History of Music Videos

My timeline of music videos

The earliest music video I could find was in the late 1920s which was classed as a short film that doubled up as a music video.

1920s

This is Bessie Smith's - St. Louis Blues which I discovered from my research was an example of a very early music video. It was made as a short film and an example of a narrative music video. This was not a promotional video other than the fact it showed off the artist as it was focused more on the narrative of the video rather than use of lots of close ups of the artist and the artist's prevalence on screen. The female is represented as very needy and clingy whereas the male is represented as someone who does what he wants and can get away with it.

1930s

1940s

This music video is partly performance and partly narrative. The story is of the performer trying to woo the female and then he is performing to her in some kind of bar or hall. This represents the time of 1940s whereby the males had to begin the lead up to a relationship with the female and the female had to wait until she was chosen. This represents men as powerful and in control whereas women very insignificant until needed and used as a prop for marital purposes. This may be a true reflection of the decade but also may have been exaggerated within the media. Also, the 1940s was during and post world war two and so the focus would not have been on music videos. Music was very important to keep people up beat and entertained during rationing times but music videos were an unimportant use of money when people were trying to save every penny. This may show that the music video is unrepresentative of the times as it may have been on a limited budget and time scale to be made and produced.

1950s


1960s

This music video is very simple, it is a performance video and even though there is a few varied camera angles, the shots are very basic with not much variation from mid shots and long shots. With no set change or costume change it would have been a very cheap video to make and produce. The set is so simple as well which would make it even cheaper. This may reflect how technologically undeveloped the 1960s were. There is clear advances as you can tell that there is editing and planning in place.

1970s

This music video is a performance video with elements of narrative. It shows lots of clips of people playing instruments and Paul McCartney singing but also lots of clips of following him round and seeing him as a person. It is a music video which is like behind the scenes. This is a representation of celebrities in the 1970s, the video is trying to show the audience that even though he is a big superstar he is still a human being that likes to have fun and mess around a little bit. This video clearly reflects the style of hair and clothing in the 1970s which is very contrasting from other years. 

1980s

This music video was purely performance and so no representation of people was presented in the video. In the video, there is actually a visual and lyrical connection which is one of Goodwin's Seven music video conventions, this is when they are singing about super trouper (the spotlight) and then the spotlight shines on them. The only representation is of the 1980s which is represented by the hairstyles, makeup and outfits.

1990s

This music video is very basic, typical 1990s and techno. It uses very robotic choreography which is in time to the beat of the music, this is one of Goodwin's Seven as a definition of a music video. The creation of links between the music and visuals creates a very interesting choreography and also very entertaining for the audience, it makes the music more catchy. This video would be very cheap to make as although there were a variety of camera angles, not much else changed. For example, it's a simple and constant set and with no changes of costume or makeup, etc. It would be a cheap music video. The quality of the video reflects the technology of the 1990s which was slowly improving but still had a long way to go before HD quality.

2000s

This music video is a narrative video as there is a clear plot behind it. The lyrics relate to the story and there is acting taking place. The editing is very simplistic although there are some interesting camera angles towards the end when she is standing over the grave. This music video was published in 2006 and so considering the advances of technology by this time, the music video doesn't represent the decade that well. There is also no obvious representation of genders, ethnicity, or ages. Although, there is clearly a range of different people in the video, no-one is represented in any stereotypical or non-stereotypical way. 

2010s

This video is from 2014 and shows the most up-to-date music videos we have. The representation of women is very different from in the past, it shows them as being extremely powerful, vengeful and determined. They are also able to do these things, in other decades, women were second class and not able to train or do anything similar to this. Although, the girls (Iggy and Rita) are still seen as an object by the man in the video and this is also represented through their clothing as they are in skin-tight leather which is very revealing, which they use to their advantage in the video but it also allows the male gaze for the target audience. The men in the video are represented as very gangster and trying to be powerful as they are in smart suits as they seem to be very important people but then the girls walk all over them and are then portrayed as more important.

Overall the degree of difference each decade has with the music videos varies. There will be a great deal of difference after the 1960s and onward as that was when many technological advances within science were made and therefore affected everything. The quality of the videos increased, the wardrobe obviously changed over the years and the use of more conceptual and narrative music videos increased whereas before they were mainly if not all performance with a bit of narrative. This also shows what the target audience is wanting or expecting. The representation of people has changed greatly over the years. In comparison, in the 1920s and 2010s music video which are nearly 90 years apart, the females are contrastingly different where in the earlier video the female is inferior and controlled by the male whereas it is almost the exact opposite in the 2014 video. On the whole, music videos have adapted to their target audience which is the main reason for their change - along with technology obviously!
I cannot find any music videos to represent 1930s or 1950s. I do not know the reason for this.

All of the videos used were sourced from YouTube.