A Short History of Music Videos & Music Consumption

Music was initially enjoyed purely on its own merit, or as a medium/ support for other forms of entertainment such as dancing or performances. In the 1920, the "talkie" film first became popular. Utilising the improved technology in both audio & film recording, 'talkies' were musical short films which, unlike silent films, integrated both dialogue and music into the main experience.

The Jazz Singer 1927, was the first popular live-action film which integrated sound:

  The film made 27.12 million USD at the box office.

Throughout & past the 1930's, animated films were created which were based around music. Films such as Walt Disney's Fantasia, & early Warner Bros. Looney Tunes were created around specific music, with Fantasia artfully repurposing classical orchestral pieces. During this period, live video recordings of musical acts became distributed to film theatres, featuring artists such as the great big band & jazz singer Cab Calloway & numerous other musicians. 

Classic musical films, often remodeled from popular Broadway shows were important precursors to music videos. 

Tony Bennett supposedly(according to himself) created the first music video to his song 'Strangers in Paradise'. The accompanying video features footage from Hyde Park in London.

"Visual Jukeboxes" were invented & patented throughout the 1950s, beginning with the Scotiphone in France, after which other countries patented their own, similar models, such as the American Color-Sonic and the Italian Cinebox.  

For the Canadian show Singalong Jubilee in 1961, Manny Pittson combined pre-recorded audio with footage of location & the artist lip-syncing to add variety. 

Thus was created the "Promotional Clip". Designed to accompany a song as a visual marketing tool, with the Moody Blues & Beatles releasing such clips. The promotional film for A Hard Day's Night was made in a mockumentary style, the format of which was almost directly copied for the popular American musical band & TV show "The Monkees".

As with so many other things in today's music industry, The Beatles were pioneers & revolutionaries. Their promotional clip for 'Help!' was lavishly filmed across multiple locations, in full colour. It featured one of the first uses of rhythmic editing, cross cutting & dynamic camera movement & angles. Props & dynamic focus are also artfully used. 

In 1965, the Beatles began creating 'Film Inserts', or promotional clips, primarily for US audiences, so that the band members could promote their music without making in-person appearances. Their first batch, including 'Day Tripper' were straightforwardly filmed in-studio performances, designed to fit in seamlessly within 'Top of the Pops' style television programmes.The full-colour promo clips for "Let it be", "Strawberry Fields Forever", & "Penny Lane", directed by Pete Goldman borrowed avant-garde techniques from the cinema industry including colour filtering, slow motion & reverse footage, which are all now staple techniques & can be found in one form or another, in most modern music videos. 
At the time, the clips were poorly received due to their lack of narrative, as oppose to most professionally made film material at the time. These clips were not supposed to have a narrative, only to serve as a visual appendage of the music. 

Promotional clips became common for bands, although the advent of the modern 'Music Video' came with the proliferation of Music Television, including the hugely popular MTV, borrowing heavily from 'chart shows' such as the British 'Top of the Pops' or Australian 'Countdown' or 'Sounds'. 
Music videos were ideal material for chart-shows, & they became more & more readily produced alongside the release of records. 

n 1981, the U.S. video channel MTV launched, airing "Video Killed the Radio Star" and beginning an era of 24-hour-a-day music on television. With this new outlet for material, the music video would, by the mid-1980s, grow to play a central role in popular music marketing. Many important acts of this period, most notably Adam and the Ants, Duran Duran and Madonna, owed a great deal of their success to the skillful construction and seductive appeal of their videos.

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Music consumption is something that has been changing over the years according to the different technology we have developed and used in society. Whether using wireless headphones or a gramophone people have their personal preferences of engaging with the music. For instance some people prefer vinyl turntables as there is more texture to the song that can be lost in headphones. It has also had to adapt to fit in with society's requirements when living in an age where we want things on demand and to keep up with our pace of life, as well as being more compatible with software we have built like Spotify, Youtube and Soundcloud. The fact that they are free streaming sites makes them appealing, but for creators it is an ideal platform to reach a mass audience. Which is why we would be distributing the product more on these digital formats, as it would be more successful as it's more interactive as you can share, like and comment on videos. This would help us understand the effects of our product and how people view it.