MUSIC VIDEO HISTORY

Music through the years...

1950's

Elvis Presley performing in 1956. This video shows what was typical of a music video of this time, a simple live performance of the artist, in a studio, with an audience who are shown to be enjoying Elvis. The camera is head on throughout the video showing Elvis, who is the main focus for the majority of the video, other than to show the females in the audience and a few shots of the Guitar during the guitar solo. The purpose of the audience been shown is to imply how the audience at home should also react to Elvis and his controversial overly sexual Pelvis. The shots of his pelvis brought a lot of media attention to this video, a good thing for anybody wanted to make it in the music industry.

1960's

The biggest and most talked about artist throughout the 1960s was The Beatles, who suceeded in anything they did. They bought about a lot of new trends in music videos. For example in the early 60's The Beatles introduced not only a performance aspect in their music videos, but also a narrative element. This video was also the opening titles for their film 'Hard Days Night' another feature of 'Beatle Mania'.

In 1967, The Beatles released another unusual video for their song 'Strawberry Fields Forever'.In this video the trendsetters opted for a overly psycheldelic feel to the music video. There isn't really any narrative or performance, just various unusual shots of the artists. The video is very arty, including a range of camera shots, colours and odd sequences, probably reflecting the sixties society and its heavy use and popularity of psychedelic drugs such as LSD.

1970's

1980's

1990's

2000's

The noughties was a decade where rap and hiphop were at their commercial peaks, with Eminem been the highest selling artist, and Britney Spears and Beyonce smashing the charts for the females.