History of Music Videos

1. HISTORY OF MUSIC
VIDEOS
By Bethany Gilbert

2. What is a music video?
 A music video can be defined as a short film or
video that accompanies a piece of music.
 Modern music videos were mainly made and
used for marketing reasons on the intention of
selling more music and promoting the artist.

3. 1920-40s
Blues singer Bessie Smith appeared in a two-reel short
film called St. Louis Blues (1929) which featured a
dramatized performance of the hit song. Numerous
other musicians appeared in short musical subjects
during this period.
Soundies, produced and released from 1940-1947, were
musical films that often included short dance
sequences, similar to later music videos.
In the mid-1940s, musician Louis Jordan made short films
for his songs, some of which were spliced together into
a feature film Lookout Sister. These films were,
according to music historian Donald Clarke, the
"ancestors" of music video.
In 1940, Disney released a short animated film

4. 1940&50s
The Warner Brothers cartoons, even today billed as
Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, were initially
fashioned around specific songs from upcoming Warner
Brothers musical films.
Live action musical shorts, featuring such popular
performers as Cab Calloway, were also distributed to
theatres.
In 1956, Tony Bennett was filmed walking along the
Serpentine in Hyde Park, London, as his recording of
‘Stranger in Paradise’ played, this was then distributed
over the UK and the USA. Bennett then later claimed he
had made the first music video.
In 1957, Elvis Presley released Jailhouse Rock, which
features disseminated images in black although the
original was engraved colour.

5. 1960s
In 1964, the Beatles starred in their first feature film A Hard
Day's Night, directed by Richard Lester. Shot in black-and-
white and presented as a mock documentary, it interspersed
comedic and dialogue sequences with musical tones.
The Beatles' second feature Help! (1965) was filmed in
colour in London and on international locations. In 1965,
the Beatles began making promotional clips for distribution
and broadcast in other countries, so they could promote
their record releases without having to make in-person
appearances.
At the end of 1967 the group released their third film, the
one hour, made-for-television project Magical Mystery Tour;
it was written and directed by the group and first broadcast
on the BBC on Boxing Day 1967.

6. 1970&80s
The 1970's saw the music video change, it had more
emphasis on just the artist singing. This style lead to
music videos to the "Cross-Cutting" stage where the song
would portray a story that accompanied the lyrics and
"cross-cuts" to the artist singing it.
This style started a whole new era for the music video and
was the influence for "Top of the pops" which would
promote the music and then created a competition
between artists for the first time.
In 1981 it was the introduction of "MTV" and the first video
aired was "Video killed the radio star", it was a real break-
through in the evolution of music videos.
In the early to mid 1980’s artists started to use more
sophisticated effects which added to the story or plot of
their music video. Michael Jackson was the first artist to
create the concept of the short film music video, he did
this will Billie Jean, Beat it and then Thriller.
In 1988, the MTV show ’Yo! MTV Raps’ debuted; the show

7. 1990s
In 1992, MTV began listing directors with the artist
and song credits, reflecting the fact that music
videos had increasingly become an auteur's
medium.
Two of the videos directed by Romanek in 1995 are
notable for being two of the three most expensive
music videos of all time: Michael and Janet
Jackson's "Scream", which cost $7 million to
produce, and Madonna's "Bedtime Story", which
cost a reported $5 million.
During this period, MTV launched channels around
the world to show music videos produced in each
local market: MTV Latin America in 1993, MTV
India in 1996, and MTV Mandarin in 1997, among
others. MTV2, originally called "M2" and meant to

8. 2000s
Napster, a peer-to-peer file sharing service which ran between 1999
and 2001, allowed users to share video files, including those for music
videos. By the mid-2000s, MTV and many of its sister channels had
largely abandoned showing music videos in favour of reality
television shows, which were more popular with its audiences.
2005 saw the launch of the website YouTube, which made the viewing
of online video much faster and easier, the website had a profound
effect on the viewing of music videos; some artists began to see
success as a result of videos seen mostly or entirely online.
The band OK Go may exemplify this trend, having achieved fame
through the videos for two of their songs, in 2006, both of which first
became well-known online.
The 2008 video for Weezer also captured this trend, by including at
least 20 YouTube celebrities; the single became the most successful of
Weezer's career, in chart performance.
In 2007, the RIAA issued cease-and-desist letters to YouTube users to
prevent single users from sharing videos, which are the property of the
music labels.

9. 2000s continued.
To further indicate the change in
direction towards Music Video
airplay, MTV have officially
dropped the Music Television
tagline on February 8, 2010 from
their logo in response to their
increased commitment to non-
scripted reality programming and
other youth-oriented entertainment
rising in prominence on their live
broadcast.
Vevo is a music video website
launched by several major music
publishers in December 2009. The
videos on VEVO are syndicated to
YouTube, with Google and VEVO
sharing the advertising revenue.