History of Music Videos

The Beatles- A Hard Days Night - 1964
Before music videos there were no ways that people could watch their favourite artists perform unless they has the means to see them perform live. The Beatles made several films throughout the years that were only shown in cinemas at the time, in which hey star as themselves, the films normally have a narrative and include a selection of songs throughout. This was their first film that was released in 1964 and was made in black and white due to a lower budget as they were not yet too well known.

• The introduction song is "A Hard Days Night" itself and shows The Beatles themselves being chased by a load of fans, and shows them attempting to run away. During this song we see a fast editing pace to help reflect the fact that they are running and in a rush in order to get away.
• The lyrics to the song are relevant to the narrative as it shows that they have hard a busy day and just want to get home without all the attention they are receiving.
• Examples of the shots used in this scene are a tracking shot (as they are running), a mid shot and also long shots and establishing shots.

Bob Dylan- Subterranean Homesick Blues - 1965

Bob Dylans introduction to his own documentary in 1965 is one of the first examples of a music video. The video is for his song "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and is filmed in one continuous medium longshot with no editing at all, it does however begin with a gradual zoom. The clip simply show Bob Dylan himself holding loads of paper with lyrics written to the song on them, throughout the song he is removing the top piece to reveal the next lyrics.

• The location of the video is an old run down street/alley way 
• He is dressed in a shirt, waist coast which was a casual rebellious look at the time
• There is only one other person featured in the background, a man dressed in a black coat and only half in the frame\
• In black and white even though colour television was around then, they would of had a low budget and not felt the use of colour was needed for the documentary.

Cliff Richard- Summer Holiday - 1965

This song is featured in the musical "Summer Holiday" and is in colour as musicals producers would have a larger budget than music artists.

• There a few examples of editing here such as the fade out of the video at the end and also the continuity editing of the shots, an example is when we see passerbys waving at the bus and straight afterwards have a shot of the driver waving back to them
• The decision of making the movie in colour is also because the narrative is following a group of friends going on holiday and holidays are thought to be bright, sunny and happy. This also makes the iconic red London bus more recognisable to the audience.
• Use of stereotypes such as the french people riding by on their bikes and wearing berets.
• The use of a massive sign saying "Paris" thats pointing in the direction that the bus is going helps the audience to establish the new location.
• There are other uses of sound alongside the song such as the song of bells on the bikes and the children laughing.

The Beatles - Help - 1965

In comparison to their first movie, you can clearly see the difference and how this one is such an improvement. The movie this time has improved on several levels, one is that it has been filmed in colour and also including several filming locations such as Austria and The Bahamas which were very exotic at the time since travelling abroad was fairly new.

• In this movie we get to see their individual personalities which helps an iconic image to be created for them, this is also done through their use of outfits.
• Use of close ups for a single member, and medium long shots to show the band performing together.
• The use of instruments like guitars shows that they are a band and perform their own music as well as sing.

The Beatles - Hello Goodbye - 1967
This is actually considered to be a bad example of a music video, considering technology has developed and their level of fame has further increases, you would expect there to be a noticeable improvement. Here are some examples of bad cinematography, editing ans mise-en-scene from the music video:

• Use of bad framing, the long shot cuts of their feet and one also cuts of the drummer, Ringo's, head from the shot altogether. 
• We see the stages side curtain for several seconds and this should obviously not be in the shot.
• Lack of editing, one shot does not change for a total of 16 seconds, and there are only a total of four shots in a further 36 seconds.
• Instead of the use of a new camera shot or editing, one of the singers actually moves out of the camera shot instead
• However, an interesting aspects of the video is the use of the Elvis movement in the routine, this could be seen as a way to symbolise that they are now as big as Elvis himself.

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody - 1975
This song has been one of the most biggest selling songs in all music history. It was actually the longest running number 1 for around 20 years, there are several reasons to this songs success including:

• This was the first music video to be released on video tape (VHS).
• A good use of cinematography such as the low angle used to make the musicians seem dominant, the use of zooms and pans are also good forms of this.
• There were a good use of effects such as dry ice, this helps give the illusion and feel of a real live performance.

Michael Jackson - Thriller - 1982

The music video for Thriller was made to be a short film as well as a music video, both performance and voyeurism were represented within this video. The T.V schedule was actually interrupted so the video could be premièred.

• The short movie had ground breaking effects for its time, such as when Michael transforms into a wear wolf, shows the use of a large budget.
• There are several different forms of cinematography used in this video and we see a wide range of camera angles used.
• They are 3 levels of diegesis used within the video as there are a total of 3 narratives, the 50's style horror that we initially see, then the idea that it is just a movie that they are watching, at the end we then see that the girl was dreaming both of these narratives.
• The dancing scenes within the video are very iconic to this day, as Michael was known for his dance moves.

The development of technology

The continuous development of technology has been revolutionary in the music industry.

• In 1967 the first T.V. satellite was sent up into space so certain channels could be accessed by several countries in Europe. As a way to test this a selection of countries were given a time slot of around 10 minutes to show footage of their choice, The UK used their shot to premier The Beatles new single. 
• The satellite itself did prove to be successful, the idea of making music videos as oppose to movies for artists was then developed as television reaches  a much wider audience than cinemas do.
• Globalisation was then introduced by the addition of the satellite, subtitles and lyrics were then added to the screen in different languages.
• On Boxing day there was a lot of anticipation and excitement for their latest film to be shown called "Magical Mystery Tour" However many people were left disappointed as colour televisions were fairly new so the majority still owned black and white ones, meaning the coloured filters effect used on the landscape shots for their first song were very boring to watch to those seeing it in black and white.
• In the early 80's the first channel to exclusively play music videos was made and this was known as MTV, this was due to the increase of music videos being made because they were then becoming cheaper to make.