VIDEO CLIPS

Did you see Michael Jackson's twenty-minute pop video 'Thriller'? He had to spend over $ 800,000 to make it, and it became very famous all over the world. Unknown singers and groups can become rich in one night when their pop videos get on the American MTV channel. The Birmingham group 'Duran Duran' became famous only after their first video. That made all the difference.

Videos became the biggest thing in the pop music world in the 1960s. British record companies are now spending more than £ 12 million a year on videos of new records. With these videos, singers and groups get on TV. People can also buy these videos in shops. These two things make singers and groups famous. They can't become famous if thev don't make a good video.

Record companies send Jools Holland, the director of a British TV pop music programme, hundreds of videos very year. "I must say that most pop singers are very bad actors" says Jools, "but thev don't look bad when record companies spend thousands of pounds on these videos. We've got some excellent film directors in Britain. Their videos are very good - much better than the American ones." Jools Holland gets all kinds of videos: some cost more than £50.000 for three minutes of film; others, from new groups cost £500 or less.