Why were music videos in the 1990's so frequently filmed in black and white?

by Ricepudding94

This might just be me, but it seems that music videos in the mid 90's were very frequently filmed in black and white.

Some famous hits like "Linger", "Insomnia", "7 seconds" and "Wonderwall" were filmed like this and those are just off the top of my head. Two hits from the Prodigy were filmed like this during that period as well.

Was this just fashionable among directors or was it a part of some larger artistic movement at the time?

EDIT: It's very apparent in this video for example.

belfman

pretty sure there was no special reason for it. Heck, it's done to this day in some videos ("all the single ladies", "99 problems"). I think the person who started the trend was Martin Scorcese with the "Bad" video. He used it there to invoke documentaries about the inner city which were shot in black and white because it was cheaper than colour.

bitparity

Tentatively approving ONLY for music videos made 1994 or earlier.

Wonderwall, of course, does not count, being from a 1995 album.