Music Videos : The History

Today music videos represent a crucial part of the music industry. Artists owe their careers to music videos as they are being given the chance of impressing the public not just with their vocal talent, but also with their looks or moves. And it all had to start somewhere.

In 1923 the Frankfurt school was set up andit was concerned about the possible effects of mass media. The Frankfurt school envisioned the media as a hypodermic syringe, and the contents of the media were injected into the thoughts of the audience, who accepted the attitudes, opinions and beliefs expressed by the medium without question. Then a new approach tothe dynamics of audience/text relationship was suggested in the Uses andGratificationmodel.

In this model, theorists asked how were the audiences using the media to gratify their needs. They suggested that audiences had specific needs and actively turned to the media to consume various texts to a satisfaction of these needs. The audience in Uses and Gratifications were seen as active, as opposed to passive audience in the Effects model. The music industry needed to create a medium which would provide voyeuristic pleasure for its audience and the idea of using video came about to create an element of pleasure in watching.

The history of the modern music video has its roots in 1964 when ‘The Beatles’ brought out the first major motion picture, 'A Hard Day's Night'. This documentary stylemovie included musical segments that resembletoday's music videos and this was a huge influence on the way music would be promoted from then on. That same year, the band began filming short promotional films for their songs which were then aired on television variety shows and eventually used the films to tour for them, as did the likes of Elvis.

Over the years the content of music videos began to develop. ‘Mickey Mousing’ became a standard feature, miming along to the words. In 1972 David Bowie brought out a video to ‘Space Oddesy’ which was simply a performance of his music which provided no real entertainment or voyeuristic pleasure. Shortly after came the concept of using lyrical representation through narrative, illustrated in the video to ‘Sledge Hammer’.

The Australian TV show 'Countdown' played an important role in the development of the music video industry, which was first brought to our screens in 1974. Music video clips were used as a method of promoting acts that were to appear on the show. As the popularity of the video clips grew, the music industry began to realize the marketing potential of these music clips. One of the most notable video clips features was the AC/DC hit, "It's A Long Way to the Top." During the 1980s, 'Countdown' continued to be aired in 2 different countries.

(1st MTV logo)

MTV by almost three years, 'Video Concert Hall,' was the first nationwide video music program on American television. Premiering in June 1981, one of the first US programs to play music videos was the USA Cable Network program 'Night Flight.' Then just three months after came the broadcast revolution of MTV. Thirty years ago, music video used to be less important then it is nowadays and this channel was the phenomenon that gave so much power andimportance to the music video and it marked the beginning of the music video’s ruling over the music industry. The first video ever played on MTV was ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ by The Buggles. As MTV was broadcasting 24-hour-a-day music, music videos were needed to be produced. Consequently, music video began to play an important role in artists’ careers.

In 1983, the almost 14-minute-long video for Michael Jackson's song "Thriller," was released. It was the most expensive video of its time, costing US$500,000, and Guinness World Records listed it in 2006 as the "most successful music video", selling over 9 million units. It was less a conventional music video and more a full-fledged mini-film and it became the world's most successful and influential video in music video history.

In 1988, the MTV show, Yo! MTV Raps was launched. This was a two-hour American television music video program, which ran from August 1988 to August 1995 and was the first hip-hop music show on the network. The show helped to bring hip hop music to a nation wide audience. Two of the videos that are most famous for being two of the three most expensive music videos of all time are Michael and Janet Jackson's "Scream," which cost $7 million to produce, and Madonna's "Bedtime Story," which cost $5 million. The imagery used in “Bedtime Story” is very futuristic and abstract video and the images use lyrical interpretation to represent the mood of the song, this was a very new and influential development for the world of music video. It is considered that even Madonna’s career has been greatly influenced by her videos that not only used her videos to promote her albums but also to create her sexy, appealing image.

The song value in music videos is much different compared to in the past. The video now is just as important as the song itself, sometimes even deciding the success of a song or artist. Collections of music videos are now being sold on DVDs. Music video’s greatest fans believe that a music video should be assessed based on its visual qualities and not on the song quality. In the modern day it seems that the music ‘gurus’, have realised the potential of using female sex-appeal in music videos, therefore this feature is being used excessively as it is more popular for the public.

The breakthrough of MTV has been highly controversial: some saw as the beginning of an amazing, new, fresh era in music video, others considered it to mark the end of true musical talent, as artists have been become more appreciated for their looks instead of their vocal abilities. Music videos not only showcase an artist's singing talent, but also how they perform. Many musical artists made their careers a success by using music videos. The history of music videos that I have covered shows how the use of the videos transformed the music industry.