Industrial Context - History of Music Videos

 A Brief History:

• In the 1960s music videos were more like promotional videos. The Beatles are one of the famous examples of using 'promotional videos'. With songs such as "Strawberry Fields Forever" which featured slow motion fades, camera filters, slow fades etc. 
• In the 1970s "Bohemian Rhapsody" hit number 1 and was scheduled to make an appearance on Top of the Pops, where the songs preformed were usually accompanied by the band and dancers as a performance. Instead of doing this, Queen sent in a video featuring them performing the start and end of the song, but in the middle a collection of visually stunning visuals using the latest technology.
• In the 1980s music videos came into popularity with MTV - music videos existed before MTV but very few were successful. MTV which started in 1981 and played a constant 24 hour stream of music videos. The first music video to feature on MTV was "Video Killed The Radio Star" by the Buggles. Pop songs like these were usually performances and helped the artist to sell their records. But the video to change that was "Thriller" by Michael Jackson, which was a 13 minute screenplay which told a story rather than just a performance and this was incredibly successful.
• In the 1990s "Baby One More Time" by Brittany Spears was released and instead of using lots of special effects, it was a perfect example of the synchronicity between the song and video. The video had strong direction, interesting choreography and naturalistic costumes. This video was a big success on MTV.
• In the 2000s with the arrival of YouTube, and MTV starting to air more reality content more artists started uploading their videos onto YouTube and it quickly became the most popular medium for sharing and accessing music videos. With music videos like "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga finding great success on the platform.

With technological advancements, the way people access music videos has changed. People used to have to watch music videos on their televisions, but know that technology has become more compact people can access music videos on their phones, tablets, laptops etc. This coupled with the main platform for music videos now being YouTube which is free, people can access music videos instantly and anywhere, making the popularity of music videos rise. This is also great for music video producers and artists as their videos/songs will get more exposure to an increase the audience, with the top 5 most viewed videos on YouTube being music videos.