Music Videos - The 60's

Stevie Wonder - For Once In My Life (1968)

This video is an example of how music videos began to look from the movement from many of the black and white videos of the 1950's, and towards the more modern ideas of videos in the 1970's. The video is in full colour, where there has even been experimentation of bright colours of the set to fit with the light nature of the song. The use of the set in this way still gives across the theme of 'performance', where Stevie Wonder is still 'performing' his song to the audience watching the clip, however has moved away from the typical stage performance with the full band and a microphone such as in early music videos like Elvis Presley's 'Hound Dog' in the 50's, but is evidence to show how historically, themes such as narrative, costume change, props and other forms of mis-en-scene hadn't been thought of in as much detail yet in terms of music videos. Although there isn't a scene change at all, there now has a lot of different shots, such as long shots, mid shots and close-ups, to break up the video from just a still one-take performance, and to create more variety for the audience to view. Because the video is very simplistic, the use of dancers also is used to attract audience attention and add more of an entertainment element into music videos - from this point onwards, dance routines began to get more and more popular. The dancing is quite basic compared to the dancing involved in modern music videos, but its simplistic style fits well to the beat of the music, and to the smooth, motown genre of the song, which shows how already at this point music videos may have had a lot of planning. The quality of the camera shoot reflects the technology of its time, where the video isn't of the highest quality compared to new videos, and shows a good starting point for the progression of the quality and budget of music videos. The lack of experimenting with camera angles also points to the overall incomplexity of the start of music videos, from the 1960's. 

Millie Small - My Boy Lollipop (1964)

This music video is taken from the artist's TV show, where television shows and televised performances were really the only source of music videos in the 1960's. The video is in black and white, which shows how the earliest music videos could not all have the privilege of being in colour due to the technology available at the time. As the video is part of Millie's TV show, the video acted as a promo video for Millie Small as an artist, which is also shown by the way she is at first in shadow, to then be revealed by a spotlight as the singer, making her seem an important figure. The whole video seems to be done in one take, with no editing cuts or range of camera angles, which firstly shows the lack of technology that could be used to make music videos early on, but also the lack of media planning that went into music videos early on, before director's considered much about making the audience feel a certain way. The main camera shot involved is a mid-shot, so the audience can see the majority of Millie, and so are more able to relate to her and concentrate on her as a singular artist, as if she is an important 'star'. The camera pans around, following Millie as she walks, to further represent this, as well as the fact that when other figures are introduced to the video - the dancers - they are only seen in darkness. The dancers are there to add more entertainment value to the video, as dance routines from this era were the start of a popular trend in music videos, to keep the audience's attention. The pace of the camera and the dancing fits with the pace of the song, and the average looking clothes that almost fully cover Millie, giving her an innocent look, also fit with the light hearted nature of the song. This also shows how historically women weren't as sexualised, especially in music videos, compared to today, because it was seen as more immoral, or it could show how director's had different ideas about how a woman had to look for a 'sex appeal'. 

The Seekers - Georgy Girl (1968)

This video is from The Seekers farewell tour, which shows how in early music videos, not much thought or planning was used, especially considering there wasn't much budget for media projects like that. This is also shown by the technology used, where the video is in black and white, and the quality of the camera is minimal. It contains the typical conventions of early music videos, where it is based on musical performance as opposed to modern themes like narrative or materialism. There isn't a massive range of camera angles, but there is a variety of shots to show different elements of the band. For example, there are long shots and mid shots to show the identity and image of the band, and then edited alongside close up shots of the singer, which is a traditional concept that has stayed through to the modern era, where the singer is represented as the 'frontman' for a band who captures the audience's attention most. There are a few crossfades in the transitions, which shows how effects and editing may have started to be taken into account by then end of the 60's, to keep the interest of the audience, and to fit with the beat of the music. The figures in the band are dressed in sensible suits for the men, and the woman is in a full dress, which shows how under-sexualised musical artists seemed to be in this decade, yet also represents the wealth that they have - the start of the materialistic ideas of music.