HISTORY OF MUSIC VIDEOS
1950's-1973
EARLY MUSIC CLIPS
1950's
A man named Tony Bennet had claimed in his Autobiogrpahy that he created the 'first music video'. This was filmed in Hyde Park, London, 1956. The clip was sent to UK and US television stations and aired on shows. Later in 1957, the second music video set in the United States was released, starring Elvis Presley. The song was called 'Jailhouse Rock' and proved to be a hit for Elvis Presley.
1960-1973
PROMOTIONAL CLIPS
During the late 1950's the Scopitone (a visual jukebox) was invented in France. Scopitone films were a forerunner of music videos. They were based on Soundies consisting of 16mm of coloured film with a magnetic soundtrack created to be shown in a specially designed jukebox. Its use spread to other countries and similar machines such as the Cinebox in Italy and Color-Sonic in the USA were patented.
In the year of 1964, The Beatles starred in what was their first feature film 'A Hard Days Night'. This feature film was shot in black and white, however, by 1965, The Beatles released their second feature 'Help' filmed in colour in London and on international locations. This feature proved how the music industry was improving in its use of technology as many cross-cuts, contrasting long shots, close ups and many different camera angles were all implemented into the same feature. The Beatles then began making promotional clips for distribution and broadcast in other countries. As the years passed by, music video technology was only getting better. Peter Goldman for example, he took the promotional film format to a new level by using techniques to reverse film footage, create slow motions, dramatic lighting, unusual camera angles and colour filters were added in post production.