A Short History of the Medium
“Film is truth, 24 times a second” –Jean-Luc Godard
Music videos are film, only shorter. Since the invention of sound and visual recording, artists have been pairing the two like chocolate and peanut butter. One of the most popular genres in feature films for the first decades of the twentieth century were musicals.
Solo artists and rock ensembles supplanted big bands on the sales charts. Talk about a happy medium. The hook of a popular tune coupled with the costumes, choreography, effects and direction bring musicians’ big personalities to life on large and small screens.
Black and white soundies rolled with newsreels before feature films to promote the sale of 78 RPM singles and sheet music. In 1964, The Beatles’ Hard Day’s Night coupled performance with sketch comedy. An Italian line of film jukeboxes called Scopitones promised color and racy dances between 1965-69.
Nancy Sinatra’s television special Movin’ with Nancy utilized advanced set direction and star cameos. Live performance showcases like Soul Train, American Bandstand, Midnight Special, Old Grey Whistle Test and Top of the Pops staged lip-synching musicians surrounded by enthusiastic, dancing teens.
Programs like Friday Night Videos and Night Flight drew viewers to see the faces behind radio’s recording stars acting out scenarios in narrative, conceptual abstractions on songwriter’s themes.
MTV launched at 12:01 PM August 1, 1981. Appropriately, the first music video shown was Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles.Today, MTV has practically discarded music videos in favor of reality shows aimed at adolescents and young adults, which has afforded me the opportunity to hire myself in their place.
“Film is truth, 24 times a second” –Jean-Luc Godard
Music videos are film, only shorter. Since the invention of sound and visual recording, artists have been pairing the two like chocolate and peanut butter. One of the most popular genres in feature films for the first decades of the twentieth century were musicals.
Solo artists and rock ensembles supplanted big bands on the sales charts. Talk about a happy medium. The hook of a popular tune coupled with the costumes, choreography, effects and direction bring musicians’ big personalities to life on large and small screens.
Black and white soundies rolled with newsreels before feature films to promote the sale of 78 RPM singles and sheet music. In 1964, The Beatles’ Hard Day’s Night coupled performance with sketch comedy. An Italian line of film jukeboxes called Scopitones promised color and racy dances between 1965-69.
Nancy Sinatra’s television special Movin’ with Nancy utilized advanced set direction and star cameos. Live performance showcases like Soul Train, American Bandstand, Midnight Special, Old Grey Whistle Test and Top of the Pops staged lip-synching musicians surrounded by enthusiastic, dancing teens.
Programs like Friday Night Videos and Night Flight drew viewers to see the faces behind radio’s recording stars acting out scenarios in narrative, conceptual abstractions on songwriter’s themes.
MTV launched at 12:01 PM August 1, 1981. Appropriately, the first music video shown was Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles.Today, MTV has practically discarded music videos in favor of reality shows aimed at adolescents and young adults, which has afforded me the opportunity to hire myself in their place.