By Suma Fatima

history Music videos represent a crucial part of the music industry. Artists

tend on their careers to music videos as they are being given the chance of impressing their fans not just with their vocal talent but also with their looks and moves.

Thirty years ago music video used to be less important then it is nowadays. premiering in 1974, the Australian TV show 'Countdown' played an important role in the development of the music video industry. Music video clips were used as a method of promoting acts that were to appear on the show. As the popularity of the video clips grew, the music industry began to realize the marketing potential of these music clips. One of the most notable video clips features was the AC/DC hit, "It's A Long Way to the Top.” during the 1980s ‘countdown’ aired in 22 countries

Development

Nowadays, the music video is as important as the song itself, sometimes even deciding the success of a song or artist. Collections of music videos are being sold on tapes or DVDs. Music video's greatest fans are apparently watching them muted just to enjoy their artistic value, as they consider it to be a new form of art. They consider that a music video should be assessed based on its visual qualities and not on the song quality. It seems that the music 'gurus', corporate managers, have realised the potential of using female sex-appeal in music videos, therefore this feature is being used excessively as it is more popular for the public.

Music video

History of Music Video 1900’s-1920 The first rumblings of change in the way music was listened too and performed came in 1900, due to technological advancements by Edison, who created the gramophone in the USA. This was the key shift between live and audio visual experiences towards recorded audio on various forms of disk and the eventual progression into the 21st century music where the content of the song is often an after thought compared to the construction of the music video.

The existence of music videos span from a long and tedious road, they began with musical short films which were often produced by the Warner Bros., the first true musical video series was entitled ‘The Spoony Melodies’ but during this time the evolution of music videos can be credited to animation, especially to the artist Max Fischinger who introduced the first instance of audience participation, not only that, his cartoons featured many famous musicians performing live versions of there hit songs during segments of the cartoon. The Warner bros were quick to jump on this idea and soon began to release there own versions of live action musical shorts. 1920’s-1940 However it wasn’t till the end of the 1920’s that the true format of music videos was established. At the fore front of this revolution in music videos was Nick Graves who appeared in the St Louis blues, which was a two reel short film in 1929. these short films were not only revolutionary in aspects of technological advancements, they were also revolutionary in aspects of society and culture as Bessie smith, an African American was a key figure in this video. This was influential in attempting to change the general American perception of those of a different race

gramophone

The scorpion was an innovative visual juke box that the French used frequently until similar machines began to sprout all over the world, Due to music videos ever increasing domain in the public eye television began to respond with first ready steady go in 1963 and a year later top of the pops began on BBC. In this year the fantastical mock-umnetory by the Beatles, entitled a hard day’s night directed by Richard Leicester became a resounding success and set higher standards at which subsequent music videos were compared to. It even influenced American culture as the hit us TV series the Monkees 1966-1968 followed in structure as it had many segments associated to the various songs of the group The Beatles were at the fore front of music video dominance over this period of time as with each music video the ideas and planning became more and more complex. Cumulating in infamous videos for strawberry fields forever,

penny lane

Music video

1940’s-1960 The 1940’s saw another boom in the music video industry this could be accredited to both an economic up turn in America after the great depression but, on the other hand it could be a result of changing society. Primarily the panorama visual juke box can be said to be the main reason for the development of the music genre into one which now was increasingly demanding videos for songs. However before panorama could fully develop the music industry; it was forgotten during the war years and subsequently after. A key factor in music video and its growth to prominence today was music film. One important film for the post war ere was ‘Tony Bennet’s’ musical film for his recording ‘strangers in paradise’ which was shot in Hyde Park London. This shows how America was not the only prominent force in the growth of music videos. This rise in popular music can be said to have followed the popularity of television which broadcasts images and information on previously widely unseen music artists. 1960’s-1980 The beginning of a new decade in the 1960’s saw a new era begin to unfold in music videos.

Bibliography

http://www.slideshare.net/jamsjamsjams/history-of-music-video