The music business and media design have experienced a very lucrative, mutually beneficial relationship over the course of the last 50 years. Since the mainstream outbreak of rock ‘n’ roll in the 1960s, graphic and video media development has been tied at the hip to music business professionals seeking the newest, most innovative ways to market musicians. In 1964, the Beatles set the stage for what was to become the ‘music video’ as we know it today with their “A Hard Day’s Night” motion picture, documenting their performances and escapades for a brief period of time touring the world. This gave way to even further collaborations between musicians and videographers throughout the 60’s and into the 70’s, highlighted by live concert video footage.
As videographers and media artists began to expand their horizons, more conceptual, idea-based videos came to fruition, starting in the early 80’s. Before music videos like the Buggles 1981 hit “Video Killed the Radio Star,” it was not common for videographers to sync up pre-recorded studio versions of songs with conceptual ideas. This paved the way for Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” in 1983, widely considered one of the most impactful music videos ever, which flipped the music industry upside down.
After the immense popularity of early 80’s music videos such as these, MTV and VH1 jumped at the chance to create TV stations centered around airing conceptual and live music videos. Since then, media development has continued to be an instrumental tool for anyone involved in the music business, and can be seen today in modern bands’ utilization of SnapChat, Instagram Video, and YouTube to advertise themselves. For more info, check out today’s infographic.