Absence and Presence: Top of the Pops and the demand for music videos in the 1960s

dc.cclicenceCC-BY-NCen
dc.contributor.authorSmith, Justin
dc.date.acceptance2019-04
dc.date.accessioned2019-06-20T14:22:37Z
dc.date.available2019-06-20T14:22:37Z
dc.date.issued2019-09
dc.descriptionThe file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version.en
dc.description.abstractWhilst there is a surprising critical consensus underpinning the myth that British music video began in the mid-1970s with Queen’s video for ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, few scholars have pursued Mundy’s (1999) lead in locating its origins a decade earlier. Although the relationship between film and the popular song has a much longer history, this article seeks to establish that the international success of British beat groups in the first half of the 1960s encouraged television broadcasters to target the youth audience with new shows that presented their idols performing their latest hits (which normally meant miming to recorded playback). In the UK, from 1964, the BBC’s Top of the Pops created an enduring format specifically harnessed to popular music chart rankings. The argument follows that this format created a demand for the top British artists’ regular studio presence which their busy touring schedules could seldom accommodate; American artists achieving British pop chart success rarely appeared on the show in person. This frequent absence then, coupled with the desire by broadcasters elsewhere in Europe and America to present popular British acts, created a demand for pre-recorded or filmed inserts to be produced and shown in lieu of artists’ appearance. Drawing on records held at the BBC’s Written Archives and elsewhere, and interviews with a number of 1960s music video directors, this article evidences TV’s demand-driver and illustrates how the ‘pop promo’, in the hands of some, became a creative enterprise which exceeded television’s requirement to cover for an artist’s studio absence.en
dc.funderAHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council)en
dc.identifier.citationSmith, J. (2019) Absence and Presence: Top of the Pops and the demand for music videos in the 1960s. Journal of British Cinema and Television, 16 (4), pp. 492-544en
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.3366/jbctv.2019.0497
dc.identifier.issn1743-4521
dc.identifier.urihttps://www.dora.dmu.ac.uk/handle/2086/18099
dc.language.isoenen
dc.peerreviewedYesen
dc.projectidAH/M003515/1en
dc.publisherEdinburgh University Pressen
dc.researchinstituteCinema and Television History Institute (CATHI)en
dc.subjectmusic videoen
dc.subjectTop of the Popsen
dc.titleAbsence and Presence: Top of the Pops and the demand for music videos in the 1960sen
dc.typeArticleen

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Absence and Presence- Top of the Pops and the demand for music videos in the 1960s .pdf
Size:
258.59 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
4.2 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description: