History of Music Promos - The 80s

The 80s were important for music promos.

David Bowies promo for 'Ashes to Ashes' costed £250,000 which was very expensive in the 80s and was one of the most expensive music promos of the time.

This promo consisted of the following conventions: surreal locations, images within images, extreme close ups and strange costumes.

The next important music promo of the decade was Devo 'Whip it' as it is argued to be among the first true long term video production.

The promo was quite weird so it was memorable. The promo also borrows things from other texts.

Another important thing of the decade was the creation of MTV. The Monkees member Mike Nesmith created it as he had an idea of filling an entire network with music promos 24/7. It was a good idea as it only costed royalties to bands. This changed music promos as people started to make big budget TV friendly promos so that MTV would play them on the shows.

Another important promo of the 80s was Michael Jacksons 'Thriller'. This was a no 1 single and costed a vast amount of money. This is mainly because it is a short story in itself as well as a music promo.

This music promo includes references to early/50s horror movies, storyline over story, iconic dance and the storyline fits the performance. This all makes the promo such a memorable and unique music promo.

Aerosmith/Run DMC 'Walk This Way' provided a crossover of rap and rock music and broke the white dominance that MTV created. After this promo MTV started to play more promos from people who weren't white males.

 This promo shows representations of a white rock band and black rappers and how different they the environments they play music in are different.

Madonna's 'Like A Prayer' broke the traditional single - album - tour format because of MTV as Madonna made money from her singles. It also involves controversies like featuring a black Jesus and her representations of race.

The narrative enhances the song as there are literal  representations of the lyrics. The narrative and performance intertwines. This is conventional for modern day pop promos.