History of Music Videos

Learning Comment:
Throughout the ages, music videos have changed dramatically. Early music videos, like 'these boots are made for walking' which was released in 1966, feature no plot to them which places emphasis on the actual music itself rather than the showiness of a technical music video. This theme was still prevalent in the late 70's- shown by the song message in a bottle by the police. The video is mainly clips of the band playing in a concert but this differs from earlier music videos because the band is given a persona which is very lighthearted. In 1981, MTV was created and it concerned itself with providing music for the mainstream audience, so, more emphasis was placed on the music video to increase sales of the songs. This change is seen by the music videos of 'Down Under' by Men at Work and 'Africa' by Toto- songs that are mainly or purely narrative.