Though the phrase “music video” didn’t take hold until the late 1970s, the prototype for the form and its promotional possibilities came with the Beatles’ simple short films for “Paperback Writer” and “Rain,” songs they were loath to recreate live (the video package sent to “Ed Sullivan” in 1966 came with an apologetic intro from the band explaining that the clips were substituting for an in-person appearance).
Patrons of nightclubs in the 1940s could view Soundies of Fats Waller and Duke Ellington, and the rise of television in the 1950s made pop music a permanently multimedia form: Between “The Ed Sullivan Show” and programs like “Top of the Pops,” “American Bandstand,” and “Soul Train,” musicians have long developed visual styles to accompany their songs. But by then, the idea of linking popular music with motion pictures was nothing new. Even though only a handful of viewers actually saw MTV’s technologically challenged first moments on August 1, 1981, that date has been etched into history as the birth of the music video.
0 kommentar(er)
