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.
