The document provides a history of music videos from the 1950s to 2010s by summarizing key details about seminal music videos from each decade. It traces the evolution of the format from early live performances to narrative storytelling videos. Highlights include Louis Armstrong's 1959 video being one of the first, the Beatles' 1963 video for "Twist and Shout" being one of their early live performances, and Kanye West's 2007 video for "Flashing Lights" being directed by Spike Jonze and filmed entirely in slow motion. By the 2010s, the summary shows music videos had become more accessible to independent artists like Ramriddlz's 2015 DIY video for "Sweeterman".

1. The History of Music Video
By Sharik Raja

2. My Song – Louis Armstrong – La Vie en Rose
• The music video was a live performance in Belgium released in 1959
while the actual song was released in 1950.
• It was a Jazz song.
• The song's title can be translated as "Life in Rosy Hues" or "Life
Through Rose-Tinted Glasses"; its literal meaning is "Life in Pink".
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfNWAboguJQ
• The original song was written by Edith Piaf and has been covered by
various artists and used in various films due to it’s popularity and the
beautiful melodies are a welcome treat in anything they appear in.

4. 1920s - Al Jolson – Blue Skies (1927)
• Al Jolson was notorious for being a blackface actor
• The performance of the song is taken from the film “The Jazz Singer”
which is famous for being the first “talkie” and that means that it was
the first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue
sequences.
• Blue Skies is a popular song that was written by Irving Berlin in 1926
and it has been covered by numerous artists.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djd1XfwDAQs

6. 1930s – Judy Garland – Somewhere Over The
Rainbow (1939)
• This song written for the film, The Wizard of Oz and was sung by
actress Judy Garland, in her starring role as Dorothy Gale.
• The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and became
Garland's signature song.
• The iconic nature of the song is such that the song is number one on
the "Songs of the Century" list compiled by the Recording Industry
Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. The
American Film Institute also ranked "Over the Rainbow" the greatest
movie song of all time on the list of "AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs".
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSZxmZmBfnU

8. 1940s – Louis Jordan – Caldonia (1946)
• By 1945, he had four number-one hits, and eventually that made
Jordan by far the most successful R&B chart act of the 1940s.
"Caldonia" became his fifth number one.
• Jordan filmed a "soundie" of the song, shown in movie theatres at the
time called Swing Parade of 1946.
• The writing of the song is credited to Jordan's wife of the time, Fleecie
Moore. However, in all probability it was actually written by Jordan,
who used his wife's name to enable him to work with an additional
music publisher.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCH_n9CTTbA

10. 1950s – Marilyn Monroe – Diamonds are a
Girl’s Best Friend (1953)
• "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" is a jazz song introduced by Carol
Channing in the original Broadway production of Gentlemen Prefer
Blondes (1949) but it’s most famous for being performed by Marilyn
Monroe in the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
• The scene in which Marilyn Monroe sings the song is emulated in
Madonna's song "Material Girl".
• Most of the song in the film is Monroe's own voice but she needed help
in two phrases – "These rocks don't lose their shape, diamonds are a girl's
best friend", and at the beginning with a series of high-pitched "no's", all
of which were dubbed in by the soprano Marni Nixon.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUGfC7GYi18

12. 1960s – The Beatles – Twist & Shout (1963)
• It was released in March 22, 1963.
• It was on the Beatles' first album, “Please Please Me”, the complete
recording of which on February 11, 1963, was their first album session and
is notable for 10 songs recorded in a mere 13 hours. "Twist and Shout",
with John Lennon on lead vocals, was the last song recorded; producer
George Martin knew Lennon's voice would suffer from the performance, so
he left it until last, with only 15 minutes of scheduled recording time
remaining.
• The video is a live performance and features some engagement with the
audience.
• The song enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in 1986 after Matthew
Broderick lip-synced to the Beatles' version of it in the film Ferris Bueller's
Day Off.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgVWot_xrxE

14. 1960s – Stevie Wonder – My Cherie Amour
(1969)
• The song was originally written about Wonder's girlfriend while he
was at the Michigan School for the Blind in Lansing, Michigan, and
had the title "Oh My Marsha". After they broke up, the lyrics and title
were altered to the more general "My Cherie Amour“
• The video features a live performance but it also contains previously
filmed of women of various ethnicities dancing elegantly behind
Stevie.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofw_oFbWRlE

16. 1970s – David Bowie – Moonage Daydream
(1972)
• The song tells of an alien messiah and hints at his destiny to save the
world from the impending disaster described in Bowie's "Five Years",
as well as his fate as the quintessential "soul lover". In terms of the
story arc of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from
Mars, this is one of the most important songs as it describes the
creation of Ziggy from a combination of religion, romance, sexual
freedom, rebellion, and passion; he metamorphoses into the
archetypal rock star.
• The video comes from a conceptual album and portrays the artist
playing a character and he continues playing this character in the
video.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaqMwE5NKaM

18. 1970s – ABBA – Dancing Queen (1973)
• "Dancing Queen" was released as a single in Sweden on 15 August
1976, followed by a UK release and the rest of Europe a few days
later. It was a worldwide hit. It became ABBA's only number one hit in
the United States, and topped the charts in Australia, Belgium, Brazil,
Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden,
the United Kingdom, West Germany and Zimbabwe. "Dancing Queen"
reached the Top 5 in many other countries. It’s one of the biggest and
most recognisable songs of all time
• The video gives off a very fun vibe from the group and portrays them
dancing at a disco.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFrGuyw1V8s

