History of Music Video

In the 1940's, a man called Bing Crosby who was known as the biggest star in the world in the world (in the western world) when it came to films, music and television. One of his most famous songs was called "White Christmas" of which was made in 1945, and he is known for singing this song in film from 1954 of the same name. However, during the 1940's, he was aged in his late 30's and early 40's so he wasn't as young as he once was which leads me to my next point.

After the "Bing Crosby era", the next biggest star in the world in the 1950's was Frank Sinatra. He was similar to Bing Crosby in what he sang songs, and appeared in films and television. Frank Sinatra however was able to connect more to the female audience as he was younger and appealed more to the female audiences. Frank was the first big star to get such attention from females as was able to get the girls to really scream for him because of how excited they were to see him.

The next big star then really changed the way that young people were in general. Elvis Presley then burst on the scene as the next big star and he had a massive influence on the way young people were back in the late 1950's/early 1960's. His rock and roll style was very different to the music styles that had preceded him. Prior to Elvis, all young people used to dress the way that their elders did. When Elvis burst on the scene with his different style of clothing and the way they he looked, younger people used to try and be like him. Younger people would grease their hair and make it slick back in order to look like him. Elvis also did films, music and television like Bing and Frank did, but he only played his concerts in the USA. Elvis also got the same screaming reception from girls like Frank Sinatra did.

Further on into the 1960's came The Beatles. When The Beatles came about, they had a massive influence on pretty much the world. They were known massively worldwide. When they had conquered the UK, they had a #1 hit in the US, which they allowed them to travel to America and be able to appeal to the American audience. One of the first bits of fame they had, is when they regularly appeared on the TV show "Top of the Pops" and they were able to play their music to a live television audience and gain exposure from that. Younger people also tried to copy The Beatles in the way that they had previously copied Elvis in that they would try to look like The Beatles members. When they went to America, they appeared and played music on "The Ed Sullivan Show", which really exposed them to the American audience. When they appeared on the show, they broke records for amounts of audience viewing figures. They appeared on that show again the next week. They were the first artist to play a concert in a major stadium. They played in the Shea Stadium.

First Music Video

However, they soon got sick of being so popular from women's screams. They then have an idea of recording a short film of them playing music and then offering it all over the world. This is the first music video ever made when they sang the song "Paperback Writer" which contains many of the concepts that are now currently seen in music videos. This music video is just of them performing and singing the song while using lots of different camera angles to show them singing it.




Analysis of Music Video

When they were filming this music video, they inadvertently created a lot of traits which are used in many music videos in modern times. For example, one of the things that they created in this video was the need for lots of close ups. There are lots of close ups in this video, which show all of the band members individual members faces, and close ups are used in most, if not all music videos in modern times, and this idea would of come from this video. Also, the lyrics to the song are disjunctured to the video, as the visuals don't really reflect the lyrics in the song at all. They also used a performance scene for the whole video, in where they are seen to be playing and singing their song, which is also used in many music videos in the modern times.