Post-war, the 'teenager' was invented - young people enjoyed going out together, listening to music and socialising once again now that the war was over. As a result of the war, the country needed rebuilding so employment levels were very high and young people earned money which they spent on buying into music (particularly Rock n Roll) and other fashions as this allowed them to create an identity for themselves.
Elvis Presley's career peaked in the 1950's and his audiences stretched much wider than America however he never did shows outside of the USA, therefore his audiences in countries like the UK were unable to put a face to the voice they were listening to and audiences needed to be able to see the artist as up until now there image of the artist was based entirely upon what they sounded like.
This is where music videos made their entry into the music industry.
Initially, artists would play a character and the video would have a narrative which conforms to the Hollywood structure introduced by Pam Cook which was established in 1985 so although artists weren't aware that they were conforming to this structure, it is the theory that has strong links with the structure of early music videos.
The Hollywood Structure:
- linearity of cause and effect within an overall trajectory of enigma resolution.
- a high degree of narrative closure
- a fictional world that contains verisimilitude especially governed by spacial and temporal coherence
An example of this being done by Elvis Presley is the video produced for his song "The Lady Loves Me" - this video was choreographed for Elvis Presley.
(The Lady Loves Me video)
A video that contrasts to this is, again, by Elvis Presley but this time it was choreographed by Elvis himself therefore it is a better example of showing his audience, in countries outside of the USA, what he was like as a performer and as an artist as "The Lady Loves Me" is a representation of how someone else thought Elvis should be presented.
(Jailhouse Rock video)
Also in the 1950's, televisions were becoming increasingly popular in households throughout the UK and few families were without one by this time, televisions were also the primary medium for influencing public opinions and in the mid 60's colour broadcasting was introduced however a short time before this The Beatles released their first music video for their song 'Hard Day's Night', it was filmed in black and white in the style of a mock documentary directed by Richard Lester and it inspired the basic template which the majority of music video were based on at this time.
(Hard Day's Night video)
Based on the ever-growing accessibility people had to TV's and their ability to influence peoples opinion, not to mention the evolution of colour broadcasting it took until 1981 for there to be a channel on television solely dedicated to music videos, this channel was called MTV (Music Television) and was launched in August 1981. The first ever video to be played on MTV was 'Video Killed The Radio Star' by The Buggles which gave out quite a controversial message however it was also true as this became the new medium that people used to consume their music.
(Video Killed The Radio Star video)
