The reason I ask this is there are hundreds of songs released every year, most of which don't make the top 20, does every single one of the UK's single releases have some sort of video, do the songs that come in at #36 or something just have a simple video with a revolving background or something that costs about £1000 to make.
When you think about it, the primary art here is music, so why does every single have a video?

I don't think the recent Elvis Vs JXL, 'A Little Less Conversation' had a video for some time, although the fact that it was eventually given a video indicates that the record companies do seem to believe that it is essential.
I tend to agree, especially considering that so much of today's music is consumed through television channels such as the likes of MTV and the EMAP channels.

I'm sure that very few Top 40 songs don't have a video made for them, purely because they can at least have the chance of media exposure if they do have one accompanying them.

It didn't used to be like that though; for instance, the biggest selling single of 1989, namely Black Box's 'Ride On Time' didn't have a video at all during its stay at number 1.

so when did "Ride On Time" end up with a video then? (btw the song is one of my fave songs EVER!!))

I doubt every single has a video but on a similar note there are videos made for songs that never get released as a single.

Quite a few metal/indie bands make 3 or 4 videos to accompany an album release and these videos are released to MTV, Kerrang! etc for promotional purposes. Often only 1 or 2 of those will see life as a single.

I don't think Iron maiden's "Send Your Daughter To The Slaughter" had a vidoe as when VH1 got to the time it was at no1 during their 90s marathon, they just had a screen saying when it was number 1, but no video. Also Stardust's "music sounds better with you" didn't have a video when it got to no2 back in August 1998, the video didn't appear untila round November that year. i remember the Chart Show got round this by using a compilation of old Chart Show graphics as their video, as it was thier last couple of weeks on air before it was (sadly) replaced by CDUK.

yea i remember that, they had some really bad (well in those days it was good) 3d animation of a rollercoaster or something.

There has been very, very few singles that haven't had a video. However Camouflage by Stan Ridgeway has NEVER had a video to my knowledge.

The old Chart Show just put up a picture of the band when they didn't have a video to play, I thought that was pretty funny

As for A Little Less Conversation, I would have liked to have seen them splice the adverts (the ones with the world class footballers in the ship) together to make a video.

As if you care I seem to be taping music videos for a living , i've got 27 full tapes (that i've written down what's on them) and three more as well, well over 1700 now. I've done almost every one of the No1's from the 80's, 90's and some form the 00's

Now they should do the No2's (just for BatDance)

However, having so many channels to choose from has it's problems, as I have to be quick when one I have comes on, so I can go onto another channel to find another video. AND setting up the video tape so when I start recording it starts almost instantly. I am so into it as you can plainly see

OH VH1 , NOOOOOOOOO

Why did you start at 2001, and not 2000!!!!

I was wanting to get the Manic's, Britney, Oasis, Chicane , Halliwell, Fragma, Black Legend, Mel C and BOB THE BUILDER!!!!

Buggers

VH1 did start at 2000, It's just they started there at 6AM and 1:30PM, but not at 9PM.

It has, I've seen it on VH1.

It isn't much though, just Ridgway and his band performing in front of a camouflage backdrop and some b&w grainy images of a soldier walking through some woodland.

The vast majority of Top 40 singles do have a video, however you'll find that the vast majority of singles released every week do not have a video as most singles do not chart in the Top 40.

And they probabally don't chart, because they don't have a video. The video itself is a promotional tool, which gets the song known better.

Why would a song that is at 36 be any less likely to have a video than a TOP 20 song?

The chart position wont be known when the song first gets airplay and obviously they dont wait till after they chart to make a video so i dont get your point on that.

Video is a huge part of the music industry and has been for over 20 years so therefore yes, visualness comes hand in hand with the music.

I would say the majority of the TOP 75 at any time has a video therefore.

Daft Punk - "One More Time" came out in Nov 2000 I think, but they didnt have a video for it until January 2001.
Stardust - "Music Sounds Better With You" didnt have a video to start with either.

I already mentioned that one . The video for that didn't appear until Late 1998/early 1999 even though the song was released and got no2 in August 1998.

Also anyone have and isntances of a song having more than 1 video (not referring to UK and US verisons)? I remember Shaft's Mucho mambo in late 1999 had two. IIRC the first video though, was only seen on the box (also used for a trialer for Kiss 100 for a short while too) but was only used for around 3 weeks.

To see some of the more obscure (ie low budget) videos - some of which are nothing short of wonderful, then try MTV2's "2Eclectic" which airs Monday & Thursday at midnight.

The amount of obscure indie/alt dance records that have videos is astounding...

Not a major differene. But the MTV version of Alien Ant Farms smooth criminal had a short clip of they boy dancing on the street with a hockey mask on. While on all the other music channel he had no mask on.

Yes,t here can also be slight variations between videos. I've seen at least 5 different version's of Eminem's "Stan".

Pearl Jam never make video's to accompany their singles, Jeremy their 1st single did and they did a animated video for "it's evolution baby" (which incidently got voted 2nd greatest video of all time by Zane Lowe on Mtv) but those are the only 2 done by a group who have been going well over 10 years and are still one of the biggest acts in the world,which goes to show if you are good enough you can forge a career without making videos or even giving interviews (another thing which they hardly do, but thats another story!)

Naother case of more than one video can be where it features on a movie soundtrack- one version with the clips, one without. Atomic Kitten's "eternal Flame" and Sugabanes "Round Round" both do this, though in both cases, the versions minus the movie clips seem to be mroe widely used (the box is the only channel I've seen the sugababes vid with movie clips in). I've also noticed Nelly's " hot in here" has 2 completly different videos

Guys, the age of the music video more or less started with Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, which had its video shot in 1975.. That song was regarded as what started the whole Music Video era.

I might be wrong but I thought "Alive" was the 1st single and that had a video (live footage though).

Metallica refused to do any videos until "One" and that was originally released to rock clubs to show.

Yes, that song seems to be number 1 on Magic all the time, and it is regarded as one of the best songs ever released. After all. it's been number 1 in the UK Charts twice- in 1975, then in 1991 after Freddie's sad death- ahh the times when people still bought music because of the talent rather than because thry fancy the artist. And songs could stay number 1 for weeks on end- these days it's hard to be number 1 for more than a week. In fact, now you've mentioned it I remember seieng a 2nd video for bohemian rhapsody. It was basically the original video, but with clips from Wayne's World on as well as a few clips of Queen live footage which isn't in the original video (wayne's World was the reason why it was re-released and got number 1 in the US in 1992). I've only seen it a couple of times though (one of those actually ont he Wayne's World video)- was this version more common around the time of Wanye's World?

Yep, they redid the original BR video to include Waynes World clips both to promote the song (even though it was never re-released at that time) and to promote Waynes World at that time. The second time BR was released, in 1991, as a Double A side with These Are The Days Of Our Lives was to raise money for a few AIDS foundations. That re-release used the original music video.

That original music video cost £5000 to make.. id say that was a good investment!!