2. • 1894 – George Thomas, an
1894 electrician and many others
were hired to promote sales of
the song ‘The Little Lost
Child’ by sheet music
publisher Joe Stern and
Edward B. Marks.
• The illustrated song was the
first step towards music videos
and would later become a
popular type of entertainment.
He created this by projecting a
sequence of still images on a
screen which was
synchronized to live
performances, using a magic
lantern. A magic lantern is
one of the earlier types of
image projectors that was
developed in the 17th century.
3. 1926 • In 1926, sound films
with incorporated
synchronized dialogue
came about. These were
called ‘talking picture’
better known as ‘talkies’
(among people of the
early 1930s) which
resulted in numerous
musical short films being
produced.
• They were exclusively
‘shorts’ which were
played in cinemas before
the feature film and were
around 6 minutes long.
• Example: ‘St Louis Blues’
(1929) was a video that
ran in cinemas till 1932
with Blues singer Bessie
Smith appearing in it.
4. 1920s-1930s • Screen Songs is a series of sing
along shorts that were are a
continuation of the earlier Fleischer
Cartoons series ‘Song Car-Tunes'. It was
introduced in 1929 by animation
artist Max Fleischer.
• It took popular songs of the day and
added a "bouncing ball" following
the lyrics in order to encourage
audience sing longs. This is similar
to what you would see on a modern
karaoke machine and is still used
today by people such as ‘High
School Musical’ and ‘That’s So
Raven’ for younger audiences.
• Popular musicians performed their
hit songs on camera in live action
sections during cartoons of the
early 1930s. Films that featured
this were Walt Disney’s animated
Fantasia and Silly symphonies
(shorts) which were built around
music. They both had
interpretations of classical pieces.
5. Cartoons
Cartoons such as ‘Merrie Melodies’ and ‘Looney Tunes’
by Warner Brothers were originally formed around
specific songs from upcoming Warner Brother musical
films such as the Jazz Singer (1927).
6. 1930 to 1970
The Influence of Musical Films
• Music films was
another item that came
before music videos
which is why it is so
important and
influential. As a result,
classic Hollywood
musicals from 1930s to
the 1970s have been
imitated.
These consist of:
• Daddy Long Legs, 1955
• Damn Yankees, 1958
• Pennies from Heaven,
1981
7. Music & Television
• The term ‘music video’ was
invented by disk jockey-singer J.P.
“The Big Popper” Richardson.
• Eventually these were distributed
to and played by the US and UK
television stations. One example of
this is Tony Bennett’s recording
‘Stranger in Paradise’ (1953) which
he played whilst being filmed
walking along The Serpentine in
Hyde Park, London. This song
began his career as an
international artist.
• As television grew and became
more popular, it allowed new stars
to be exposed that before wouldn’t
have due to Hollywood, normally
requiring established acts. This
gave more people a better
opportunity to be successful and
attract an audience to the box office
– much like proven acts would
have.
8. The Beatles
(1964)
The Beatles was one of the most commercially successful and significantly praised acts in the
history of popular music. The English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960.
The Beatles starred in their first feature film ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ in 1964. It was directed by
Richard Lester and shot in black and white. It contained:
1. A loosely structured musical composition of free/improvisatory nature
2. Distribute musical sequences with comedic and dialogue ones
3. A sequence with furnished basic templates
• It was also a direct model for the Monkees (successful US TV series) which consisted of
similar film segments that were created to accompany various Monkees songs.
In contrast, the 1965 feature ‘Help’ was filmed in London as well as on international
locations. It was also in colour except from the title track sequence that was filmed in
black and white. Help contained the following features:
1. Contrasting close ups and long shots
2. Unusual shots and angles
3. Rhythmic cross-cutting
4. And a shot whereby it shows both a sharp focus in the background and a completely out
of focus figure in the background
Overall, there second feature was very extravagant and had been really developed from their
first feature, ‘A Hard Day’s Night’.
9. Promotional Clips
(1965-1967) • In 1965, The Beatles started making
promotional clips (filmed inserts) in order to
promote their record releases without being
present.
• This would be distributed and broadcasted
in other countries (mainly the USA). In the
UK, many promotional clips were aired on
’Top of the Pops’.
• Later examples of promotional clips were in
colour. Those made in early 1967 such as
‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and ‘Penny
Lane’ were directed by Peter Goldman and
took promotional film format to a whole new
height. The advanced techniques used (and
added in post production) included:
• Dramatic lighting
• Colour filtering
• Reversed film and slow motion
• Unusual camera angles and shots
These were borrowed from underground and
Avant Garde Film. These studio
masterpieces, were impossible to be
performed live by the group so instead their
psychedelic mini films portrayed the films in
a generalized way - rather than imitating
the appearance of the performance.
10. Another Promotional Clip
• Bob Dylan ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ was a monochrome clip, filmed
by D. A. Pennebaker in 1966. This was a technique whereby it displayed
images in black and white or in varying tones of one colour only.
• Filmed inserts at this time, were produced by UK artists and so could
therefore be screened on TV when the artist was unable to appear live.
• He deliberately avoided imitating performances or presenting a narrative
which is why he showing key words from the song lyrics.
