History of music videos

History of music videos

1975: the First music video is considered to be Bohemian Rhapsody by the British Rock band Queen  for the bands 'A Night at the Opera' album in 1975. Bohemian Rhapsody became a commercial success, staying at the top of the UK Singles  Chart for a total of nine weeks and in January 1976 selling over a million copies

1979-1981: The Buggles 'Video killed the Radio Star' was first recored by Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club. It was released as their debut single on 7th September 1979 on Island Records from there album The Age of Plastic. In 1981 it became the first music video to be aired on MTV. The song placed number 40 on VH1’s 100 Greatest One-hit wonders of the 80’s (even though it was released in 1979).

1983: Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ was released in 1983. The music videolasted for a total of 13 minute 43seconds. It was MTV’s first world wide premiere video and voted as the biggest influential pop  video of all time. The video had a large impact on the population and sparked the merging of filmmaking and music. Thriller was also labeled as the most successful music video, selling over 9 million copies. It was alsothe first music video to ever be introduced into the National Film registrywhich was an honor for being culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.

1989: "U Can't Touch This" is a hit single by MC Hammer from his album, Please Hammer Don’t hurt ‘Em in 1990. The song became the artists signature song and is considered as this most recognizable and popular record singles to date. The music video included a range of dancers and the individual artist rapping to the song

1994: The British alternative rock band Blur’s song Park life is considered to have an iconic music video in 1994 (according to NME). The band are shown outside, supposedly in a park. The editors have used different techniques such as changing the colour (to black and white) and repeating certain parts of the music video to fit with the song lyrics. The band recently released another music video with the band (shown when they are older) with the same lyrics, however does not include the entire band.
 

2000:  In 2000 John Legend released "Ordinary People”, a single from the album Get Lifted. The music video is shown entirely in black and white, to fit with the slow soul genre. There is a clear link between the visuals and lyrics. When the artist sings ‘This time we’ll take it slow’ the creators have used a slow motion editing technique. Also during the instrumental, the scene shows a group of people playing violins and various instruments, which link with the song and music video.

2008: The artist Adele, a British soul singer released a single in 2008, Chasing Pavements. The song entered as  2nd in the UK single charts. The music video links closely with the song, in the video there appears to be an accident, showing the victims dancing in certain points. ‘Should I give up, or  should I just keep chasing pavements’ suggesting should they fight for there lives. The video has a chronological narrative which is easy to follow, using a range of different camera angles and techniques which have developed from the first clips made.

2011: Over the years, music videos have developed in a number of ways, such as the abstract narratives, quality and style. In comparison to the first music videos made, artists of have resulted in making more provocative videos, an example of this is Rihanna’s S&M video, which has strong sex references which sparked negative opinions of the artist, mainly from parents of the target audience as it was seen unsuitable for the young generation, and was criticized with sexual lyrics that were quickly censored (on radio).

In 2013, Bastille released as number one single, Pompeii, The music video focuses on the lead singer Daniel Smith, running away from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Pompeii, with the lyrics "Great clouds roll over the hills, bringing darkness from above”, highlighting the catastrophic event. The video helps to represent the natural disaster in Pompeii and shows people with black eyes he realises the ash from the volcano has caught up with him. 

           Overall, music videos have changed and developed overtime. These have changed due to the range of technologies which are being used to appeal to their target audience and the specific genre of music. When music videos where first introduced, they were fairly simple, with just the artist singing. However nowadays videos have a lot more happening in the scene to keep the audience hooked. Also, with new technologies the creators are able to add the recorded version over the top of the music video, using very well timed lip syncing.