The History Of
Music Videos
By Daisy Ibbitson

What is a music video?
A music video also video clip / promo, is a short film is meant to present a
visual representation of a popular music song.
Modern day music videos are said to be made for marketing purposes only,
they're to advertise and promote the singer, and the musical content.
MUSIC VIDEO HISTORY
With the arrival of the show ‘Talkies’ in 1926 many musical short films were
produced from this time.Vitaphone produced by the Warner Bro’s introduced
many bands, vocalists and dancers into these short films. As years went by Walt
Disney started to produce films based around music. For example Fantasia. This
short film was based around a Classical piece of music.
This here is a snapshot of Bessie Smiths-St
Louis Blues (1929) original footage on
YouTube. Bessie Smith a Blues singer
appears here in a two reel short film. This
was shown in theatres up until 1932.
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpVCqXRlXx4

Music Video History
From this moment onwards music videos have been progressing and growing into what
they are today. In the 1940’s musician Louis Jordan started to make short films for his
songs for entertainment purpose. These short films have been branded the ‘ancestors’ of
the music video. Musical films were also very important in the growth of music videos,
even well known music videos today such as songs by Madonna and Michael Jackson
all imitate things from those musical films back in the 1940’s.
1950’s
In the 1950’s we saw the rise of early music clips. Tony Bennett claimed to
have made the first music video when he was filmed walking down Hype Park.
The film ended up being set to his recording of the song, the clip was
furthermore sent to the UK and US to be aired on shows.
In 1957 Elvis Presley starred in the second msuic video of Jail House Rock.
Moving further on, in 1958 the oldest promotional music clip was created by
Diame si do bytu and was said to be very abstract to previous clips made.

Music Video History
1960’s
In the 1960’s Promotional clips and videos were being
created a lot more frequently. The Beatles starred in their
first feature film called A Hard Days Night. At the time it
was shot in black and white and presented as a mock
documentary. This was said at the time to be the model for
all upcoming music videos. The Beatles then went on to
release Help! Which was shot in colour in London and
international locations, and featured shot sequences and
camera angles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWP6Qki8mWc
In 1667 the colour promotional clips for ‘Strawberry fields forever’ & ‘Penny Lane’
was said to take the promotional film format to a whole new level. They used new
techniques such as slow motion, dramatic lighting, unusual camera lighting and
colour filters which had never been seen or used before. From this point on music
videos began getting better and better, with new ideas being used and new techniques
people had never before thought of.

Music Video History
Around this time also concert films were beginning to be released. As time kept
progressing so did the artists and their content. In 1968 Elvis Preseley, recorded music
videos, in recording studios. He did this in order to promote their new albums that
were going to be released.
Between 1974-1980 it was aid to be the real beginning of music televeison.Tv shows
in Australia such as Countdown were crucially significant in developing and
popularizing the music videos genre in Australia and other countries around the
world./around this time a television show called Sounds was featuring, it needed
constant new music material which wasn’t as easy to find back then. Because of this
the owner asked people if they wanted to shoot footage of popular songs to featured.
With this strategy they managed to gather 25 clips for their show, which was pretty
impressive for this time.

Music Video History
Top of the POPs
One of the most world known music channels Top Of The Pops began playing music
videos as early as the late 1970’s.This was the first directly popular music channel that
played new music videos weekly on the basis of gaining popularity initially then
leading to more sales of the song. It became incredibly popular and was a huge hit
with the public. They would feature new artists and material weekly, and was one of
the biggest opportunities artists had at that time in order to put themselves out their
and gain fans. Before Top of the Pops it was difficult to do this, this TV show allowed
them to gain views and appearance they may never of been able to have before. It also
didn’t discriminate on genre at this time too, they played anything and everything
which proved such a ssucsess.Leading the show to only just come to a close a couple
of years ago.
As the 2000’s came top of the pops was being watched everywhere, and audience of
thousands would tune in every week to listen to the new songs.t went down a storm
with the audience, and was excellent viewing entertainment regardless. When the
show ended, many said it was an end of an era. But most importantly, it played a
massive part in the music video history.

Music Video History
MTV
In 1981 a US music television show called MTV marked the beginning of an era for
music video history. An era so big, as of yet nothing will beta it.When the music
video based television show aired in the US for the first time is began immediately
popular. For the first time ever a 24 hour a day music video programme was
available to watch on the TV. With this new music video outlet it opened a door wide
open for a huge growth in the music video industry. This television programme ment
like Top Of The Pops, they would play music videos frequently of budding
artists.However,the only different with MTV is that this television show lasted 24
hours a day, and was a sole channel just for the purpose of displaying vidoes.Rather
than it just having 1 slot in a channel such at ITV or the BBC.It was incredibly
innovating for its time period, and only led to success for everyone. MTV is still
running today and has never been so popular.
Many people who was successful in this time and possibly because of this TV show
were:Madonna;Duran Duran and Adam and the Ants. They earned a great deal of
success and their music videos where displayed for all to see.

Music Video History
In 1983 an extremely successful and still highly spoke about music video Thriller by
Michael Jackson was released. The video was 14 minute long and set extremely high
new standards for all other music videos to come. They spent nearly 800,000 US
dollars on getting the videos right and set out with the aim to get it played in the new
MTV music channel. This was said by many to be the best music video of all time up
until then.
In 1992-2004 it was called the ‘rise of the directors’ in the music video industry. At
this time directors started becoming increasingly better and more creative with their
videos adding elements others wasn't to gain popularity. Around this time 1 director
called Romanek was known for his £7 million dollar music video. That featured
Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson ‘Scream’ this to date is stills aid to be the most
expensive music video of all time. During this period MTV launched music channels
all around the world to attract all different countries.

Music Video History
2005-present
• In the 2000’s technology was progressing tremendously which meant so was the music
industry and its acsessibility.Heres a list of platforms that launched which enabled
music video growth:
• I film
• Napster
• YouTube
• Myspace
• Facebook
• Google videos
• Yahoo! Video
• ITunes
• Vevo
These platforms were all essential in helping the music video industry grow, they all
allowed music videos to be published world wide and be seen and viewed by anyone who
wanted them. It enabled advertising and even earned the people and the artists a lot of
money themselves.

Conclusion
In conclusion music videos from the very beginning, when they were first found
have been progressing and only getting better ever since. They started out as
simple short films and ended up being extremely complex full of special effects
and extra add ons to create a really spectacular music video. Its evident that the
music video industry is a very large market, and every music video created is
unique in its own way yet I feel still falls into on of Kate Domailes categories.
In 2014,music videos have never been so important. Directors and artists and
still competing to out do each other with their music videos. A lot of the music
videos out today are complex, but still have tradition values. Looking back on
the history of music videos has been really interesting, and has enabled me to
see the growth of them from when they very first came about.