History of Music Videos - Miss Georgiou

History of Music Videos - Miss Georgiou

A music video is a short film that integrates a song produced by an artist for promotional and creative purposes, the video aims to both aid to song as the imagery can further the enjoyment of the song and also adds to the artistic value of the song as the video can implement additional features the song cannot. Music videos are primarily used as a marketing technique to appeal to the audience and promote the sales of the artist through targeting the intended audience and also appealing to other audiences on certain occasions. The ways in which people watch music videos and how they are made, produced and intended for have changed dramatically with the progression of technology and the mass expansion of the music industry, as music began as simply an entertainment custom grew into a corporate business and music videos adds to a conjunction to help record labels gain sales and income through targeting their intended audiences. I will be discussing the history of music videos, the ways in which they have progressed with the progression of technology and marketing techniques, and the many methods and elements used within the music industry that aid at promoting and increasing the sales of the artist and the subsequent record label. 

The origin of music videos

The first medium and essentially the roots of implementing both music and picture imagery came in the late 19^th and early 20^th century within the United States, with the introduction of illustrated sound. An illustrated sound is a type of performance art that was provided as additional entertainment that corresponded with the song being performed. Live performers which usually consisted of a pianist and vocalist or an orchestra of some sort with music recordings were used for venues called vaudeville houses and nickelodeons. These venues would have a large glass slide that would project still images, the glass slide allowed artists to hand paint each slide and could patent the colour of the projections onto the glass screen. One song generally consisted of 12 to 16 still images that sequently illustrate the song and the lyrics being played through a selection of different chronological imagery. Illustrated songs usually play during the interval, to precede a silent movie or during the reel change of the movie, however some venues relied solely on illustrated songs to provide entertainment and gain income for them, tens of thousands of small theatres broadcasted them to audiences. Illustrated songs were also used as a ploy to promote the sales of sheet music; they were incredibly valuable when implementing crowd participation, such as dancing and singing with the melody and lyrics, and also repetition as performances were repeated many times to help encourage sheet sales. The first ever illustrated song was "The Little Lost Child" in 1894. The song went on to become a nationwide hit selling more than two million copies of its sheet music, its success credited mainly to illustrated song performances and it is widely referred to as the first music video. Illustrated songs sold around millions of sheet music  and also aided as a platform for several actors and actresses’ careers as they modelled for the slides in the beginning of their acting careers.

An actress within
a talkie.

By the late 20’s many things had changed within the media industry; with progression of technology and several advances in terms of editing, software and other areas of film the introduction of synchronized sound within cinema brought many new possibilities within the entertainment industry. In 1926 the next form of music and picture corresponding to what would soon be a music video came with talkies arriving thanks to Warner Brothers. Talkies were musical short films that featured bands, vocals and dancers and provided both entertainment through the music aspect of the film and also the drama, comedy or romance within the actual movie, the talkies, much alike to the illustrated sounds encouraged the audience to dance and sing along to popular songs, and also the use of repetition or big hit songs within the talkies would encourage music sales and film sales as the audience would have an good time. Vitaphone, a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short films lead the “sound revolution” and inspired the entire entertainment industry to implement sound within their films. The introduction of talkies was widely successful and commercial; tens of thousands of people went to watch these talkies and enjoyed them greatly. Silent movies lost their prominence completely, although they like talkies featured music, it was nowhere near as entertaining as them as their music was through a live orchestra and soon nobody cared for silent movies. Many actors and actresses lost their jobs as they could not adapt to sound and picture corresponding, only Charlie Chaplin maintained his former level of popularity and renown whilst still performing and creating silent movies due to his talent and humour in the sector,

An advertisement for a talkie.

With the ever changing and progressing trends of the music and film industry coinciding with the advances in technology came new possibilities to enhance the viewer experience and the entertainment industry through the establishment of soundies. Within the late 1930's and the early 1940's they were introduced, soundies were, in terms a shortened more action packed and entertaining version of feature long talkies, they were only 3 minutes long and these short music films were incredibly similar to the music videos within modern times, clearly a pedestal for present music video producers. Soundies were created using Scopitones, an Italian form of jukebox that played magnetic soundtracks that helped the quality of the music being emitted. They were created during the Second World War and were also based on and more advanced version of Vitaphones. Soundies grew very popular within Hollywood with thousands of people watching them through Panorams, a coin operated visual jukebox that synched filmed image and showed them in nightclubs, bars, restaurants, factory lounges, and amusement centres, they were also made available for rental by the 8 to reel for those who were rich enough. Soundies would always feature a song of some sort, usually played by a band an orchestral number, or a duo of vocalist and pianist. The visuals would generally include dance sequences that were fun and entertaining to promote audience participation and also certain soundies would be comedic and featured many famous comedians at the time, such as Smith and Dale and the Keystone Kops. Comedy sketches however were not as well received as strictly musical soundies and were abandoned by the Soundies Distributing Corporation of America. During the 1940’s more than 2000 Soundies mini-musicals were created and distributed by recording artists as a method to promote their music, an early sign of using music videos to promote sales and gain income.

