History of Medium

Cliff Richard - Summer Holiday (1963)

This music is taken from the film in which Cliff featured in. Having the popularity that wasn't riveled by The Beatles at the time. This meant that Cliff was a famous figure and a mainstream artist which allowed large budget films to parade him due to his good natured image and popularity. The fact that this film is in colour tells us that it is a large budget film since the cost of producing a film in colour was substantially higher than black and white.

This video (as I'm sure the rest of the film) contains comedic stereotypes which reflect on the time that it was made. An example of this would be the French stereotype of wearing berets and black and white striped shirts. Creating these stereotypes ensure that the product appeals to a larger audience.   

 The Beatles - Hard Days Night (1964)

This music video was one which made quite a difference in the development of music videos, influencing the many contemporary artists today. The Beatles have been an extremely large part of the musical culture throughout the decades. being as popular as they were at the time meant that they had the opprotunity to promote themselves in new ways. They began with this film, which features this song. This was a crucial part in the media industry since this was naturally a big hit, it was also a great way of promotion. Though some had done so before hand such as Cliff Richard, this was the groundbreaking film which lead to technological advancements. This film gave The Beatles a new sort of image, it made them take on a mischievous and strange personality that fans would think was an adoring trait. That as well as the iconic suits gave them a personality to work with and make their own

The Beatles - Ticket to Ride (from the film HELP!) (1965)

This is the second feature film that The Beatles produced and it featured the album HELP! You are able to tell that a higher budget has been given to them as they have the ability to travel to exotic places like the Bahamas and the Alps in Austria. It is also in colour which gives further indication that they have a high budget. 

Bob Dylan - Don't Look Back (Made in 1965 - Released 1967)

  

 Bob Dylan was the first to have created a music video in this fashion. Instead of having a feature length film, he broke that down so the video only consisted of the song and visuals. This meant that they were cut down to around 3 minutes (it was revolutionary in the music industry). In 1965 an extremely simple yet effective video was made in the backstreet of a hotel. The 'set' itself gave great links and connotations to the lyrics of the song. That being the lower/middle class. The lyrics themselves are that of a controvercial nature as Bob Dylan was considered a controvercial man of his time in the music industry. Specificwords are picked on the cards (that being the last word of every line) which hold a key element to the video as they are what the attention is drawn to by the audience due to the framing (rule of three) and boldness of white against black. Colour by this time had come out for the public but as black and white was the cheaper option and Bob Dylan was an artist that had a niche audience at the time, having a smaller budget would be compulsory.

The Beatles - I am the Wallrus (1967)

 This is a music video which is apart of the Magical Mystery tour film that was The Beatles last film together. This was the closest that we got to a feature length music video as it was made using the songs from a small album that they produced. The Magical Mystery Tour was broadcasted on Boxing Day in 1967. It was aired on an international scale, but the tragedy was that in America whilst they were watching it in colour, BBC who broadcasted for the UK aired in black and white much to the UK's dismay. 


The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever (1967)

Originally named a promotional film and later referred to as a music video, Strawberry Fields Forever as well as Penny Lane were major influences. These films were more sophisticated than the bands earlier counterparts and had impressive cinematography. These promotions were created without the intention to perform the songs so the actual content was a different approach which had a glorious and artistic outcome. 

The Beatles - All You Need Is Love (1967)

This was the first live performance on the first global link television production Our World. Over 400 million people tuned in to watch in 25 different countries. The BBC commissioned The Beatles to write a song for the UK's contribution. This was yet another groundbreaking event in the media industry. It allowed audiences, whom were part of the growth of television in homes, to be apart of the experience of a live broadcast. The technological advancements that only The Beatles were capable of due to their popularity allowed this single to hit number one in the charts.

Queen - Bohemian Raphsody (1975)

This was the first video which set these conventions for a music video. As well as this genre. It created the ideal music video which allowed the performance and visual effects to become one in this particular genre. This video only taking 2 days to make had agreat impact as Queen, when this song came out, weren't in the charts for long. But when a music video came out for it, it shot straight to number one and stayed there for nine weeks. This was also the first music video to come out on VHS.This style started a whole new era for the music video and the introduction of "Top of the pops" which would promote the music and then created a competion between artists for the first time.

