An Essay on Music Videos - Part 1

Video Killed the Radio Star

The discussion here about Music Videos promoted me to start blogging about it.

What was going to be a short a piece about music video as a form of expression is turning into something far more complex and interesting.

Many people date the start of Music Videos from the launch of MTV in 1981, and the first 'music video', Video Killed the Radio Star (above).

While MTV certainly provided both a platform and an almost limitless appetitie for music videos, the notion of marrying pictures and music goes back a lot further. A lot further.

One could imagine that we could start with Opera, for example, or silent movies which required a live pianist to provide musical accompanyment to the changing images on the screen.  (This is, in some ways, little different from the Chemical Brothers video that precipitated this discussion - except there the music is driving the pictures and in silent films it is the reverse).

I think at good point of departure, however, would be Disney's Fantasia (the original),

Released in 1940, Disney had originally conceived of The Sorcerer's Apprentice segment as a short film to help revive the then moribund Mickey Mouse.  Conductor Leopold Stokowski, of the Philadelphia Orchestra, convinced Disney to expand the concept into a full-length feature film.  The final film was screened for the first time on November 13, 1940 at Radio City Music Hall and was panned by the critics.  Although a critical failure, it went on to become a 'classic film'.

A Hard Days Night

The next iteration (at least IMHO) of the genre came in 1965 with Richard Lester's feature film, A Hard Days Night. This was the first of the Beatles movies, and thin on plot it was largely driven by the music (as opposed to the music being driven by the pictures a la Star Wars).  A Hard Days Night was revolutionary in many respects.  It was, among other things, the direct antecedent of the TV series, The Monkees (which is perhaps not so revolutionary), but it also introduced the notion of stand-alone music as the driver.  Also, in the way it was shot. TV critic Roger Ebert wrote:

" ... he [Lester]  influenced many other films. Today when we watch TV and see quick cutting, hand-held cameras, interviews conducted on the run with moving targets, quickly intercut snatches of dialogue, music under documentary action and all the other trademarks of the modern style, we are looking at the children of A Hard Day's Night".

To promote the film Lester and the Beatles cut 10 film/music shorts using just the songs. Though created to promote the film, these were in many ways the first music videos.

The final piece I want to show you this morning is Bob Dylan's Subeterranean Homesick Blues, filmed by DA Pennybaker.

In this clip, Pennybaker explains how the film and the cards came to be used.

Coming up tomorrow - The Doors, The Who and more...