What were music videos made for in the 70's?

Before MTV even existed, who watched music videos and how? Were there are TV programs showing them? I know videos have been existing for much longer than MTV.

 

Top Of The Pops in the UK.

It meant the band didn't have to turn up in person every week to mime the song to a bunch of bored looking teenagers.

 

In the 70’s, Midnight Special, Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, and occasional talk shows would show music videos, either in their entirety or snippets.

 

Even Ed Sullivan and the Smothers Brothers used them on their shows.

 

Not only that, I think they had to rerecord the song for the performance, due to musician's union stuff. I'm not sure of the exact details though.

 

Also, for Australian Movie Theaters for promoting records.

 

I have a few 70s Styx videos that are labeled as Promo. Not sure if they were ever shown on a network show or just for the record label.

 

I had thought they were used to promote bands and artists in markets where they didn’t necessarily tour.

 

Such a brilliant idea! Never saw this happen in the US that I’m aware of.

 

I remember seeing videos on DKRC and I always thought it was really lame. Little did I know it would be the SOP for music artists in just a few years.

Were videos also used for promotion within the industry? I seem to remember hearing something about that once.

 

I would imagine record companies had to work pretty hard to get their acts seen once they start to get some chart or radio traction. I recall there was a cable tv system in the Cleveland area in the late-70s, where customers were serviced with a five-button control that interracted with the cable box, and they were looking for things to do with that, from local government functions to new ways to order products. Wouldn't surprise me if they had tried some sort of video jukebox function now and then.

 

Not overly detailed or comprehensive, but this will give you a little idea about the uses for music videos before MTV. I know there were some TV programs here in the U.S. that showed music videos in the late 1970s, usually once a week for an hour or two.

https://www.history.com/news/the-music-video-before-music-television

 

The Kenny Everett Video Show (1978-1981)

 

elektra asylum and wb bros all had video dept's ( tiny but they grew ) for "promo" purposes as mentioned here.

 

Yes, there were music shows on TV all over the world, I presume. In Brazil, at least, there were a few. Or variety shows where such videos could be shown.

 

Bohemian Rhapsody video was considered a big thing when it came out. Like on shows American bandstand. I think they called it the "film" of the song or something like that- but not a video as we know today.

 

As a pre-adolescent comedy nerd with insomnia, a TV in my room, and parents who didn't care if I stayed up all night, I used to watch a lot of late night TV, especially on weekends. A lot of syndicated comedy shows either had bands perform between comedians or sketches (this is how I discovered Wall of Voodoo, playing "Back in Flesh" on some standup show a couple years before "Mexican Radio") or would show videos.

I remember the Jerry Lewis telethon would play videos by like Wings or Stevie Wonder late at night as well.

 

I remember seeing videos on American Bandstand occasionally -- for example, "Coming Up" by Paul McCartney and "Cars" by Gary Numan.

Also, HBO used them as "network time killers" between the end of one movie and the start of another. It sometimes used Warner Bros. cartoons for the same purpose.

Finally, I remember seeing "She's Gone" by Daryl Hall & John Oates on a local Philadelphia show, "Steel Pier" featuring Ed Hurst.

 

In Australia we had Countdown, Sounds, Beatbox and several others.
Videos were always promotional tools.

 

Good idea for a topic, I never understood the amount of videos shot in the 70s myself.

 

I've got a small collection of Electronic Press Kit videos, mostly VHS, but a handful of 3/4" U-Matic as well. My favorite is the Jethro Tull / Bursting Out promo on 3/4".

 

Michael Nesmith’s “Popclips” show on Nickelodeon ran for a few years 1979-1981, I believe, and Nick’s parent company, Viacom, bought the rights from Nez and that’s what became MTV.

Here’s Popclips playing Nez’s own “Rio” clip, which was fairly groundbreaking when it came out in ‘77 (And pretty funny when it gets to the dance segment), followed by a host segment from comedian Charles Fleischer:

 

Actually, I’m posting this out of order. Here’s a series of clips before the one ai just posted. This segment has two clips from artists I can’t identify, then it ends with the start of Nez’s “Rio” clip, which continues on the segment I posted above this one:

 

I worked in a record store in Australia from '79 - '83 - we had a U-Matic video player and a big projection screen TV in the back of the store, so we always had video content supplied by the record companies playing during the day - they always had stuff to supply us with - clips, concerts, in-house promos

 

Many were made for coin op video machines.
Panoram (Soundies) then Scopitone.
From wiki
Even though the popularity of the Scopitone had faded away by the end of the 1960s, the same concept was still in limited use throughout the 1970s by acts such as the Carpenters and ABBA both of whose early productions were shot on 16mm film before transitioning to videotape. The last official film for a Scopitone was made at the end of 1978.