Music Videos Through the Ages

I say through the ages, of course the 'ages' are actually not very long - the first proper, recognisable music video was made in 1929

And so that is where we begin - in 1929 Bessie Smith created a video for her song St. Louis Blues. It was the first real 'performance' song with Bessie herself singing (NOT LIP SYNCING) while in a bar full of people singing or playing instruments. I find it incredible to watch...

Jump ahead to the 60's and music videos were largely coming from musical movies, which were a massive hit between the 30's and 60's. One of the most popular was West Side Story (personal favourite of mine) which influenced the video for Michael Jackson's Bad. Say the words 'dance fight' to someone and odds are the first thing they'll think of is West Side Story or Bad.

Warning: may contain frequent clicking in a daunting manner

 

1975 is the next stop and we are graced with the presence of the almighty Queen. They created a video for Bohemian Rhapsody and it was the first video made to truly promote a song. They made it to be shown on Top of the Pops (are we even allowed to say that anymore?) in their absence and it made the song a massive success!

Long live the Queen! (well, sort of...)

 



Then came the 80's! The shimmering, shining 80's and the introduction of MTV in 1981. Showing music videos all day long, it offered a platform for artists to promote their songs, but of course it meant that singers now couldn't just be that, they had to be lookers as well. And thus of course 'Video killed the radio star', ironically being the first song ever played on MTV.

 

 

 

 

And of course not forgetting the phenomena that was, and still is, MJ's Thriller in 1983. This smashed the records of being the first music video the break the million dollars, simply a drop in the ocean by todays standards.

 



 

 

Finally we jump forward to the Noughties and 2005 brought the beginning of a new game changing platform - YouTube! I think its safe to say YouTube has taken over the world (just another step towards Google's plans for world domination) but that means it is an excellent way for artists to promote their music. The YouTube channel VEVO is the largest music video channel on the interwebs and it a great source of music videos (as you can tell by most of my video links here). YouTube means that artists can reach every corner of the globe and keep their audience growing!

 

 

And so here we are, 2013, where music videos are massively popular and amazing tools for artists to promote their material! And its all thanks to Bessie Smith - thanks Bessie, you're a doll.

 

That's it for another post! Au Revoir Mes Amis!