11. Late 1970s - Top of the Pops
1964 - Top of the Pops was a British music chart television
programme. It began playing music videos in the late 1970s
however, they limited the amount of videos they could use.
This effectively, would make viewers want to see the video
again and in the long run, increase song sales.
12. Promo Videos
Promo videos are videos made in order to
promote the artist. Two very
successful promo videos are:
• David Bowie – Ashes to Ashes
• Madness
• Ashes to ashes was directed by David
Mallet in 1980 and was Bowie’s first
UK number one.
• Madness constructed their clips as
‘micro-comedic’ short films that were
shot on 16mm and 35mm.
• 1975: The promo video for Queen’s
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is notable for
being entirely edited and shot on
videotape. It was made by Bruce
Gowers and shown on Top of the
Pops.
13. 1980s - MTV
• MTV was launched on 1st August
1981 at 12.01am with the words
‘Ladies and gentlemen, rock and
roll’.
• It showed footage of the launch of
Apollo 11 as well as the first space • Its launch began an era of 24/7
shuttle launch countdown with music on television and aired
John Lack’s voice spoken over it. ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’. By
the mid 80s music videos would
• The original MTV theme song was grow to play a dominant role in
played after with numerous popular music marketing.
photos of Apollo 11 landing with
the flag featuring MTV’’s logo
changing various colours, textures Important Acts of this period were:
and designs. 1. Duran
2. Madonna
• This was used as excessive pride
by MTV producers Fred Seibert 3. Michael Jackson
and Alan Goodman. They 4. Bon Jovi
associated MTV with the most 5. Prince
famous moment in world TV
history.
14. 1980s Improvements/Developments
In the development of the modern music videos, there were two key improvements which
was:
• Video recording and editing equipment
• Visual effects
• This was very beneficial as the video recording and editing equipment, were both easy
to use and inexpensive. The arrival of high-quality colour portable video cameras and
videotape recorders resulted in promotional videos for pop acts to be produced cheaply
and quickly. Whereas, film was very cost effective. Some however, did continue to mix
film and video, whilst others preferred using 35mm film – throughout the development
of the field.
1983 – Michael Jackson – Thriller was released on 30 th November 1982 and with it came a
14 minute long video that cost $500,000 to film. It was very successful as well as
influential and set new standards for production. Videos such as this and Michael
Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’ and ‘Beat It’ influenced MTV to play videos by African
Americans. However, this would have been rare when MTV had just launched as it
was primarily a rock music orientated channel.
Successful Videos
• 1985: Dire Straits – Money for Nothing: Good use of computer animation made it an
international hit
• 1986: Peter Gabriel: Sledgehammer: Good use of animation and special effects
techniques made it a phenomenal success.
15. 1980s Improvements
& Developments
The development of music videos
continued as directors alongside music
artists:
• Used more sophisticated effects
• Mixed film and video
• Included a storyline and plot
• Looked at the form and style of the
genre in depth
There was also some non representational
form videos whereby the music artist
was not shown however these were
rare as the video was intentionally
made to promote the artist.
Examples of these are:
• Queen – Under Pressure
• Duran Duran – The Chauffeur
• George Michael – Freedom
16. 1990s - MTV The early 90s showed MTV in a different light as
they played a range of music that brought
upon new forms of music video that were
artistic, creative, amusing and technically
accomplished compared to those in the 80s.
The music varied from:
• R‘n’B groups – Boyz II Men & Bell Biv Divoe
• Metal and Hard rock acts – Guns ‘N’ Roses,
Metallica & Nirvana
• Pop singers – New Kids on the Block, Michael
Jackson & Madonna
As well as introducing rappers MC Hammer and
Vanilla Ice
• 1991-2001 – Napster – a peer to peer file
sharing service which allowed people to
share their video files.
• 1992 – Film Directors got their start by MTV
listing their names at the bottom of the
credits thanks to the pressure from the
MVPA.
• 1997 – The website iFilm launched.
17. 2000 • By 2000, non representational form
videos were very common.
• Mid 2000 – MTV alongside its
sister channels no longer showed
music videos as they thought
reality television shows were more
popular with their audience.
• 2005 – The Launch of YouTube
made viewing videos faster and
easier. Similar technologies were
used on other websites such as
MySpace, Facebook and Google
Video. This was beneficial to many
artists as they became very
successful through all the views.
• Example: Soulja Boy – Crank That
& OK Go! – Here it goes again
18. 2010/2011
As YouTube became an international success, many artists videos became an
even bigger success from a large amount of views.
• 2010 – Lady Gaga – Bad Romance was the most viewed on YouTube with
130 million views which increased by early 2011 to over 350 million views
• 2011 – This record was however broken to, Justin Bieber’s ‘Baby’ that
received over 500 million views.
Editor's Notes
At first, the sound films incorporating synchronized dialogue—known as "talking pictures", or " talkies "—were exclusively shorts; the earliest feature-length movies with recorded sound included only music and effects. Talkies is what the people of the early 1930s called the sound films, as opposed to silent films. Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Definition_of_talkies#ixzz1z6JQIRQI
