Music Videos The History of...

1960s In 1964 the first music video was released by The Beatles. A combination of comedic dialogue and song created their feature film “A Hard Day’s Night”. It was directed by Richard Lester and shot in black and white. The Beatles progressed to create a colour video in 1965 to their track “Help!”. This video involved various techniques, including shot types and editing, which are still used as inspiration by artists today. The Beatles created promotional clips (filmed inserts) around this time too, using them for distribution and broadcast in other countries.

1980s 1981 brought the showing of the first music video on television. This was “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the British group The Buggles, aired on MTV. We also saw the first video album “Elephant Parts” by Michael Nesmith that year, which won the Grammy for best music video. The iconic “Thriller” by Michael Jackson was released in 1983; introducing a much stronger use of drama and props within music videos. In 1984, MTV presented the first Video Music Awards gathering the most popular artists and awarding recognition for their entertainment and talent.

... This decade also brought us the introduction of the genre of music Indie Pop. NME produced a compilation cassette (C81) featuring a wide range of popular artists in the era in 1981, which was then followed by C86 five years later. It was this compilation which prompted the birth of Indie Pop. C86 became known for its individuality, in relation to style of music, clothing and choice of music video.

1990s In 1995, Michael and Janet Jackson released their video for “Scream”, directed by Mark Romanek. To this day it is the most expensive video ever made, costing $7 million to produce. MTV began to list directors with the artist in song credits, in This meant that directors such as Michel Gondry, Mark Romanek and Hype Williams were able to show their unique styles within the videos they directed, and become recognized for them.

... In the 1990s, alternative rock, (the parent genre of indie pop), was wide spread through the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Several new bands were emerging in the USA, and the release of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana sparked further interest in the genre. The music video involves the band performing the song with dim lighting, enhancing their “rock” style.

2000s At the start of the new millennium, we also saw the birth of the contemporary genre indie pop. Though it originated from alternative music, artists began to experiment with new, quirky sounds to produce this updated style. After the increase in rock music through the 90s, indie bands were rare to come across. This was until bands such as The Kaiser Chiefs and The Killers became popular in the early 2000s, with their soft rock style of indie. Their music videos involved performance with a storyline which set the trend for future bands in that genre, and appealed to young people through realistic and entertaining scenes. As the bands grew in the industry, we saw their music videos being used to ensure that the audience remembers their music; which meant that the messages conveyed within the videos became more interesting and easy to relate to.

Indie pop had returned to the industry with the same main elements but a contemporary take on their music videos. Artists such as Florence and the Machine, Marina and the Diamonds and Little Boots began to produce indie pop music in the 21st century and created music videos to fit their styles too. Above we can see how music videos have become more fitting to this sub-genre of music, moving away from the dark conventions of their parent genre rock music videos. Story-lines have become much more common as we can see from the screen shot on the left; but artists have also included bright, characteristic, quirky performances-as we can see Marina and the Diamonds doing in the other shot.

Distribution The methods of distribution available have grown to involve technological synergy which now enables people to watch and listen to their music anywhere on their mobile phones. This differs from previous years where we only saw music videos being shown on television, then the development to the internet; and now we have the option to buy a video through downloading, so that we can watch it whenever we like. This is beneficial to the artists, raising the awareness of their music; and also to us, increasing the availability and convenience of music videos.