History of music promos 1960s-present

The Beatles 'A Hard Day's Night' (1964 - present)
- This promo was important as it was the first of its type; it established the conventions for future promos.
- This promo established many conventions such as:
  - Montages
  - Narrative
  - Showing the band members and their roles
  - Fast cuts
  - Close ups of the band
  - Branding/advertisement
  - Audience reactions

'Top of the Pops' (1964 - 2006)
- This was extremely important in terms of the sales of a single or album. It created a need for promos as bands couldn't always perform live.

The Beatles 'Strawberry Fields Forever' (1967)
- Was the first illustrative music promo
- Included many promo conventions such as:
  - Fast paced cuts
  - Pans
  - Filters
  - Slow-motion rewind
  - Surreal

The Monkees 'A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You' (1967)
- Also included and established many conventions for the genre including:
  - Surrealism
  - Jumps/cuts
  - 'Wacky' comedy
  - Action and performances

Queen 'Bohemian Rhapsody' (1975)
- This solidified conventions within the genre
- Lighting and mise-en-scene were revolutionary within the genre
The pace of editing matched the song
- Fades were becoming more common

David Bowie 'Ashes to Ashes' (1980)
- Very surreal
- Variety of different editing and colour effects

MTV 1981
- The potential of music promos was realised.
Production budgets began to sore for music promos reaching over $1000000.

Aerosmith/Run DMC 'Walk This Way' (1986)
- Rock crossover with rap; revolutionary
- Brought rap in to the mainstream; became more popular