An advertisement St. Louis Blues,
one of the first soundies to emerge.

The 1950’s began the industry revolution in terms of the entertainment business and how music videos were used, artists began to record music videos and distribute them to labels and companies for promotional use, along with the intention to entertain the audience these music videos were used to increase the income of the artist and their subsequent record label and to also increase the public image of the artist and gain new fans as these music clips targeted a wider audience. The Scotophone (a visual jukebox with a screen that broadcasted music clips) spread out of America and into other countries such as Germany, France and Great Britain, where they began to create their own music clips, and in 1956, Tony Bennet allegedly created the first ever music video when he was filmed walking along the Serpantine in Hyde Park and synchronised the video to the song Stranger in Paradise. Tony Bennet’s clip grew critical acclaim and was broadcast on several shows within the United States and the United Kingdom such as Dick Clark’s American Bandstand which showed popular songs and had live performances from several artists. Following the popularity of this music clip many other artists were inspired to create their own music videos in order to attain the promotional and financial benefits it brought. Artists such as Elvis Presley, Betty White, Johnny Cash and Dean Martin gained widespread attention through their music videos, which were incredibly popular and resulted in the increased selling of their subsequent music. By the late 1950’s several music videos were broadcast through television shows within the United States and the United Kingdom, thus came the introduction of shows such as Top 40, which would show many different of the most popular music videos of the time. 

Elvis Presley in the Jailhouse Rock
music video.

During the 1960's music clips began to mould into something incredibly similar to the music videos we have in the present day. Within France, the Scotiphone had become a huge success and many French artists such as Serge Gainsbourg, Françoise Hardy, Jacques Brel, and Jacques Dutronc produced several short films and inserts to accompany their music. The prominence of this device led to the invention of many new, more advanced pieces of technology used to broadcast music clips and short films, such as the Cinebox in Italy and Colour-Sonic in the USA, these pieces of technology would go on to aid several recording artists and labels to create promotional music inserts and would thus act as a vehicle for modern day music videos. Artists began to pre-record music audio, then film a variation of visuals in which the artists would lip sync pre-recorded music, to create the effect that the artist was actually performing the song within the video, not only was this effect entertaining for the audience as it eradicated the possibility of ambiguity within the music video, it is also the first sign of Goowin’s theory of performance based aspects within a music video.  Artists within the mainstream of the entertainment industry such as the Beatles, Francoise Hardy and the Rolling Stones created filmed inserts; these were very similar to the style of music videos in modern times, and were used as a marketing ploy to keep the artists  relevant and popular and also to promote the sales of their music. The music videos relied on good editing as the lip syncing and varied clips were very complex to use bearing in mind the adept technology they had at the time. These music videos were broadcast all around the world and were popular in essentially every country overseas through the use of broadcasting stations. 

The Beatles in one of their
music videos.

In the 1970’s the ideal of creating music videos in order to promote an artist and their record label to gain publicity and encourage music sales was emphasized greatly. The 1970’s brought the introduction of music videos within television, not only would this change the way in which music videos were created. As now record labels and artist created music videos with the sole use in many cases not to further the creativity of the product but to promote sales and appeal the audience.  This era and the subsequent advances in the entertainment industry brought the outlines of Goodwin’s theory, which would soon become the frameworks for conventions used within the most popular and mainstream music videos, with elements such as an abundance of close ups in order to promote the artists image, dance routines in order to add to the enjoyment of the music video and lip syncing of the lyrics within the music videos in order to create a link between the visuals and the lyrics all used within these videos for effect. With the growing popularity of music and the increased investments and profits made within the music industry there were several advances, shows such as Top of the Pops and Sounds began to play popular music videos each week, this helped artists majorly as the viewers of the show would view and support songs they liked by purchasing them in hope of seeing it next week, many artists saw these TV shows as a platform for their music careers due to the high viewership and subsequent following it would bring. Saturday Night Live, which aired its first show in 1975, emerged as one of the most popular formats for broadcasting music videos and still remains as a popular sketch show. 

The cast of Saturday Night Live.

