The History/origins of the Music Video

Queens Bohemian Rhapsody in 1975 has said to have been one of the most influential music videos of all time, although many different things before this might have influenced the modern popular music videos these could have been;

• Busby Berkly
• Walt Disney
• Sergei Einstein
• Youth culture revolution
• Rock and roll films

One of the reasons Bohemian Rhapsody is so regularly recognised as definitive for the newer popular music videos is because it exemplifies the grammar of popular videos. The key feature of popular music video is that the moving images is edited to be in time with the music. Subsequently the produce of Walt Disney, Sergei Eisenstein and Busby Berkly are key landmarks in the advancement of the modern music video. Although to consider the video directed by Bruce Gower for Queen as the first ever music video is incorrect.

During the 1940's the Panorama Soundie jukebox played clips of films over popular songs as the 1950s rock & roll films introduced audiences to the idea of band proformances. Though it started life as a B-movie, Rock Around the Clock, which starred Bill Haley, was one of the biggest hits of 1956. The film is composed mainly of band performances by Haley, The Platters, Alan Freed and Freddie Bell and the Bell Boys. As it is difficult to pick out one single factor in the transformations that took place in youth culture at the end of the 1950s, the reason for the spread of popular music television in the period were as complex as they were dynamic. To say that since the advent of the popular music chart it would seem that increasingly the lifestyle choices of the wealthy demographic of baby boom consumers was fixed around the purchase of highly influential popular music products. Music in television like American Bandstand in the US, Top of Pops in the UK and Beat Club in Europe were central factors in the developing youth culture revolution.

The thrust of the youth movement within the 1960s can be drawn in the transformation of fasion codes and conventions from the fastidious tailoring of the Beatles suit to the long haired revolt of the hippy era. From the Beatles earliest inception, yet, popular music television defined the forms and conventions of the usual music video which consisted of carefully choreographed dances/performances, synchronised to the studio recording of that individual track; close up shots, taken from high and low angles, then edited in time with the music. While the BBC courteously provided their own dance crew when an artist was unable to perform on the show, such was the influence on record sales that by the late 1960s record companies were airing big name stars to create short films to coincide with single releases when promotional duties over-seas would otherwise prevent them from supporting the release with a television performance. However, while the Beatles track Strawberry Fields and Procol Harum’s Whiter Shade of Pale are both examples of early music videos, the reason Bohemian Rhapsody is so revered is that the visuals are structured so precisely around the alignment of the song.