History of Music Videos

A Music Video is a short film that is created to accompany a song or piece

of music. Music Videos are conventionally made for promotional reasons
or artistic reasons.

19261959: Talkies, Soundies, and Shorts:

There was the arrival of talkies in 1926, which meant many
musical short films could be and were produced. In the early
1930s, the cartoons featured popular musicians performing
their most popular songs on-camera in live-action segments
during the cartoons. The early animated films by Walt Disney,
such as the Silly Symphonies shorts, which featured several
interpretations of classical pieces, were built around music.
The Warner Brothers cartoons were initially fashioned around
specific songs from upcoming Warner Brothers musical films.
Soundies, that were produced and released from 1940-1947,
were musical films that often included short dance sequences, similar to
later music videos.
In the mid-1940s, musician Louis Jordan made short
films for his songs; these films were supposedly the
"ancestors" of the music video. Musical films were also
an important influence to the music video. Examples
such as Madonna's 1985 video for Material Girl and
Several of Michael Jackson's videos, which show the
unmistakable influence of the dance sequences in
classic Hollywood musicals, have imitated the style of
classic Hollywood musicals from the 1930s to the 1950s.

19601973: Promotional Clips and Others:

The Scopitone, a visual jukebox, was invented in the late
1950s, in France, allowing the production of short films,
produced by many French artists, such as Serge Gainsbourg,
Franoise Hardy, Jacques Brel, and Jacques Dutronc to
accompany their songs. The uses of the visual Jukebox spread
to other countries and similar inventions such as the Cinebox
were made.
Bands and artists were releasing promotional videos and films constantly
around this time; it was very common for artists of all sorts to some out
with a new and innovative video. In 1964, the Beatles starred in their first
feature film A Hard Day's Night, directed by Richard Lester. Shot in blackand-white and presented as a mock documentary. In 1965, the Beatles
began making promotional clips (then known as "filmed inserts") for
distribution and broadcast in other countries, so they could promote their
record releases without having to make in-person appearances. Concert

films were being released in the mid-1960s, at least as early as 1964, with
the T.A.M.I. Show. The monochrome 1966 clip for Bob Dylan's
"Subterranean Homesick Blues" filmed by D. A. Pennebaker was featured
in Pennebaker's Dylan film documentary Dont Look Back. During late
197273 David Bowie featured in a series of promotional films directed by
pop photographer Mick Rock.

19741980 Beginnings of Music

Television:
The Australian TV shows
that premiered in 1974,
Countdown and Sounds,
were significant in developing and popularising the music
video genre in Australia and other countries, as well as
establishing the importance they had in terms of promotional methods.
The hit British TV show Top of the Pops began playing music videos in the
late 1970s, however, the BBC enforced strict limits on the number of
'outsourced' videos the show could use. Therefore, a good video would
increase a song's sales as viewers hoped to see it again the following
week.

19811991: Music Videos Go Mainstream:

The US Video channel MTV aired Video Killed the Radio Star
in 1981 thus beginning an era of 24-hour-a-day music on
television. With this new outlet for material, by the mid
1980s, the music video would grow to play a central role in
popular music marketing. As music videos were being
increasingly popular, two key innovations
in the development of the modern music
video were the development of relatively inexpensive
and easy-to-use video recording and editing
equipment, and the development of visual effects
created with techniques such as image compositing.
In 1983, the most successful, influential and iconic
music video of all time was released: the lengthy 14
minutes long video, which set new standards for
production, having cost $800,000 to film, was for Michael Jackson's song
Thriller, directed by John Landis.

19922004: Rise of the Directors:

In November 1992, MTV began listing directors with the artist and song
credits, reflecting the fact that music videos had increasingly become an
auteur's medium. Music videos were not so important that costs of u to $7
million was being spent on one video (Scream Michael and Janet
Jackson). In the mid to late 1990s, MTV launched channels around the

world to show music videos produced in each local

market.

2005Present: The Internet Becomes VideoFriendly:

The launch of, one of todays most popular websites,
YouTube happening in 2005, which made
the viewing of online video much faster and easier.
Such websites had an outstanding effect on the
viewing of music videos; some artists began to see
success as a result of videos seen mostly or entirely
online.
The 2008 video for Weezer's Pork and Beans
also captured this trend, by including at least
20 YouTube celebrities. In 2009, Thirty
Seconds to Mars' music video Kings and
Queens was uploaded to popular videosharing website YouTube on the same day of
its release, where it has garnered over one
hundred million views. It also received over
forty million plays on MySpace. Kings and Queens was featured as iTunes
Store video of the week and was one of the most downloaded videos ever
to be featured.
The Internet has become the primary growth income market for record
company-produced music videos. At its launch, Apple's iTunes Store
provided a section of free music videos in high quality compression to be
watched via the iTunes application. More recently the iTunes Store has
begun selling music videos as well. The Internet has completely altered
the way in which music videos and made and watched in todays society.