History of music videosThivyan Kowridas

What is a music video

• A music video is a essentially a film orientated around a piece of music, these videos usually consist of performances and visual imagery

interpreting the lyrics to a song. Music videos date back to the early 1950’s, but went

mainstream in the 1970’s due to the beginning of music television. There are many reasons for why music videos are made but the main reason behind them is for promoting, music videos act

as a way to promote the artist and that particular song therefore helping music sales of

that artist.

1926–1959

Talkies were musical short films, they were a live performance overlapped with music, soundies where animations showing lyrics

which also included a short dance sequence. Musical films were also a very important

ancestor to music videos and several well-known music videos have imitated the style of classic Hollywood musicals from the 1930s to

the 1950s.

1960 - 1973

visual jukebox's were invented in the late 1950’s in France and short films were produced by many French artists. The jukeboxes spread

to other countries and similar machines such as the Cinebox in Italy and Color-Sonic in the USA were made. In 1965, the Beatles began making promotional clips for distribution and broadcast in other countries which meant they were able to promote their music video with out having to physically go to the country and do a concert in

order to promote their records.

1974 - 1980

• 1974 to 1980 were the years when music videos were first staring to make an

appearance on broadcasting channels, the success of these music video segments

throughout the day on channels lead to, Video Concert Hall, created by Jerry Crowe and

Charles Henderson, launched on November 1, 1979, was the first nationwide music video program on American television, predating

MTV by almost three years.

1981–1991• In 1981, the U.S. video channel MTV launched this

was the beginning of an era of 24 hours a day music streaming channels. Along with MTV inexpensive and easy to use camera equipment and development of visual effects meant that more acts were able to produce promotional videos quickly and cheaply. During the 1980s, music videos had become fashion statement for most recording artists. In this period, directors and the acts started expanding on their videos making the both more complex and sophisticated. In 1983, what thought as the most successful, influential and iconic music video of all time was released Michael Jackson's “Thriller”.

1992-2004

• In 1992 MTV began listing director names with the artist and song credits, this lead to music videos increasingly becoming a artistic medium. 1992 was also the year Mark Romanek directed Michael and Janet Jackson’s “Scream”, which cost 7 millions dollars to produce making it the the most expensive music video produced. Moreover this was also the year MTV launched more music channels for different ethnicity’s.

2005 – present

• Due to the internet becoming mainstream people where able to access file sharing websites where music would be published to listen to and download. As the launch of YouTube and iTunes, music videos were becoming increasingly faster and easier to access, artists were now also able to make money of their music videos independently by obtaining views on YouTube and by selling their music videos on iTunes.