Scopitones

Scopitone films are the early 1960s forerunners to today's music videos.  They were distributed on colour 16mm film with a magnetic soundtrack, and were made to be shown on Scopitone film jukeboxes. The first Scopitones were made in France around 1960, and the Scopitone craze spread throughout Europe (particularly in West Germany and England) before moving over the Atlantic to the United States in the mid-1964.  By the end of the sixties, Scopitones were a thing of the past and all the crazes had died down. Unlike Soundies, Scopitones were filmed in colour which allowed audiences to see artists more vibrantly with a better view unlike the standard black and white broadcasts of the 1960’s. Scopitones and Soundies are very similar in production, however Soundies did not play on a Scopitone jukebox. Scopitones are often referred to as the ancestors to today’s music video’s. Scopitones played mainly unknown artists who sang English songs, like the Soundies, giving them a lot more publicity.