Long before MTV or even the pop promo clip, the Scopitone jukebox let bar patrons watch full-colour films of pop songs, effectively inventing the music video decades earlier. Developed in France and patented in 1958, the coin-operated machine spread across Western Europe and, later, the United States, offering a novel visual accompaniment to chart hits and shaping the visual identity of the French Yé-yé pop scene.

Acts including The Exciters, Freddy Cannon, Bobby Vee, Nancy Sinatra and Procol Harum made bespoke films for the format, but its popularity faded by the late 1960s. Its adult, cocktail-lounge marketing alienated younger fans drawn to the British Invasion, television shows such as Top of the Pops offered a free alternative, and live psychedelic stage shows became more appealing. Reports linking the US distributor to organised crime further damaged its reputation, and manufacturer Tel-A-Sign went bankrupt in 1967, ending the format as a commercial force by the 1970s.