History of music videos

A music video is a way to promote an artist, modernly, it promotes the release of an album. According to Sven Carlson (1999), there are three types of narratives within a music video; narrative (story), performance and abstract. Classically it used to just be performance but as time went on more and more artists challenged conventions to be noticed. Usually there is a mixture rather than just one, and this has now become the norm.   

In the 60’s, music videos were completely different to how they are now. If you wanted to watch a music video you would have to watch a film. Cliff Richard starred in “Summer Holiday” 

(1963) which showcased his hit single “We’re All Going On A Summer Holiday”, this song was incorporated within the narrative of the film. The video is made up of a performance of Cliff singing the song whilst driving a bus. 

The Beatles changed this by staring within their own (mock) documentary  “A Hard Day’s Night” (1964) so instead of playing characters they played themselves. As this was their own film they could do what they want so they can incorporate their songs within the narrative. 

Then Bob Dylan came along and recorded a documentary called “Don’t Look Back” (1967). The documentary opened with the track “Subterranean Homesick Blues" and this broke conventions as there was only one edit with no performance just Bob holding cards containing lyrics or relating concepts.

The introduction of music television changed music videos forever. British television show, Top Of The Pops, allowed artist to promote their songs by miming a live performance. In the late 70's, they started showing music promo videos. Which increased sales as the audience would want to see the videos again the following episode. 

Thanks to his video for "Ashes To Ashes" (1980), David Bowie secured his first UK number one. The video was directed by David Mallet who as also worked on videos such as "I Want To Break Free" by Queen (1984). This shows the power of promo videos and it's effect on an audience. 










The rise of MTV brought music videos to mainstream. MTV started in 1981 and aired "Video Killed The Radio Star". This service made music videos accessible 24 hours a day making videos more popular. 

In 1992, MTV started listing directors making their role more important. This made directors introduce their own style and flair. This is when directors started coming more popular such as director Mark Romanek who directed the video "Scream" by Micheal Jackson which cost $7 million to create and owns the title of most expensive music video.

The biggest music video provider in the modern age is Youtube, which launched in 2005. This service made music video viewing fast and easy making it more accessible especially for a modern audience. One of the biggest music videos on Youtube is Ok Go's video for "Here It Goes Again" (2006).