History of the development and importance of pop promos

      Music videos are now almost a necessity when it comes to promoting and creating an image for musical artists, it is also a way of showing how an artist can perform without being at a live show. Music videos also benefit the audience as they have made it possible to not only listen to artists sing, but also as a form of visual entertainment, and perhaps something to aspire to. It is evident that the use and rise of music videos has changed the music industry dramatically as it is not only about the singing voice of an artist/band – but the whole package.

During my research –I was surprised to find that the TV show ‘countdown’ used video clips in 1974 to promote bands that were to appear on the show. Realizing that this sort of ‘advertising’ was a good marketing device, music industries and artists began to create their own music videos.  Shortly after in 1980, a band called ‘Split Endz’ recorded a set of music videos on cassette for each song on their album.

However, the most significant point in the history of pop promos was the launch of U.S music channel MTV in 1981, the concept behind this channel was to play music videos 24/7 and was created specifically for the promotion and entertainment of music videos. It had a huge impact on music industries and popular culture “video killed the radio star” was the first song to be aired on the 1^st of August 1981. Because MTV was mainly aimed at a younger audience they had to think of a way to widen their market and popularity, so in 1985 MTV launched a second music channel VH1 which featured older, softer music.  To widen the audience even more - MTV Europe was introduced in 1987 and if that wasn’t enough MTV Asia in 1991. The development of MTV resulted in pretty much a worldwide industry, promoting music industries, artists, culture and video and entertainment techniques – re-shaping the image and popularity of music. MTV Launch

One of the world’s most popular and influential music video of all time was Micheal Jacksons 14 minuet “Thriller” released in 1983 – its popularity stemmed from being like a short movie, which then became an incentive for other music videos to have a narrative.

Recently, more techniques of advertising pop promos have raised thanks to the world wide web and the use of youtube – which has made it possible to access any music video you can think of at any time. Youtube was originally set up for ordinary people to upload personal home videos, but after noticing how popular it became - and how many people viewed these videos - most musical artists have their own youtube sites where fans can view their videos and can also get access to new, upper coming songs and videos.