A two-year research project which aims to bring long-awaited academic recognition to British-made music videos is now underway, and has begun the process to achieve one of its chief objectives: selecting a list of 60 landmark British music videos of the past 50 years.   

A panel of experienced music video professionals, both past and present, met last Friday (April 10th) at the British Library in London to discuss the candidates for inclusion in this exclusive club of British music videos. The selections will become part of a special collection of music video work that will be preserved for historical posterity and for the benefit of academic researchers of future generations.

Funded by a coveted award by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Fifty Year of British Music Video research project is led by Dr Justin Smith at the University of Portsmouth and Dr Emily Caston at the London College of Communications - with Promo News editor David Knight involved as a consultant for the duration of the project.

The project aims to create new public collections and academic resources of influential music video and moving image art spanning the past fifty years. A book documenting the untold story of the British music video industry -  from its origins in the 60s, through to its professionalisation in the MTV years, to its recent democratisation in the YouTube era - is also in the works, likely to be published in 2017.