On Oct. 5 in Pottle Music Recital Hall, Dr. Joe Burns served as the guest speaker for SLU’s “Then and Now” Fanfare History and Politics Lecture series. 

This year’s subject was a lecture on what is considered the first music video. Burns presented students and faculty with a presentation on how to better define what makes a music video.

The presentation displayed different artists and bands along with the various entertainment platforms musicians performed on, such as MTV, Solid Gold and Soul Train.

“All I can do is lay out the parameters for what a music video is and then go as far back as I can in history to show you things that could be a music video,” Burns said. 

At the beginning of the presentation, Burns established a set of rules for what could be considered a music video. 

“I went online and looked at numerous websites and here are the rules I came up with. For something to be a music video, it has to be, in some way, a support or promotion for the song, there has to be more production than just a single camera, it must be made by or for the artist and it must have some level of popularity,” Burns explained.

The presentation included filmed performances and videos that spanned multiple decades. Some of the artists that were included in the presentation consisted of the Beatles, Louis Jordan and The Buggles. Burns spoke about how television variety shows were used as a way of displaying popular artists and their songs for a wider audience. 

Senior communication major Delani McCloskey was surprised by how many of the artists had filmed videos of their performances prior to the lecture.

“I didn’t even realize that half of those music videos existed,” McCloskey said. 

Many of the videos showed the concept of a music video spanned beyond the fare one would see on MTV.

McCloskey brought along freshman general studies major Brady Aldenfrey, who didn’t anticipate being invested initially, but found himself being hooked in by the presentation.

“It was a lecture that was open to everybody and I figured it would be a way to pass the time, but I was actually much more invested than I was expecting,” Aldenfrey said. 

The lecture served as an exploration of how the presentation of music has continued to evolve and how the line between what is and is not a music video is not as easy as one might think.