History of Welsh music videos charted in new website

Welsh-language television has played a more important part than commercial record labels in the development of Welsh music videos over the past 50 years, say researchers.

As the 24-hour MTV channel made its entrance on to the global stage in the early 1980s, it was the arrival of S4C which helped shape music video making in Wales at the time.

The finding is included in a new website documenting the development of Welsh music videos over a period of more than fifty years, which launches on Welsh Language Music Day (Friday 7 February).

The fideos.cymru website stems from a unique research project led by two lecturers at Aberystwyth University’s Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies, Dr Greg Bevan and Dr Kate Woodward.

They say the project has highlighted significant differences between the dynamics driving the production of Welsh-language and Anglo-American music videos.

Dr Greg Bevan said:

“There is no doubt that the music video has had a fascinating history since the format really took off in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The political, industrial and social landscape of Wales was very different at that time and these contexts are reflected in the videos that were being created.

“One of the main differences that has emerged as part of our research is that Anglo-American videos are produced with the primary aim of selling and promoting mainstream songs as part of a wider marketing drive by the big record companies. That commercial imperative has been less evident in Wales. Here, the need to promote cultural arts in a minority language has been a crucial factor, alongside other anti-establishment, subcultural influences.”

As part of the project, the researchers interviewed some of Wales's leading artists and producers about their experience of making music videos, including Dafydd Iwan, Cerys Hafana, Geraint Jarman, Eddie Ladd, Rhys Mwyn, and Dafydd Rhys.

Dr Kate Woodward said:

“We wanted to speak directly to the people who have been involved in making Welsh music videos over the years and share their insights with a wider audience through the website. What we found was that the television industry in Wales – and S4C in particular – was mainly responsible for driving music video production by providing not only a platform for broadcasting content but also the necessary funding, in contrast to the Anglo-American trend where record labels were the main drivers.

“The iconic series Fideo 9 on S4C played a key role in the development of the Welsh music video, producing around four new videos every week when they were on air between 1988 and 1991. Bandit was on air between 2004 and 2011, and Lŵp has been offering a cross-platform stage for Welsh music since 2019. We are also now in a new era where artists are increasingly likely to create their own videos independently and promote them on various social media streams.”

Music Video Fund

In addition to launching the website, it was also announced today that a small fund is available for applications to support the production of two new Welsh music videos.

As Dr Woodward explained:

“We are keen for our research project to contribute to the ongoing development of the Welsh music video by supporting current content  creation as well as examining and analysing the scene’s historical development.”

The closing date for applications to the music video fund is 16:00 on Friday 28 February 2025 and further details are available online: https://fideos.cymru.