Music videos are often called promos used as promotional devices to sell records. Also known as 'short-form' music videos to distinguish them from full-length movies involving music.
- Disney released Fantasia, an animated piece based around classical music.
1950s and 1960s:
- The defining work in the development of music videos was The Beatles' major motion picture 'A hard day's night', directed by Richard Lester.
- The first manufactured band made in the 1960s was 'The Monkees'. Manufactured bands were introduced as a money-making business dominated by an economic purpose and to give the Record label control.
1970s:
- The self-produced music videos by Devo "The truth about devolution" was heavily influential.
- Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" was a new era for music promo.
- The UK's Top of the Pops became incredibly important to promote a single as it was the only live music competition available at the time.
1980:
- Also known as the Golden Age of music videos
- Music Videos pre 1980s weren't known as a big entity, only having small air time on shows like top of the pops when the band couldn't appear.
- Robert W.Pittman came up with the idea to have a TV Channel solely for music. MTV launched in 1981 grew to play a central role in popular music advertising. However, only a few thousand people could watch it on the satellite television at the time. The first video to be aired in Buggles "Video killed the radio star".
- Madonna owed a great deal of her success to the skillful construction and seductive appeal of videos. Physical appearance became critical to popularity, some say this resulted in the death of true musical artists.
- Artists started to use more sophisticated effects in their videos, becoming experimental and independent with their ideas. Michael Jackson was the first to use a narrative concept of a short film first with "Billie Jean" then later the more successful "Thriller".
- Madonna and Michael Jackson evolved music videos into forms of Art.
- Grandmaster White Lies being legally banned gained popularity and got it into the Top 10.
1990s:
- MTV reached 28 million viewers worldwide, so they started to broadcast music videos 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Critics were starting to review music videos and national music awards were starting to introduce "best music video" categories.
- Music video production would become more cinematic and the budgets were bigger.
- MTV2 was later launched in 1996 to show more alternative music like Nirvana, to attract a wide audience.
- Information technology era and the evolving technological convergence has expanded the distribution and audience accessibility of music videos. They are now viewed freely on many internet sites on many devices.
- You Tube took over MTV music.
- Bands now take time out of their schedules to shoot their videos and can take a few days to produce. Millions are spent on the production videos, more than ever.
- Music videos are now watched purely for their aesthetic value.
- More consistently, females are represented as a sex appeal.
- It is believed that musical stars are now brands instead of artists, making more money out of merchandising than the music itself.
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