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St Louis Blues
This is a two-reel film short made for the song 'St Louis Blues', it features all-black blues singers, the most famous and credited is Bessie Smith. It is about a woman who finds her lover with another woman and sings the blues when he leaves her. -
A Hard Day's Night
The Beatles made their own motion picture before it was cool. They made the film 'A Hard Day's Night' based on their lives and how they are off the stage as well as on it. They released this film purposely to coincide with the release of their third album of the same name. This tactic of promotion worked and they found themselves successful on both sides of the atlantic. -
The Beatles Promo Videos
The Beatles realeased promotional videos of their songs 'We Can Work It Out', 'Day Tripper', 'Help!', 'Ticket To Ride' and 'I Feel Fine'. -
MTV Launches
A new chanel is launched purely for music. By the mid eighties it means that music videos appearing on this channel is the main source of promotion for new music.
The very first music video shown on this channel is 'Video Killed the Rsdio Star' by The Buggles. -
Jackson's Thriller
This promo video is a pioneer for narrative music videos as it portrays a storyline to go alongside the song. This music video was the very first professional high-budget video which paved the way for music videos actually being taken seriously. The video cost Sony around $200,000 to make but is still one of the most famous and influential music videos ever made. -
VH1 Launches
1985 sees the introduction of VH1, a music channel aimed at the older generation, showing songs from previous decades and film-reel performances for Motown and Jazz, as opposed to MTV wich showcased only the newest and popular content. -
iTunes Launched
iTunes was a revolutionary new website that allowed consumers to download songs straight onto their devices from originally just 99 cents (62p). This new format of music marketing became so popular with online consumers that within the first twenty days one million downloads had taken place on the site. -
YouTube Launches
YouTube, much like iTunes is a revolutionary new online marketing tool that allows people to upload and browse content online for free. The website is moving picture orientated and would require a music video alongside a song for more successful promotion. Bands and arists began to use YouTube as a means of reaching a wider audience and stream their music videos and songs to promote their music. -
Modern Music Videos
Modern Music Videos have veered from the performance-based promotional videos they were and have become more about selling the artist as a sexual object and seem to centre mostly around the use of drugs, sex and violence. We tend to see female 'popstars' who are originally innocent become sexualised to sell records. In 2013 Iggy Azalea released her debut single 'Work', in which she dresses and acts provocatively to fit in with the current market.