20. 1980s- Prince – Purple Rain (1984)
• Prince once explained the meaning of "Purple Rain" is as follows:
"When there's blood in the sky – red and blue = purple... purple rain
pertains to the end of the world and being with the one you love and
letting your faith/god guide you through the purple rain.".
• . It is the title track from the 1984 album of the same name, which in
turn is the soundtrack album for the 1984 film of the same name and
that makes the video very unique because it’s not a music video in
the traditional sense and is instead a harkening back to the old style
of music video
• http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4691zp

22. 1980s – The Beastie Boys – Shake Your Rump
(1989)
• Derided as one-hit wonders and estranged from their original
producer, Rick Rubin, and record label, Def Jam, the Beastie Boys
were in self-imposed exile in Los Angeles during early 1988 and were
written off by most music critics before even beginning to record their
second studio album, Paul's Boutique. Following the commercial
success of Licensed to Ill, the Beastie Boys were focusing on making
an album with more creative depth and less commercial material.
• The video is has quite a basic homemade vibe about it as it features
the boys rapping into a fish lens camera but then they put their own
creative finesse on the whole thing and it’s just very fun
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BptQHAW2T5M

24. 1990s- A Tribe Called Quest – Bonita
Applebum (1990)
• This song is often regarded as one of the greatest love songs in not just hip
hop but music in general.
• The video directed by Charles Stone III opens with Q-Tip doing the intro by
asking Bonita questions, followed by little stick figure cartoon characters
who see Bonita and chase after her. The group is seen walking and dancing.
Q-Tip starts the first verse at a party. Then the group stops because a kid is
seen catching a baseball and they were going to be hit. They stop again
because they see a man playing a piano. Soon the kid who was playing
baseball is seen dancing, and Q-tip is behind a violet curtain trying to
impress Bonita. The group is wearing helmets while cassette tapes are
dropped on them, and the video ends with the group at the party with
other people dancing.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6oO-1iWc1c

26. 1990s- Jay-Z – Big Pimpin (1999)
• The music video was shot in Trinidad during its Carnival and features
Jay-Z and UGK on a music truck dispensing money into the crowd and
partying on a lavish yacht. It features hip hop model Melyssa Ford. It
was directed by Hype Williams.
• "Big Pimpin'" was the most commercially successful single from Jay-
Z's fourth album, as it reached #18 on The Billboard Hot 100 and #1
on the Rhythmic Top 40 chart. In Rolling Stone's updated 2010 list of
"The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", the song ranked at #467
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgoqrgc_0cM

28. 2000s – D’Angelo – Untitled (How Does It
Feel?) (2000)
• The video features a chiseled and muscular D'Angelo, wearing a small
gold-chained crucifix necklace, lip-synching while filmed on a platform
from the waist-up and appearing nude. Consisting of entirely one
shot,[28] the music video begins with the camera opening on the
back of D'Angelo's head before rotating to the front and drawing back
to a larger view of his upper torso, as he begins to lip-synch to the
track, set to an all-black background. It continues with camera close-
ups of sweat trickling from his tattooed arms, chiseled chest and
abdominal muscles, while also flirting with a peak of his shadowed,
muscular hip. The video leads to D'Angelo making emotional gestures
as he lip-synchs to the choral climax and the end of the song
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE3_6CUMpYY

30. 2000s – Kanye West – Flashing Lights (2007)
• In total, three separate videos were made for "Flashing Lights" with the one aired on television
being the third and final version. The third music video was first unveiled before an audience of
two hundred guests at the Entertainment Weekly Grammy Award after-party on February 10,
2008. It was intended to premiere on BET on February 13, 2008, but was subsequently pulled
from schedule. West decided to premiere the video on his official blog that same day. The video
for was co-directed by Spike Jonze along with West himself and produced by Jonathan Becker and
Joshua Greenberg of Bucks Boys Productions. Filmed entirely in slow-motion, the video begins
with a Ford Mustang Bullit rolling onto the screen and stopping at dusk in the desert outside Las
Vegas, Nevada. As the bright, red taillights turn off, the song breaks into its titular refrain and
Houston-based Playboy model Rita G. exits the vehicle dressed in a wig, fur coat and large black
sunglasses. Walking a distance away from the car, she strips down to her lingerie and lights her
clothes on fire. As she walks back towards the car with flames at her back, West's vocals begin.
Kanye himself finally makes his appearance when the woman opens the trunk to reveal him lying
in it tied up and gagged. She gently strokes his helpless, terrified face and gives him a light kiss,
before retrieving a nearby shovel. As the camera dollies out, the woman raises the shovel over
her head and repeatedly stabs it into the trunk. The video then abruptly cuts to the words
"Flashing Lights" written red letters against a black screen before concluding over a minute earlier
than the album version of the song.[
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ila-hAUXR5U

32. 2010s – Childish Gambino – Sweatpants
(2014)
• The music video for "Sweatpants" was released on April 14, 2014,
which concludes with a dream sequence for "Urn.“
• This video is unique because there is a cohesive story going on
between all the videos going on with this project. However it really
challenges you to find the link and it opens itself up to many different
theories about what’s going on.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExVtrghW5Y4

34. 2010s- Ramriddlz – Sweeterman (2015)
• This video is very much a DIY sort of project and this is a
direct reflection of the way the music game has changed and
the accessibility people have now.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrakVtJe974
• It’s very raw but it’s also very fun and unique and you’d be
hard-pressed to find anything else like it on the market today
– especially with how everything seems to be the same these
days.