The history of music video's

The history of Music Videos

Thirty years ago music videos were a lot less important or significant to what they are today. The only way people ever say singers/bands were if they went to see them perform live or if they were featured in a film, like The Beatles were in ‘A Hard Day’s Night’

Bob Dylan created the first significant and recognised music video. The song he used was Home Sick Blue (1965). It was a very plain and basic music video which featured Bob Dylan stood in what looks like a mid-built street, holding cars which had certain words from the song written in different font on the cards. The video is in black and white as it was made before colour technology was made and the sound quality is very low.  He uses a visual element along with the song. As the song goes along Bob Dylan drops the top card to reveal other cards, he does this in time with the music so the word on the card matches the song. The video also allows the audience to see what Bob Dylan looks like. 

Then in the 1970’s shows such as Top Of The Pops were created so that the audience could watch the bands/singers perform live from their own homes. Bands/singers used Top Of The Pops as a way to promote themselves and their music label. However as it was live the bands only had one chance to make a good reputation, so if they made any mistakes they would seem rubbish and get a bad reputation. 

In 1975 Queen brought out Bohemian Rhapsody. They used a great amount of editing on this video so it was drastically different to Bob Dylan’s Video.  The video was filmed and transmitted in colour, they used many different camera angels to produce different effects and they also used effects on it. They also dressed in a certain way in the video for Bohemian Rhapsody. They did this so the audience felt they could relate to Queen. They also used certain hairstyles to create the same feeling. This is also known as verisimilitude, relating the world of films and music videos to the real world. The mise en scene of the video varies all the way through. At the beginning you see that they are on a set with a white light shining behind them. Then next they are located on a stage with all of the equipment needed to play the music. This suggests to the audience that it is a live performance. MTV were the first to start showing music videos so were the reason music videos became so important and a world wide phenomenon.  MTV started broadcasting music videos in 1981, in the USA.  This marked the beginning of music videos being a big part of the music industry.  The very first video to ever be played on MTV was ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’by The Buggles. This gave the audience a change to watch music videos from their own TV instead of at the cinema and live performances. The video for ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ had a lot more editing and effects in it than Bohemian Rhapsody. This video was also very ironic because the song and the video go on about how video would be the death of the radio, and that was the first video ever to be shown. Video Killed The Radio Star also had a proper filming location in a studio where as Bohemian Rhapsody had been filmed on a stage. They also used more cuts to keep the audience’s attention unlike in Bob Dylan’s video for homesick Blues were it was just one long shot with no camera movement, effects or cuts.

In 1983 Michael Jackson brought out the song Thriller, for which he made a music video. This was the first music video to ever have a narrative. It told a story all the way through. At the beginning they showed a short kind of movie which explained what was happening before the music video actually started so the audience would understand the music video better as if it was showing without the story at the beginning it does not make much sense. The theme for Thriller was Horror. The video was also made as a form of entertainment, not just to show the audience what Michael Jackson looks like or how he performs. This was the start of bands/singers making music videos with a narrative. Nowadays there are very few music videos that don’t have a narrative or tell some kind of story. I believe all of the music videos I have mentioned played a great part in helping towards what music videos are like today, how significant they are and what a big part of the music industry.