MTV (1981)

In the early days of MTV, music videos wanted to revive rock stars like Rod Stewart and promote new acts like The Stray Cats. The 1983 film Flashdance was the first film in which its musical segments were supplied to MTV as music videos, which the channel then aired in regular rotation. This would have helped marketing and enabled to capture a larger audeince for the film.

The first videos had small budgets and clever videos like Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer". Music videos soon became the most innovative stuff on TV. Some, like A-Ha's "Take on Me" which set new standards in special effects and animation.

The Buggles - Video killed the Radio Star (1981)

Though written in 1979, it was the introduction of MTV and the first video aired was "Video killed the radio star", it was a real break-through in the evolution of music videos and as you can see it was a very high-budget video in which we can see more development in editing such as "Over-laying". MTV was responsible for the succes of artists like Madonna as it played a centeral role as marketing.

Dire Straits - Money for Nothing (Released 1985 - Aired 1987)

(This is a preview of the video)

In 1987 this video was aired as the first in Europe on MTV. The release of this video was a great marketing scheme for the record companies. CD's had just been brought out at the same time and this was what was played in the record stores. This was around the time when people began to replace their old music collection with a new one. Records becoming worn out from continuous playing and becoming old fashioned in the making were then overruled by the same companies through the CD. The CD was greater in many ways, being that it was smaller and lasted longer than any record would. This and the fact that it sounded a great deal better than the record. Hearing this songs guitar riff at the beginning in the record store would surely impress many. A smart move for the companies as it caused people to by their collection a second time from the same people. 

The music video itself was a groundbreaker at the time of its release due to the animation that was used. As it was one of the first of its kind to use computer animation to illustrate human characters. This song was also considered quite controversial as it was criticised as being sexist, racist and homophobic. So this in a way proves the power of music videos as it was a big hit and topped the charts in America. 

Michael Jackson - Thriller (1983)

This video was the pioneer of the 'Storyline' video which has a plot. It contains sophisticated visuals and it took the music industry to another level. Now music videos were really being seen as promotion and made into high-budget productions. A total of 14 minutes and costing $500,000, it was featured on television in and out of advertisments people were enthrailed. This was due to both the effects, which were done by the same man whom worked on 'An American Werewolf in London' (these were impressive effects at the time), and the sheer length of the music video which had never been done before.



Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer (1983)

Sledgehammer was widely popular and influential. It was produced by Adam Whittaker. Aardman Animations of Wallace and Gromit fame provided claymation, pixilation and stop motion animation that gave life to he song. Though nothing really makes any sense when you watch it, these techniques that were used for the music video were new and inventive which was groundbreaking and also influential to other music video producers. MTV later announced that Sledgehammer is the most played music video in the history of the station. Most likely due to the creativity of the video. It has made it into the list of Top 100 greatest music videos of all time. And more than 16 hourse was put into the video in it entirity to make it.

Madonna - Vogue (1984)

This was the music video that created an image the  black and white gave it the classic look which would fit in with the theme of film stars from an early time period. Film starts such as Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Jimmy Dean, Marlon Brando and Grace Kelly. It has interesting lyrics as well as performance which captured the audiences attention the most and what the famous "Vogue" dance was born from. Madonna becomes a true idol as she dresses and gives a great performance as  Marilyn Monroe would as this impersonation of her says that Madonna is the new Marilyn Monroe. This music video also shows the power which they had as it was a music video to produce specific conventions within performance music videos. It set some very high standards. 

A-Ha - Take on Me (1985)

The comic book/live-action combination is called rotoscoping and took 16 weeks to complete. This just shows how the song relies on this type of promotion, mainly because it was the only the form of marketing for a song in the 20th century. Like the Dire Straits song, this would have been a ground breaking technique at the time as it is something that hasn't been done before.