The 1970's

During the 1970's the British TV network only had a few channels,in fact only 3 channels which still exist today (BBC 1, BBC 2 and ITV). so there was no channel dedicated to broadcasting music videos, the closest thing to a music channel was the popular show 'Top Of The Pops' which could be called the forerunner of many shows such as 'X Factor' and 'American Idol'. this show was shown once a week and consisted of popular groups lip singing their pre-recorded songs or live performances.

At this time music videos were not taken seriously as a market and no-one had interests in selling them until the group Queen which you may know as the band behind 'I Want To Be Free' and 'Another One Bites The Dust' asked the director of the show M. Bruce Gowers to film a promo for their song 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. After it was created and shown it had an incredible success and stayed at the top of the charts for nine months! After this it proved massive amounts of money could be made off these music videos and the rise of the videos started.




Here is the video of the track.

Here you can see a slow fade being used to go from one shot to another, this is done to make an immersive feeling and to be as if the video is taking the audience with them using the fade, this technique is very widely used in music videos but is used less in modern day ones.

The two images above which are taken from the music video show how the video experimented with early effects with successful outcomes, as you can see the top image has two clips overlaying each other, this was new and unseen which made it very interesting to look at. Something which shows this better in the second picture which depicts the same image changing colour and falling back. this was also new and authentic. This was very early in effects usage and in more modern day music videos effects have evolved from these to much more extravagant and amazing effects.

Another aspect noticed was the transitions and multiple shot angles which made the footage more intense and kept the audience's attention.

Also on 'Wayne's World' they also show the song and have the actors miming and playing along with the song, this is a form of synergy as both things (film and song) are helping each other gain more popularity in a mutually beneficial way.




...and of course there are always parodies, this one by the muppets: