HISTORY OF MUSIC VIDEOS
MTV plays a vital role in regards to the music industry. It is a succesful music television channel which airs all the latest music all day every day.
MTV began in 1977 whereby a new invented television channel allowed MTV and other music channels to feature concert footage and music orientated telvision programs. MTV launched on air in 1981 and the aim and main idea for this channel was to provide viewers with music visuals and videos with the assitance of air hosts who spoke about the videos.
The first video to ever be shown on then new channel MTV in 1981 was 'Video Killed The Radio Star' by The Buggles.
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MTV was the first music channel which enabled the UK to over come the 'colour barrier'. This phrase referred to the
very few black artists who were now included in the what was an all white music channel. Some of the artists that broke the MTV colour barrier and made an appearance on the channel was artists such as Eddy Grant, Tina Turner and Donna Summer. The very first non-white act played on MTV in the US was UK band The Specials, which featured an integrated line-up of white and black musicians and vocalists. The Specials' video "Rat Race" was played as the 58th video on the station's first day of broadcasting.
Throughout its history, MTV has covered global music concert series live. MTV showed the Live Aid concerts which were held in London and Philadelphia to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia. While the ABC network showed only selected highlights during primetime, MTV broadcast 16 hours of coverage which was making the MTV music channel become more recognised and popular.
1926 - 1969: TALKIES
Talkies came about in 1926, which are motion pictures with synchronized sound, or in other words, a sound film. A sound film system (vitaphone shorts) was produced by the Warner Bros and featured multiple bands, artists and dancers. An animation artist called Max Fleischer created cartoons, which you could sing along to, called Screen Songs. This meant that the audience could sing along to popular songs by a classic karaoke machine (known as following the bouncing ball). In 1929, a hit performance was executed by Bessie Smith, a blues singer who appeared in a short two-reel film called St. Louis Blues. In 1940-1947, soundies were produced and released. These were musical films that included dance sequences similiar to music videos today. Due to musicals appearing in the 1950s, short-form music videos were created. Many of Michael Jackson's videos tha featured a lot of dance were influenced by Hollywood musicals (e.g. Thriller).
1950s: Early Music Clips
According to a man named Tony Bennett, he was the first person to create a music video in London, in 1956. The music video was aired on shows such as American Bandstand. A second music video was fulfilled by Elvis Presley in the United States.
1960 - 1973: Promotional Clips
Near the beginning of the 1960s, a visual jukebox was invented and so short films were produced, in France. In 1965, the Beatles filmed in colour in London, which was filmed in black and white. This included cross-cutting, contrasting long shots and cloe ups, as well as different camera angles. After this, they started to make promotional clips so they could distribute and broadcast them in countires such as the USA. A director named Peter Goldman used techniques to make a music video, including slow motion, dramatic lighting and unusual camera angles.
1974 - 1980: The Start of Music Television
The importance of music video clips was established in 1974 by bringing out new releases e.g. the Australian show called Countdown. In 1981, The Buggle's song, Video Killed The Radio Star (1979) became the first ever music video played on MTV. After this, Top of the Pops (a British TV show) began playing music videos in the late 1970s. However, BBC put strict limits on the amount of outsourced videos that they could use. If a good video was aired, it increased a song's sales because viewers hoped to see it again the following week. In 1981, a man called Michael Nesmith started to make short musical films for Saturday Night Live. He also released a music video, Elephant Parts, and won a Grammy (directed by William Dear).
1992 – 2004: Directors Increasing
MTV started to give directors song credits with the artist in 1992. A director called Romanek directored Madonna’s song, Bedtime story, which was one of the most expensive music videos ever as it cost just over £3,000,000. MTV launched multiple channels around the world so that music videos could be shown in many markets (e.g. MTV India/Mandarin). In 1996, MTV2 showed alternative and older music videos.
2005 – Today: Videos Go Viral
People are able to view music videos online via YouTube, which was launched in 2005. Artists started to see that websites such as Facebook and Google Videos had a profound effect on music videos being seen. Now, MTV provides many of artists’ and bands’ music videos. However, they are more focused on reality shows rather than music videos. The most viewed music video on YouTube as of October 2014 is Psy’s song, Gangnam style. By the use of smartphones, everyone is able to check out music videos anywhere and at any time.
