# Music videos before MTV **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 8, 2018, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-before-mtv/810215 "2018-03-08T01:14:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-before-mtv/810215/21 "2018-03-08T18:02:49Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I don’t know what year this was, but [Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGxjIBEZvx0) has to be one of the first. I’m not generally a fan of music videos, but that one I like. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-before-mtv/810215/22 "2018-03-08T19:07:45Z")
And of course, the bands would put the videos up on their web pages. This was before YouTube, so they had to use MySpace. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-before-mtv/810215/23 "2018-03-08T19:31:01Z")
> [@AllShookDown](#): > > Laugh-in had a few. The first season was 1968. > > [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowan_%26_Martin%27s_Laugh-In) > > “The first season featured some of the first music videos seen on network TV, with cast members appearing in films set to the music of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the Bee Gees, the Temptations, the Strawberry Alarm Clock, and the First Edition.” > > I’ve seen the NGDB, Bee Gees and First Edition ones. Pre-MTV, I’ve seen videos for _Stayin’ Alive_ and _How Deep Is Your Love?_ from the Bee Gees. They were concept videos, not live performances. I believe they also made one for _Lonely Days_. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-before-mtv/810215/24 "2018-03-08T19:41:31Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I don’t know what year this was, but [Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGxjIBEZvx0) has to be one of the first. Which inspired Weird Al’s ingenious parody/tribute [Bob](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUQDzj6R3p4&app=desktop). ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-before-mtv/810215/25 "2018-03-08T20:29:08Z")
I remember seeing a video of the Style Council singing Wanted, on TV around 1987. Not sure if it’s [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vaKonTzk88)one or not. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-before-mtv/810215/26 "2018-03-08T20:32:11Z")
> [@jaycat](#): > > I remember seeing a video of the Style Council singing Wanted, on TV around 1987. Not sure if it’s [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vaKonTzk88)one or not. That’s not before MTV, though. ---
**Author:** ![pdhenry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pdhenry/32/5561_2.png) [@pdhenry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pdhenry)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-before-mtv/810215/27 "2018-03-08T20:40:15Z")
Circa 1966: (or 67 or 68, probably) [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3BKt07B3A6U/hqdefault.jpg "The Monkees - Daydream Believer") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BKt07B3A6U) And some Beatles romps before that. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-before-mtv/810215/28 "2018-03-08T20:46:47Z")
Very likely inspired by the Beatles and the Monkees, this is [a 1968 promo video for Nazz’s “Open Your Eyes,”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjKx-yLOGEY) featuring a very young Todd Rundgren. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-before-mtv/810215/29 "2018-03-08T23:15:06Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > That’s not before MTV, though. Wow, you’re right. Time flies… ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-before-mtv/810215/30 "2018-03-08T23:23:27Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Which inspired Weird Al’s ingenious parody/tribute [Bob](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUQDzj6R3p4&app=desktop). Complete with faux Alan Ginsberg in the background… ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-before-mtv/810215/31 "2018-03-10T00:53:31Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > Michael Nesmith’s [PopClips](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PopClips) aired on Nickleodeon a year before MTV started. And of course he used to star on a show with segments that could be considered music videos over a decade before that, as well. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-before-mtv/810215/32 "2018-03-10T04:38:34Z")
Interestingly enough, Tony Bennett claims in his autobiography to have made the first music video–in 1956. He was filmed walking around a park in London, and the footage was tagged to his then current song “Stranger in Paradise”. The clip was distributed to TV stations in the US and UK, even getting airings on “American Bandstand”. By 1958 (according to old Billboard book) music videos were being made by several artists for airing on the then popular local dance show circut. ---
**Author:** ![jerez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c68b51/32.png) [@jerez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerez)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-before-mtv/810215/33 "2018-03-10T09:49:16Z")
How about [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANArGmr74u4) video from 1939 of Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli? ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-before-mtv/810215/34 "2018-03-10T19:13:57Z")
The real question is what is a music video? A German cartoonist was running silent cartoons accompanied by a piano back in the 20’s. The _Fantasia_ DVD claims he was the inspiration for the Toccata and Fugue in D Major segment. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-before-mtv/810215/35 "2018-03-10T21:11:12Z")
I remember a couple of shows that featured what I think of now as a music video; American Bandstand-ish; we’re talking late 60s/early 70s. Some in my brain were more film set to music (I recall one of Crimson & Clover featuring a couple motorcycles busting dunes) and some more professional concert footage (Jefferson Airplane and some early Tull). The names of the shows escape me but I want to say one was Saturday evening and another more in the afternoon. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-before-mtv/810215/36 "2018-03-10T22:04:59Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > I remember a couple of shows that featured what I think of now as a music video; American Bandstand-ish; we’re talking late 60s/early 70s. Some in my brain were more film set to music (I recall one of Crimson & Clover featuring a couple motorcycles busting dunes) and some more professional concert footage (Jefferson Airplane and some early Tull). The names of the shows escape me but I want to say one was Saturday evening and another more in the afternoon. Absolutely. Many bands produced what we would definitely consider to be “music videos” (though they were shot on film) for AB and for similar shows, like Where the Action Is (also a Dick Clark production, I believe). The Left Banke, Christie, and other more notable groups left us with some fairly decent videos from the mid and late 60s. Very few of them were from actual live performances, and many of them are rather artistic, though they almost always included some sort of lip-synched performance sequences. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-before-mtv/810215/37 "2018-03-10T22:52:33Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I don’t know what year this was, but [Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGxjIBEZvx0) has to be one of the first. **Don’t Look Back** , where it comes from, is from 1967 but the video was recorded in 1965. The extras on the DVD of **I’m Not There** have all the actors playing the aspects of Dylan reproducing the video. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-before-mtv/810215/38 "2018-03-10T23:54:39Z")
There were equivalents of music videos from as early as 1926. Indeed, as early as 1894 there were people projecting images on a screen to accompany a live performance. As early as 1940, there were juke boxes that played a short movie along with a song: > **[Music video](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_video)** > > A music video, sometimes abbreviated to M/V, is a video of variable duration that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. These videos are typically shown on music television and on streaming video sites like YouTube, or more rarely shown theatrically. They can be commercially issued on home video, either ... ---
**Author:** ![Mesquite-oh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Mesquite-oh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mesquite-oh)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2018, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-before-mtv/810215/39 "2018-03-11T09:03:16Z")
The first i remember was George Harrison’s “Crackerbox Palace” around 1976, a kinda weird video created in collaboration with Eric idle. It freaked me out as a child. In the 70’s there a few music shows that would come on late on the weekends that would show videos (Midnight Special, Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, In Concert). ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2018, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-before-mtv/810215/40 "2018-03-11T14:01:02Z")
In the late 60s Dick Clark had afternoon [shows](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happening_'68) called _It’s Happening/Happening '68_. The later version had Mark Lindsay and Paul Revere as hosts with their band Paul Revere and the Raiders. They did some bits set to their songs that got repeated over the series. Gotta fill the time somehow. So, basically music videos. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-before-mtv/810215.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-before-mtv/810215.md?page=3)