MTV made its debut in 1981 and was turned on in my little West Texas town in either 82’ or 83’. Even then there were not many music videos, but there were videos before and attempts to launch music video shows and channels, notably in New Zealand. The wiki on MTV says that the Beatles made the first MV, in 1966.
I worked in the industry in the 1970s. Often a label representative would show these to clients (store owners, managers, shakers and movers) via a VCR. I saw a few that later turned up on MTV.
There were several TV shows during that era that showed music videos, sometimes mixed with concert performances by various acts. Google “Midnight Special” and Don Kirschner’s “Rock Concert.” Most of the stuff was live, but they would also use videos as filler. Also see “Video Concert Hall.”
For that matter, Top of the Pops had been airing videos for years by that time.
MTV had launched, and to fill the time they went with anything that they could find. Some labels did not care.
Then, there was a data point. Peaches Records and Tapes in Tulsa OK reported more sales of certain albums / singles that were on MTV. MTV took that data point and went back to the labels and they started cranking out the videos to drive sales.
Cite is a documentary I watched, couldn’t find the cite online.
The Beatles were often asked to perform on music TV shows of the day like Top of the Pops and Shindig. Typically, these shows would have a band lip syncing their latest hit while a bunch of teenagers danced. They wanted to promote their music through these channels but didn’t always have time to appear live. Their solution was to make videos and send them instead.
If it’s true that the Beatles invented music videos, it’s my understanding that that was the reason.
Now that makes some sense, especially in the days of store purchases counting towards unit sales versus actual sales out the door.
I am aware that there were shows that showed videos, I watched them but it does not seem to me that they were capable of reaching a large enough audience to justify the cost of video production. In my world at the time “Midnight Special” came on at 11 or 12 pm Central, small audience time.
This is starting to make more sense, vids were cheaper to make than I thought and were well established marketing tools. I was having a hard time imagining a record exec saying “sure we will give you $50k to make a video that no one will see”
I remember videos being shown on HBO to fill time between movies. I was always excited to see them, so I’d say MTV wasn’t on the air yet. Of course, I was only about five at the time, so I was excited for pretty much anything.
I particularly remember one with an animated pig … and some quick googling reveals that it was “Vanz Kant Danz” by John Fogarty, which came out in 1985. So maybe I’m wrong about when HBO did it, but they definitely did show videos between movies.
Or the chicken, depending on which you believe came first. I think what you meant was that “MTV was the result of the existence of music videos, not the other way around”.
You are correct, I forget how twisty the chicken/egg question gets. I meant to say MTV was a product of music videos rather that the other way around or the chicken laid an egg.
Yeah, I remember Lucy and Ramona and Sunset Sam as what I think of as the first real music video I saw when it was on HBO. Looking it up, it’s really called Crusin’ and was by Michael Nesmith. Released in 1979 and made it to no. 6 in New Zealand, so it must have paid off in that market.
I too remember videos being shown in the late '70s to fill time between movies. We had Showtime back then, and I remember seeing something by U2, something by Yes, and “Mickey” during these times (don’t remember the specifics of the first two).
I also remember the late Friday night video shows (one was called “Friday Night Videos.” I used to stay up and watch those when I could. I think music videos were much better back in those days.
I remember watching late-night commercials for (mostly) K-Tel record and tape collections, all of which featured tantalizing clips from music videos. This was pre-MTV, and I never felt tempted to purchase the product, largely because I knew I wasn’t going to be getting the videos.
It wasn’t until several years later that I began to wonder why they made the videos, if they weren’t going to offer to sell them, and MTV hadn’t been invented yet.
Also, why DIDN’T K-Tel offer a package that included the videos?
In my part of the world, it came on at midnight, and just about all the teens and 20 somethings watched it faithfully, unless there was some huge thing going on at the same time…and most of the time, everything ended at about 9 or 10 PM, even concerts.
I don’t think that many people had the capability to play videos back before MTV. Video players were just starting to come onto the market, and both the player/recorders and the tapes for them were extremely expensive.