Genre analysis – Music Video

                The concept of the music video first came about in the late 50’s early sixties when short films were produced to promote artists. Some of the first videos were of a French origin; Serge Gainsbourg was one of those pioneering artists. Another early example of a video is “House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals. 

However the first proper music video is often considered to be done by The Beatles; they released feature length movies and made the first promo videos. Some songs had several promo videos made for them. The hit single day tripper had three video’s;  1st version, 2^nd version and 3^rd Version. They were the first band to record a color video in 1967.

                After this innovation many other bands started to produce videos for there singles; Bob Dylan’s video for "Subterranean Homesick Blues" is dubbed a classic and has been imitated by so many different places. 

Over the following years many acts, both British and American, recorded videos.  However it was only when the long running BBC music show “Top of The Pops” started showing video’s that they became part of the public conscious. The late seventies heralded a change and by the 80’s everyone  knew of music video’s due to the invention of 24 hour music television also known as MTV. The first video to be shown on MTV was “Video killed the radio star” by The Buggles. The video is often rumored to be the cause of the songs success.

Technology since then has played a massive part in videos. The use of green screens made it possible for any artist to be anywhere at any given time. Better camera’s allowed video’s to be shot in a HD and even in 3D.



The range of lighting and visual effects has greatly improved since those early days. The different types of video have also changed.Videos can now be; performance, narrative, backstage pass and visual experiment.