In 1981 one of the biggest and most important moments in terms of the entertainment industry's history would occur, US music channel MTV launched its 24/7 music video broadcasting show, beginning with airing the song "Video Killed The Radio Star." The establishment of this music channel which would soon become the most popular entertainment channel not only in the US but worldwide would act as the pedestal for music videos with the purpose of promoting the artist in order to increase sales and publicity. MTV also brought the beginning of broadcasting music and music videos 24/7 when not on the radio, which became a popular element as music was always available for listening. MTV became the prominent format for music videos, many artists such as Madonna, Duran Duran and Adam and the Ants owed their fame to the publicity they gained through concentrating a majority of money and time on their music videos being broadcasted on MTV as they knew the benefits would be great. Advances in technology meant there was new equipment able for the use of directors which aided the editing and cinematography of the music video and thus the popularity and frequency of music videos increased. In 1983 one of the most popular, iconic and inspirational music videos was released, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, directed by John Landis. Thriller remains as one of the most successful music videos of all time, and set the bar high for other music videos. The music video cost a record of $800,000 dollars to produce, and was 14 minutes long, it was incredibly successful and won many awards and accolades, it was also instrumental to African American’s flourishing within the music industry and featuring on high prospect music channels worldwide such as MTV through music videos. 

Michael Jackson's Thriller.

The 1990's brought the rise and prominence of music video directors, they became integral to the success of music videos and their role and stature within each music video or product within the music entertainment industry was incredibly similar to film directors, and many music video directors went on to pursue a career in film and create feature length films. Music video directors were given full creative control such as the cinematography, mise-en-scene and conventions over the product provided they consulted the artist and their correspondent record label; this was an incredibly important role full of responsibility and thus a hiring a good director would always result in a better end product. Directors such as Chris Cunningham, Michel Gondry, and Spike Jonze grew to prominence within this era, each respected director was incredibly unique with their ideas, some more than others however all of their videos broke the mould of mainstream conventions in some way or another in order to catch the eye of the audience or create publicity through shock methods. The increasing numbers of music videos being created due to the abundance of platforms there were available after the introduction of MTV, combined with advances in technology such as the creation of an easy to use 13MM camera and CGI and special effects and the increased levels of both competition and ambition of artists meant that boundaries had to be stretched in order to stay original and popular, this thus led to the rise of even more expensive music videos. Almost every music video created cost over a million dollars to produce, with producers and directors spending heaps of money and effort in order to create a hit. Michael and Janet Jackson’s “Scream” allegedly cost $7 million dollars to make, whilst Madonna’s “Bedtime Story” cost $5 million dollars.  These directors added variation to music videos and subsequently they resulted in the increased revenue and publicity of artists through directing the videos.

A still from Kanye West's
Heard Em Say directed by Michel Gondry,

The 21st century brought the widespread prominence and rise of the internet, this began the spread of music and other forms of entertainment to be spread on not just television and radio but now on computers, which largely affected the ways in which music was created and distributed. In 1997 iFilm launched, this allowed user to post and share short videos, which were usually music videos, this then spurred on an influx of websites dedicated to hosting videos. By the mid 2000's most music channels such as MTV and VIVA stopped broadcasting music videos in favor of TV shows and Reality TV shows as these became increasingly popular. This thus lead to even more websites broadcasting music videos and websites such as Napster were created, however the main website which has become a huge influence on the way in which entertainment is broadcast is Youtube, which was formed in 2005, this became the platform for video hosting and soon millions would use this to share, upload and watch videos. Many music videos attained millions of views on the internet which would further their sales and gain them publicity artists saw this new oppurtinity as a platform to further their sales and add to their fan base. Artists used the internet to both advertise and upload their music videos over YouTube due to its popularity and its widespread influence, as millions of people watched it, an effective music video could attain millions of views. The most viewed music video of all time on Youtube is Psy's 'Gangnam Style' with 2,145,343,240 views, it received wide acclaim and won many accolades such as, most liked music video, first video to be viewed 2 billion times, and the most viewed K-pop song of all time. The video uses a variation of of special effects and  editing, which reflects the popularity of taking advantage of the abundance of advanced technology made available, taking this into consideration one can depict that the use of technology and special effects such as CGI could result in better views and a more successful music video. The most expensive music video is the collaboration between Michael and Janet Jackson in 'Scream,' directed by Mark Romenek, the video cost $7 million dollars to produce, which is over $10 million dollars in modern times with adjusted inflation. This film again uses a variety of editing such as CGI and computer added effects, which highlights the amount of money needed to invest into having a successful and good quality type of special effects. The music video, despite heavy investments was not very successful in correspondence with some of Michael Jackson's other music videos, with it only attaining 37,322,919 views on YouTube.