was formed in America in 1981. Artists like Michael Jackson released videos onto MTV with amazing response, causing more people to go out and by records as that was the only way to access songs back then. This is where the role of music videos was really discovered, as the volume suggested that videos really help to promote artists and drive sales. Black music videos then hit the scene thanks to Hype Williams a music video producer who still produces popular music videos for big artists like Jay-Z today. By the late 90’s music video budgets were almost hitting $2 million. These in turn generated record sales and led to hip hop music replacing rock as the most popular music genre.

More recently, the real boom for music videos has come from social media and the internet. YouTube is a multimillion dollar video website which was founded in 2005. Along with Vivo, this is where artists release their music videos as they know they will get the views due to the scale YouTube Is used on. Artists nowadays also release promo video son Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, along with images of album covers to entice their audiences. Also the rise in music download compared to CD release means music is more easily assessable, and therefore music videos are now not necessary to promote music as they once were. Money is made from concerts now as the average ticket is around £40. Artists perform live sets to audience and due to the advances in technology over the last decade imagery and video features in nearly all shows. So to conclude this article, music videos have not only changed because of technology, overtime their mean has also changed to I believe. They used to be essential for sales as people would be able to connect with the songs via imagery, which would make them want to purchase the track. That is still the case nowadays to some extent, and much videos today are still produced to publicise artists, but they are not as expensive or needed as much for an artist to become successful due to the wide range of media technology that is readily available at our finger tips.

In the future, music videos will undoubtedly change again to suit their audiences. I believe that the music video will become less about advertising music, and more about artists showcasing themselves for their audience, trying to relate more to them. Because of this, I think the budget will decrease for music videos, so less artists will start to produce them.