History of a music promo

The Beatles 'A Hard Day's Night' - 1964
This was a film, however it did establish the conventions of a music promo. It introduced the band members and their personalities, promoted their songs and showed clips of concerts and their following through showing the mass audiences.

Bob Dylan 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' - 1965
This music promo was very unconventional, with only one shot throughout the promo. There were no cuts and it didn't promo his talent or personality due to the standing still and just holding placards which read the lyrics of the song.

'Top of the Pops' - 1964-2006
This was a show which acted as a promotional tool for any new bands who needed help to get to the top. However it also created a need for the bands to create a music promo in case they could not turn up on the day. The show used a lot of close ups on the main singer and the band members, which is a very conventional aspect in music promos. 'Top of the Pops' also made the music industry very competitive as only the best bands would get on TV, which was a huge marketing tool.

The Beatles 'Strawberry Fields Forever' - 1967
The Beatles reached new heights with their ground breaking film promo. It used techniques which were borrowed from Underground and Avant Grande such as slow motion and rewind. They also included many effects such as black and white as well as colour. This made the music promo have a higher viewing rate and made the band seem more 'arty'.

The Monkees 'A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You' - 1967
This promo used conventional techniques for a music promo, however they made the music promo very different from others. It showcased the bands talent through showing them singing and showed them as a funny and entertaining band. The music promo included jump cuts, surrealism and even wacky comedy, all of which showed the band as a fun but talented band which created a craze and caused more people to watch the music promo.

Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' - 1975
In this music promo the pace of editing is very slow and rhythmic which makes the music promo better and more enjoyable to watch. To keep this slow, rhythmic editing a lot of cross fades were used. Queen also used a new and early edit which was used a lot in music videos of the era. This edit was shadows and showed the music video as 'arty' yet conventional.

David Bowie 'Ashes to Ashes' - 1980
This music promo used many ideas but the main one was to make the music video an artistic expression or 'arty'. To make the music promo artistic David Bowie used disjuncture and the music video didn't tell the story of the song itself. Another way the music video was 'arty' was the use of freeze frames. Freeze frames were new and rarely used, making the video almost before its time and more exciting for people to watch.

Devo 'Whip It' - 1980
This music promo was evolutionary and referenced strongly to the wild west. This promo used a lot of intertextuality from the wild west era and films that were set in that time. This made the promo enjoyable, humorous and highly viewed. The mise-en-scene also made the music promo eye-catching as the mise-en-scene, particularly the clothing was very bright and colourful. This is a very conventional technique used in music promos.

MTV - 1981
This show was and still is broadcasted all day everyday and the shows only cost was royalties. English post punk bands grew fame through the use of this platform. Artists therefore realised the potential of the medium and bands spent more money on making music promos.

Duran Duran 'Rio' - 1983
This music promo was the first to cost $1 billion and began like a movie opening and used intertextual references to the James Bond films. The music promo was unrealistic and used many unconventional shots such as split screen, two shots on screen at the same time, shots within another shot and even shots which moved around the screen. This made the music promo revolutionary. The music promo also used high key lighting which was another way of making the music promo unrealistic and showed it as a dream scenario.

Michael Jackson 'Thriller' - 1983
This music promo was a short movie which include a full well structured narrative. It included extravagant costumes and dances, which much like Duran Duran's 'Rio' showed the music promo to be like a dream. This music promo used special effects and voice overs making it very similar to a movie and even included the female love interest which is conventional in a movie.

Aerosmith/ Run DMC 'Walk This Way' - 1986
Run DMC were the first black band to play on MTV due to their collaboration with Aerosmith. The music promo was standard with cross overs and cuts between the bands as the main editing technique. This allowed black bands to be more highly recognised and allowed black bands to get a higher audience following.

Madonna 'Like a Prayer' - 1989
Madonna's music promo for the song 'Like a Prayer' was recognised for it's contreversial element. The music promo was watched by a mass audience as it showed Jesus as a black man, which at the time was seen as controversial as most religious followers believed him to be white in ethnicity. Madonna then made the music promo even more contreversial by kissing the man who was Jesus in the promo.