Task 3 - Music Video Timeline

A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a piece of music or a song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of the artists music.
Music videos use a wide range of styles of film making techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation and live action.

1960s
In Canada, Manny Pittson began pre-recording the music audio, went on location and taped various visuals with the musicians lip-syncing, then edited the audio and video together later. Most of the music was recorded in the studio or on a stage.

One of the earliest performance clips in 1960s pop was the promo film made by 'The Animals' for their 1964 hit 'House Of The Rising Sun'. This was filmed in a studio on a specially-built set; it features the group in a lip-synced performance, depicted through an edited sequence of tracking shots, close ups and long shots.

Also in 1964, The Beatles starred in their first feature film called 'A Hard Days Night'. It was shot in black and white, with new innovative musical sequences. The musical sequences provided the basic foundations on which many promo clips and music videos were modelled.

In 1966, Bob Dylans 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' clip shows Dylan standing in a city back alley, silently shuffling a series of large cue cards in time to the music. The cue-card device has been used in many other other music videos. However, in the UK in 1966, The Kinks made one of the first promo clips to have a plot, for their single 'Dead End Street', a miniature comic movie was made.

The promotional clip continued to grow in importance, with television programs such as 'The Midnight Special' and 'Don Kirshner's Rock Concert', which would mix concert footage with clips put together with camera tricks, special effects, and dramatizations of song lyrics.

1970s
During 1972 to 1973, David Bowie featured in a series of promotional films directed by Mick Rock. These clips are important landmarks in the development of the music video genre in the 1970s. Mick Rock directed and edited four clips to promote four of David Bowies singles such as 'John, I'm Only Dancing', 'The Jean Genie', 'Space Oddity' and 'Life On Mars'.

The long-running TV show Top of the Pops began playing music videos in the late 1970s, although the BBC placed strict limits on the number of 'outsourced' videos TOTP could use. Therefore a good video would increase a songs sales as viewers hoped to see it again the following week. In 1975, the band Queen made a memorable promo video for their single 'Bohemian Rhapsody' to show it on Top Of The Pops.

1980s
Although the origins of music videos go back much further, they came into their own in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around music videos, they then later launched VH1. The term 'music video' first came into popular usage in the early 1980s. In 1981, the U.S. video channel MTV launched, beginning an era of 24-hour-a-day music on television. With this new outlet for material, the music video would, by the mid-1980s, grow to play a central role in popular music marketing. Many important artists of this period, most memorably, Adam & the Ants, Michael Jackson and Madonna, owed a great deal of their success to the construction and appeal of their music videos.

Two key innovations in the development of the modern music video were the development of relatively inexpensive and easy-to-use video recording and editing equipment. The advent of high-quality colour videotape recorders and portable video cameras enabled many musicians to produce promotional videos quickly and cheaply.

During this period, directors of music videos began to explore and expand the form and style of the genre, using more sophisticated effects in their videos, mixing film and video, and adding a storyline or plot to the music video. Occasionally videos were made in a non-representational form, in which the musical artist was not shown. Because music videos are mainly intended to promote the artist, such videos are comparatively rare; two early 1980s examples are Bruce Springsteens 'Atlantic City', directed by Arnold Levine, and David Mallets video for David Bowie and Queen's 'Under Pressure'.

In 1983, arguably the most successful and influential music video of all time was released, the 14 minute long video for Michael Jacksons 'Thriller'. The video set new standards for production, having cost US $500,000 to film. That video, along with earlier videos by Michael Jackson such as; 'Billie Jean' and 'Beat It', also was instrumental in getting music videos by African-American artists played on MTV; earlier, such videos were rare because MTV initially conceived itself as a rock music oriented channel.

In 1985, MTV launched the channel VH1, featuring softer music, and meant to cater to an older demographic than MTV. MTV Europe was launched in 1987, and MTV Asia in 1991.
Another important development in music videos was the launch of 'The Chart Show' in the UK on Channel 4, in 1986. This was a program which consisted entirely of music videos without presenters. Instead, the videos were linked by then state of the art computer graphics. The show moved to ITV in 1989.

In 1986, Peter Gabriels song 'Sledgehammer' used special effects and animation techniques, the video for Sledgehammer would go on to be a phenomenal success and win nine MTV Video Music Awards.

In 1988, the MTV show 'Yo! MTV Raps' made its debut, this show helped bring hip hop music to a mass audience for the first time.