History Of Music Videos

A music video is a short film, often with a story, which works in combination with a piece of music or song. The idea of a music video is to promote the sale and the artist by showing off not just their music, but also their image.

Music video began around 1926, when sound films and talkies came about. Short films then began to be produced. The earliest ones were known as shorts, and these could often be up to about 6 minutes long. They were considered the earliest form of music videos.

The early 1930’s brought about the introduction to a series of sing-along cartoons by an animation artist known as Max Fleischer. He also brought about the idea of ‘following the bouncing ball’. Many 1930’s cartoons consisted of musicians performing their songs on camera during the cartoons.

Many of the early Walt Disney films also consisted of music. Some of the Warner Brothers cartoons were based around specific songs from other Warner Brothers musical films. Many other musical shorts were beginning to be shown in theatres.

In the mid-1940’s, a particular musician named Louis Jordan created some short films for his songs, some of which were then put together into a feature film called ‘Lookout Sister’. These are considered the ‘ancestors of music videos’.

The 1940’s also brought about the one-song films called ‘promotional clips’ which were for the Panoram visual Jukebox. These were short films with different musical selections, known as ‘Soundies’. Thousands were made and consisted mostly of musicians, but also comedians and dancers. The Soundie had virtually all of the named jazz performers in them. The Panoram Jukebox had eight three-minute Soundies and became popular in night spots, but faded out during WW2.

Many current music videos have imitated styles used in classic Hollywood musicals which were around in the 1930-1950’s. One example of this is the Michael Jackson video ‘Bad’ where we can see that the dance sequences were clearly influenced by the classic film version of ‘West Side Story.

The Internet Accuracy Project stated that Jiles Perry Richardson, who was also known as ‘The Big Bopper’ was the first to use the phrase ‘music video’ in 1959. It is also clear that the development of music videos was tied with the development of television. This was because it gave new stars the opportunity to be exposed and become known, which attracted an audience to the box office.

One of the earliest performance clips was the film made by The Animals for their hit ‘House of the rising sun’ in 1964. This clip was high quality and filmed in a studio with a specially built set, with the group doing a lip-synched performance of the song and also certain aspects of choreography were involved.

Probably the biggest influence for music videos would be the release of The Beatles film ‘A hard day’s night’ which was released in 1964 and directed by Richard Lester. The film was a black and white mock documentary which consisted of comedy and dialogue sequences combined with exciting musical sequences. These musical sequences gave the basic model for future music videos and promo clips and has even to this day had a huge impact on the style of the genre.

The Beatles then went on to release their second feature ‘Help!’ in 1965. This was a contrast from the first one. This was filmed in colour on international locations. This particular video consisted of many new features such as cross-cutting, contrasting long shots and close-ups, and unusual shots and camera angles. The colour clips for "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane", made in 1967 and directed by Peter Goldman took the film format to a new level. They borrowed techniques including reversed film and slow motion, dramatic lighting, unusual camera angles and color filtering added in post-production. These films were impossible for the group to perform live, but they illustrated the songs in an artful manner rather than trying to just create an ideal performance or a story.

In the UK the Kinks made a video for their single ‘Dead End Street’ in 1966. This became the first real ‘plot’ for a song. They made a miniature comic movie, where there were photo stills from the Great Depression and an uprising dead man. There was no lip sync involved in the clip, but it was edited to suit each phase of the song. The BBC refused to air the video because it was considered to be in ‘poor taste’.

In the late 1970’s, the TV show Top of the Pops began playing music videos, even though the BBC put strict limits as to how many the could actually show on the program. There was then the idea that a good video would increase the sales because the audience would want to see it the following week.

In 1980, David Bowie achieved his first number one in nearly a decade with thanks to the directing of David Mallet and his eye catching promo for ‘Ashes to Ashes’. In 1975, the band Queen told Bruce Gowers to make a video for the single ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ to be aired on Top of the Pops. This video is also noted for being completely shot and edited on videotape.

In 1981, the US video channel MTV was launched. The first video which was ever aired on the channel was ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ by The Buggles, which began the idea of music on television 24 hours a day. By the mid 80’s, music videos proved to be the strongest form of music marketing. Many artists owed a great deal of their success to the construction and appeal of their music videos, in particular artists such as Madonna.

Music videos then began to progress. Artists and their directors then began to explore new styles for their videos, such as using more interesting effects and adding story lines and plots to them. In some cases the artist was not shown in the video and was instead represented, which often linked to the plot or story.

In 1983, the biggest and most successful music video of all time was released. The 14 minute long video for Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’. The video cost $500,000 to produce and set new standards for music videos in general, the video was aired on MTV but was rare because the channel initially considered itself to be a rock music orientated channel. In 1985, MTV launched VH1 which was to feature softer music.

The launch of ‘The Chart Show’ on channel 4 was also considered significant. This program consisted only of music videos, which became where most of them were aired. The show moved to ITV in 1989.

In 1986, Peter Gabriel's song "Sledgehammer" used special effects and colourful techniques. The video went on to be a huge success and win nine MTV Video Music Awards. In 1988, the MTV show 'Yo! MTV Raps' was aired, the show helped to bring hip hop music to a larger audience for the first time.

In 1992 we saw the rise of the directors as credits were starting to become involved with the music videos. It became almost like a competition in terms of who could create and produce the best music video. Michael and Janet Jackson’s video for ‘Scream’ remains the most expensive music video ever produced and cost a massive $7 million.

By the mid-2000s, MTV and many other channels had abandoned showing music videos and began screening reality TV shows more often, which were more popular with its audiences.

2005 was the year when the website YouTube was released, which made the viewing of online video faster and easier. MySpace's video functions, which use similar technology, launched in 2007. Websites like this had a big effect on the viewing of music videos and some artists began to see success as a result of videos which were seen mostly online.