Evolution of the Pop Promo

Pop promo’s in the 60’s and 70’s were filmed and produced on much smaller budgets than they are today, and the majority of them were on smaller sets and had smaller production teams as they do now. (However it can be debated that that is not true as these days we have more advance technology meaning that they need a smaller production team. Also because the gear is more accessible, a 1-person team can film a full pop promo and edit it by themselves).

One of the first popular pop promos was The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night. It was filmed as if it was a live set and was mimed by the band, which is how most (if not all) music videos are done.

As the decades went by the video’s got more complex in the editing. For example another Beatles song – Strawberry Fields. They incorporated cross fading which when the video was released, was the pinnacle of editing.

In the early 80’s, MTV was created, which then started the fire to massive multi million pound music videos. It meant that people could watch non-stop music videos all day on a dedicated music video channel. MTV also showed off underground rap, grime and hip hop artists such as Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park (in the 90’s). However recently, the MTV network has started to play more top chart music. In my opinion it is probably purely for the rating’s which results in money. If MTV still played underground unknown artists the views would be much lower.

Throughout the 90's, music promo's were used more and became a big part of a band or an artist. This was mainly because videos were being played on MTV, Music Television, the largest music channel in the world.