MovieChat Forums > Michael Nesmith Discussion > Rio (1977) is the first music video?

Rio (1977) is the first music video?

posted 3 years ago by Satan2016 (25525)
2 replies | jump to latest

I thought The Beatles did some earlier. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7121738/ (no votes yet)
I remember seeing this long ago, probably on the long forgotten CITY TV music video show.

Michael Nesmith - Rio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnpcTsy10dE

Chris Blackwell from Island Records asked Nez to make a "clip" to promote his new record in Europe. Nez had no idea what a clip was -- and rather than understand it as a low-budget recording of an artist miming their song on a stage, he recalled Hollywood musicals, Beatles and Disney films, and even The Monkees romps.

While editing, director Bill Dear and Nez discovered that music can take over the narrative to create continuity even when placed over discontinuous images. That continuity is what makes a music video as Nez defines it in Infinite Tuesday: An Autobiographical Riff.

Today there is little distinction between performance videos and music videos -- any video footage set to a single and released by an artist is called a music video. But in 1977, there was a clear difference and the artform in Rio was unique because of this found continuity.

Nez created the "video record" with his wife at the time, Kathryn, and director Bill Dear in 1977. This band, as he calls the trio in Infinite Tuesday: An Autobiographical Riff, went on to create the longform Elephant Parts, which featured Rio, and won the first Grammy ever given for a music video.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

Very creative and amusing video for a catchy song.

[–] huwdj (4566) 3 years ago

For some reason I thought 10cc produced the 1st music videos and/or they first appeared on Top Of The Pops (the UKs big pop show of my youth) - but that fell apart pretty quickly with a google or two.
But I think the first problem would be: you have to define what exactly a music video is before trying to answer the question. Hollywood started producing musical trailers and shorts almost immediately - do those count?
Also, I have to admit to an English Language Bias thinking about this because on Wikipedia I found: "In the late 1950s the Scopitone, a visual jukebox, was introduced in France and short films were produced by many French artists, such as Serge Gainsbourg, Françoise Hardy, Jacques Dutronc, and the Belgian Jacques Brel to accompany their songs. Its use spread to other countries, and similar machines such as the Cinebox in Italy and Color-sonic in the USA were patented."
So, interesting question actually - I dare say there is probably more than one answer.