History of Music Videos

After doing some reaserch into the people who analyse music videos I decided to look at some historical music videos.

Firstly I analysed Bessie Smith's song "St Louis Blues". It was released in 1929 and became the first music and film clip to be made. The artist Bessie Smith was a blues singer who made a narrative music video as the images on the screen related to the lyrics that Bessie Smith was singing. The video depicts a drunken Bessie Smith singing of her troubles at a bar. She is singing to the bar staff with no real audience other than the people taking no notice of her at the dinner tables. Lasting sixteen minutes in total the song was made into a dramatised film with Bessie Smith staring in it. Sven E Carlson would put this video in the narrative as it tells a story but does not change locations.


JT