history of music videos

1. The History of Music Videos

2. What is a music video?
• A music video is a short film that accompanies a song,
usually produced for either promotional or artistic
purposes. The majority of modern day music videos have
been produced to boost sales of the song. By the 1980s it
became a regular thing for a song to have a music video.
These days most music videos focus on different things,
some have a short narrative that relates to the lyrics, it
can just be random with little relevance to the song or it
can also be a live performance of the song.

3. How it started
Muic videos developed from “talkies” which
started in 1926. In the early 1930’s this
developed into cartoons which were
accompanied by music, which segments of the
video showing the artist performing the song. As
they became more popular they challenged small
time film makers by giving them the opportunity
to develop new ideas and create something
original.

4. Modern Day Music Videos
• These days the most important part of music
videos is the editing and recording. As
technology has rapidly progressed, producers
have to ability to use more effects, transitions
and better quality equipment, therefore they can
produce higher quality videos.

5. Music Videos and Television
• As music videos greatly developed, so has
television to create channels such as MTV which
were dedicated to the broadcasting of music
videos, boosting the publicity and fame of stars
like Madonna and Duran Duran. MTV has
contributed greatly to the success of music
videos, for example Michael Jackson’s “Scream”
music video got a record of $7 million.

6. Budgeting
• As music videos were becoming more extravagant, obviously
they were also becoming more expensive. Film directors
started becoming involved with the production of music
videos, for example George Michael and Madonna had videos
created by the director of Fight Club and Se7en, David
Fincher.
• After the development of MTV, several internet sites came
around for the promotion of music, such as Youtube, iTunes
and Facebook. Artists such as Justin Bieber and Lily Allen
achieved fame through publicising their music on the internet,
Bieber on Youtube and Lily Allen on MySpace. This is a
common way for aspiring artists to promote themselves as
due to the recent advances in technology it has enabled people
to create music videos with minimal cost and effort.

7. The present day
• When looking back at the first music videos, its not hard to see how
they’ve developed. Artists such as Kanye West and Lady Gaga have
turned the concept of a music video from a visual accompaniment to
music to a short film, for example Lady Gaga’s music video
“Telephone” has a duration of 7 and a half minutes, and Kanye West
directed a short film “Runaway” which last 35 minutes.
• Due to the amount of television channels now showing music
videos, it is not unusual to see extravagant, spectacular videos with
high budgets and a lot of effort put in. With songs sung by female
artists, the majority of them are dressed provocatively and objectify
themselves to make it more enjoyable for the viewer, as the video
has become equally important as the song itself.