The history of a Music Video

I realised when I went through my blog that I haven't really included an history on music videos. I went onto the internet and found some really interesting stuff about the back ground of a music video. 1894 The first step towards a music video called the illustrated song whereby two publishers, Edward B Marks and Joe Stern hired an electrician and a few performers to come together and produce a product that will help promote their song, "The little lost child." The electrician George Thomas reflected still images onto a screen similar to live performances. This was the start of music videos. How Music video's started Music videos started by being relatively narrative based with a story being told with the song the artist produced. The beetles in 1964 starred in their first feature film called A Hard Days Night. It was shot in black and white and was used for comedic effect. The british show Top of the Pops began playing music videos in the 1970s however there were strict guidelines about how many videos were shown. Therefore the best videos were played in the hope that they would be popular enough to play again the following week. In 1980, David Bowie scored his first UK number one in nearly a decade thanks to director David Mallet's eye catching promo for "Ashes to Ashes". Another act to succeed with this tactic was Madness, who shot on 16 mm and 35 mm, constructing their clips as "micro-comedic" short films. Music videos that caused controversy Music Jackson's video Black and White was cut because it showed him apparently touching himself inappropriately. They Don't care about us was banned from most music stations such as BBC, VH1, MTV because of the message it was giving off and the visuals were seen as inappropriate. Madonna's music video in 1990 "Justify my love" was banned from MTV because of the homosexuality and cross dressing throughout which caused uproar in the media. Papa don't Reach and Like A Prayer also caused great criticism because of its religious theme within both music videos. The Prodigy's music video "firestarter"was banned from the BBC because it had referencing to arson! I noticed that throughout music video history, there is a similar concept that applies now. The video is their to promote the song and hopefully become more popular as a result. This is why music videos are incredibly important!