History of Music Videos

Before the idea of music videos began, in the 1926 the 'talkies' arrived which included many short film largely featuring music and many featuring bands, vocalists and dancers. Even animation was used in these for example with the animation artist Max Fleischer. This man created 'Screen songs' a series of sing along cartoons which was intended so that the audience would sing along by following the ball on the screen which is similar to karaoke now. This could been seen as the earliest idea of music videos.

This idea was carried on in the 1940's with the introduction of 'Soundies'. Which were 3 minutes films with music showing dance and music performances meant to be displayed on a jukebox like projection system in bars and other public places. 
Music Videos are often now referred to as 'Promotional videos' or 'Promos' which is to do with the idea of it being used for promotional purposes for the band by making it so the video appeals to a wider audience and can be viewed on different places for example 'YouTube' or TV which helps reach a broader audience. In the past, artists didn't use music videos. Instead choosing to use films originally starting with the example of Cliff Richard's 'Summer Holiday' in which he played a fictitious character but his music was played throughout the film, the served as promotional services before individual videos where made.

 The Beatles broke this trend with their series of movies in which they played themselves which was a new concept at the time. With their first being 'A Hard Day's Night', directed by Richard Lester in 1964. Although in 1967 the first generally regarded music video was made for Bod Dylan, which was shot in one continuous shot. Featuring Dylan holding up flash cards and dropping them to show the lyrics playing at the time, this video was the first to start a new trend. Pink Floyd continued this idea of promotional videos especially with their films for their songs including "San Francisco: Film", "Scarecrow", "Arnold Layne" and "Interstellar Overdrive". This idea especially took off in the 70's/80's with the creation of Rock videos, although the term isn't used a much now due to them just being referred to as music videos, this idea became incredibly popular in promoting new bands at the time.

Another moment in music video history was with the two week teen orientated music programs available in Australia in 1974. In early 1974, former radio DJ Graham Webb launched the TV music show which was shown on Sydney's ATN-7 on Saturday mornings; this was renamed Sounds Unlimited in 1975 and later shortened simply to Sounds it became popular and quickly gained a following which caused other countries to follow this idea. In 1978 3 years before the release of The Buggles 'Video Killed on the radio star' on MTV the american program, 'Video Concert Hall' Began showing several hours of un-hosted music videos everyday. The British show 'Top of the pops' show began in the late seventies, although the BBC had strict limits on the number of 'outsourced' videos the show could use. In the 1980's David Bowie had his first UK number one in nearly 10 years which was largely due to the promo video of his song 'Ashes to Ashes'. Although 1975, 'Queen' hired Bruce Gowers to make them a music video for their new single 'Bohemian Rhapsody  so it could be shown on Top of the Pops. The American vidoe channel 'MTV' was launched in 1981 which started the era of 24 hour music television. 

Conventionally music videos tend to narrate the story featured in the lyrics, commonly by using montage editing to switch between the story and the band members playing. Along with this another convention of music videos is that they generally use close up shots or mid shots to show the emotions or mood of the song overall, that and it allows people to see the band working as promotion for them along with emphasizing the lyrics in the song. Jump cuts and fades are common edits used in music videos as it allows for quick transition between location or with fades used as a change from them. Whilst tracking shots and pans are also conventional to music videos as well. The lighting and props used in music videos depends entirely on the genre of music it is promoting, as a pop music video would probably involve bright and colourful lighting whilst a metal music video would require darker and more dramatic lighting.
After analysing some existing media texts for music videos, I was able to notice some common conventions in them. For example the narrative of music videos especially 'Indie' genre ones tend to be formed around the idea of a journey, along with this it generally stems from the idea of being alone and searching for love. If they aren't searching for it love plays a large part in them.