Music videos started as Tv became more popular and bands. became global. They are an efficient way to reinforce the brand identity or star persona of the artist (Richard Dyer), to spread a message/the performers values and ideologies, to promote their tours or merchandise (which due to the digitisation of music, is now one of the only ways for artists to create revenue), to boost their stardom, create and active audience and stand up to repeated viewing and even attract fandom and chatter from the active audience or reach new ones. (Henry Jenkins participation theory).
History of music videos:
In 1894, music publishers Joseph Stern and Edward Mark created the first illustrated composition and were helped by electrician George Thomas. It was around 10–15 images attached to the song, which was projected onto the wall during the live performance.
The first music video appeared around the same time that the sound appeared in films. And the first to star in such a video were Bob Witt and guitarist Cy Berg. They sang three unnamed songs to showcase the latest technology from the Vitaphone film company.
The first to call the performance a music video was American rock musician Giles Perry Richardson Jr. who was also known as Big Bopper. His work ‘Chantilly Lace’ was first called a ‘music video’, although nothing much happened in the video, just a conversation on the phone with a girl. Some people argue that Elvis Presley’s ‘Jailhouse Rock’ video, which was released a year earlier, was much more dynamic and well known, even including dance elements. But on the other hand, Big Bopper was important in the first place because it brought a new concept to everyday life. It is also believed that the first music video was filmed by another legend Tony Bennett, but there was no evidence of his video ‘Stranger in Paradise’ existing.
It is difficult to say with certainty who shot the first video with the plot (from a script written). Although the English rock band ‘The Kinks’ was one of the first performers to do so.
Later, the adventures of unlucky working-class funerals inspired the group ‘Oasis’ to create a black and white music video however The video was not allowed to run on BBC (although there was no official ban) because it was considered tasteless.
Pivotal Moments:
- 1935 - the first music video
- 1940’s - scopitone
- 1960’s - Beatles Feature film
- 1960’s - Bob Dylan video (homage and parodies made by Stormzy, love actually etc.) Postmodernism - people don’t recognise the original text.
- 1970 - technological advancements
- 1970’s - top of the pops
- 1975 - queen: bohemian rhapsody
- 1981 - MTV set up. First video played was ‘video killed the radio store’
- 1983 - Micheal Jackson ‘Thriller’
- 1986 - Peter Gabriel ‘Sledgehammer’ video. Stop-motion.
- 2016 - facial recognition (the chain - fleetwood mac)
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