Q What's the history of the pop video

A.��Strange as it may seem, the embryonic notion of promoting pop music through television occurred to Mike Nesmith.

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Q.� That's the same name as the Texan guy who was in The Monkees, the sixties American TV show.

A.� It's the same Mike Nesmith! Mike spent quite a few years working on the film shots that went with the songs The Monkees released as hits, it seemed a short hop from those film clips to making high budget song-oriented promo clips on video tape, and it wasn't long before MTV was born.

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Q.� What is MTV

A.� MTV was the first, and is still the biggest specialist TV station that rotates music video clips around the clock. From its earliest beginnings in the 1980s, demand for clips has created a massive multi-million dollar industry.

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Q.� Does that mean everyone who releases a song makes a video to go with it

A.� Not everyone, videos take time and cost money, so finance, usually from a record company, is required to shoot and edit a quality video, and then it has to take its chances in the MTV marketplace.

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Q.� What's the 'MTV marketplace'

A.� Because of the huge number of videos now being produced, and the acknowledged positive impact on sales that regular playing (known as heavy rotation) on MTV can bring, competition for slots on MTV is fierce, and any new band will have to climb over the established stars who tend to get their videos played as a matter of course.

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Q.� Who are the big stars

A.� Top of the list is the self-styled King Of Pop Michael Jackson. Although he's been quiet lately in terms of musical output, you cannot underestimate the role Jackson has played in the formation of the MTV culture, and the far-reaching effect that it has had on pop music in general.

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Q.� Sounds impressive, what role has Michael Jackson played in video promotion

A.� Jackson was one of the first major stars to realise the massive potential in video promotion for his music, and the virtual absence of African-American performers' work, at least in the earliest days of MTV in the 1980s. Via a series of ground-breaking videos for tracks from his Thriller album, Jackson opened up a whole new area in terms of the budget, style, and indeed length of music videos, as shown in his videos for the title track from his album, and an equally memorable videos for Billie Jean.

Q.� What was so special about Michael Jackson's videos

A.� Michael Jackson had the notion of making his videos less like a short promo clip, and more like a feature film, with music rather than story as the object of the exercise. Having watched John Landis's American Werewolf In London movie, Jackson approached the director to collaborate on the video for his Thriller single. The length of the video, together with the make-up, dancing, special effects, and overall high budget appearance made sure that everyone else's video would look poor in comparison. The record companies and bands were not slow to learn the lesson, and music video moved into its current high-gloss high impact style very quickly.

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Q.� Are videos just for pop singles

A.� No, it wasn't long before record companies had the idea of putting together full-length album videos.�First in line was Blondie with�its Eat To The Beat album, and again, the record companies were keen to see this medium as a way of multi-promotion,�the video would encourage people to buy the album, and vice versa. The market scene expanded from purely pop into almost every area of music, rock, rap, metal, the list goes on.

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Q.� Does everyone love music videos

A.� It can be something of a generation thing. Music fans who got involved in pop music in the 1960s and 1970s may argue that part of the pleasure of music is creating your own mental images to fit the music, something that is denied if you can only associate a song with the video you've seen. Later music fans would argue that a video is part of the whole enjoyment of music; it's entirely a matter of personal taste.

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Q.� What's the future for music video

A.� In common with all entertainment media, the video producers have grasped the twin technologies of Internet and computers and incorporated them into their working methods. Thanks to the massive success of stars like Britney Spears and N'Sync, who are truly products of the music video generation, the future will probably encompass interactive video and computer software, so fans can direct their own video segments and customise material on their own PCs.

Mike Nesmith certainly started something!

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