1st Ever Pop Music Video

gammygils

It's probably been done several times but I gotta ask to settle a bet

What was the first ever pop music video?

I reckon it was 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen.

I'm expecting contrasting answers here.

im invisible

The first one played on MTV was 'video killed the radio star' but they hardly had that on a loop for 12 hours...

dylbert

There was pop music videos long before Bohemian Rhapsody, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Elvis even Cliff Richard.

Stained Class

dylbert wrote: »

There was pop music videos long before Bohemian Rhapsody, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Elvis even Cliff Richard.

Except in those days they called them Promotional Films.

darkdubh

Here's an interesting example of an early "music video" by the Kinks.Oasis ripped off this one off and all. http://youtu.be/i0WPC-N3UYE

delw

im invisible wrote: »

The first one played on MTV was 'video killed the radio star' but they hardly had that on a loop for 12 hours...

Thats correct it was the first video on MTV Europe & the second was Dire Straights "Money for nothing"

L1011

Huge amount of music videos made in the 60s due to the introduction of shows like Top of the Pops where artists couldn't always attend. TV and a growing amount of acts getting popular beyond their home country meant there was never any chance of them being able to do all the shows, so music videos were dropped in instead.

However, there were music videos made as far back as the 20s for use in cinemas, so if you've laid money on Queen, get prepared to pay it.

gammygils

Thanks lads for yer input.

I'm lookin good for my bet cos my 'know all' colleague reckons it was 'Video Killed The Radio Star' by The Buggles

I knew that was the 1st played on MTV

RGDATA!

By what definition of "pop music video" did you think Bohemian Rhapsody qualified as the first? I think the idea that it's the first music video is as fallacious as the idea that music videos only started with MTV. You're both wrong

gammygils

RGDATA! wrote: »

By what definition of "pop music video" did you think Bohemian Rhapsody qualified as the first? I think the idea that it's the first music video is as fallacious as the idea that music videos only started with MTV. You're both wrong

Maybe we're both fallacious! Eh?

Mance Rayder

Django Reinhardt appeared in promotional music videos in the 1920's

Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five were banging out music videos left right and centre in the 40's.

rubadub

RGDATA! wrote: »

By what definition of "pop music video" did you think Bohemian Rhapsody qualified as the first?

I have heard of it claimed to be the first many times, never understood why, Queen had videos themselves before it. Some were talking of it being the first with special effects, as though all the 60's stuff was just recordings of the bands playing on a stage -but of course this is not true, loads of the 60's stuff had special effects and would be comparable to the queen video.

Unfortunately the BBC and other stations threw out or recorded over loads of live recordings of artists. Many German stations recorded & kept them, and you can get many on DVD these days, and youtube of course.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_Rhapsody#Promotional_video

Though some artists had made video clips to accompany songs (including Queen themselves; for example, "Keep Yourself Alive", "Seven Seas Of Rhye", "Killer Queen" and "Liar" already had "pop promos", as they were known at the time), it was only after the success of "Bohemian Rhapsody" that it became regular practice for record companies to produce promotional videos for artists' single releases.[23] These videos could then be shown on television shows, such as the BBC's Top of the Pops, without the need for the artist to appear in person.

I think I heard the beatles made these cheap 'films' as some sort of loophole whereby they could call the albums soundtracks, for some contractual reason or something.

Amalgam

Maybe the first video specifically for a Pop show on TV was Queen's, but that's a very very narrow view of the history of 'video' promotional material.

My Mum would have been exposed to 'video jukeboxes' in her youth, in France. A big fan of Johnny Hallyday in her late teens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99phlP_e2Rw

(a french language cover of Los Bravos - Black is Black)

He would have put out clips like this by the dozen, specifically for 'Scopitone' video juke boxes. From the early 60's onwards.

Search for Scopitone on YouTube, some pretty funky stuff. Scopitone wasn't the only active system either, but it was one of the more popular.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopitone

Sids Not

mmmm...hard one this.........I'm thinkin shows like the Monkeys, Partridge Family..Osmonds etc .TV shows were kind of music videos in their day....

Amalgam

Forgot about this Scopitone gem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f59Wd9Irn6I

1962 (?) - The Tornados - Robot

Edit: 1963. Song produced by Joe Meek.

the groutch

the oldest "music video", ie. not just the band singing, I can think of is Penny Lane in 1967.

mitosis

Maybe it's to do with the media. Video tape as opposed to film?

aderynmawr

...That's what my Grandaughter calls Elvis Presley

I have heard Elvis' Jailhouse Rock performance (from the film of the same name - 1957) quoted as the World's first "pop" video on a number of occasions...and because I love Elvis more than just about anything else on Earth, I choose to accept this as absolute FACT