2. What is a music video?
A music video is a short film which incorporates a song and imagery to create a
piece for artistic or promotional purposes.
Today, their primary use is being an essential marketing device that is used to
promote the sale of a song for various music artists.
The origins of the music video dates back to early 20th century and become very
important in the 1980s, when MTV Music TV channel was launched and intended to
base their format around the medium of music videos.
Before the 1980s, music videos were described as "illustrated song", "filmed insert",
"promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip" or "film clip".
3. The success and popularity of music videos started off with the launch of MTV, 31 years ago but the
timeline of music videos goes back to the late 19th century. The first music video was filmed in
1895 at Thomas Edison’s studio. It was made for a Kinetoscope. This is where the viewer would look
into a peephole and watch a motion picture which would be accompanied with sound. The sound
and picture were made synchronous as they would be connected by a belt.
In the 1920s, a theatre in New York called the Rivoli Theatre, presented the first motion picture with
sound on film, this synchronised movies and their soundtracks. In the 1940s, jukeboxes played
“soundies”. “Soundies” were three minute films featuring music and dance performances by the
era’s greatest talents. They were played in bars, restaurants and other public places in order to
promote the song and the artist as publicly as possible. In the 1960s, The Beatles used the power of
film to promote their records. They starred in full length features such as “Help” and “A Hard Days
Night”. Rock and roll bands in the late 1960s and 70s started to follow their lead by releasing
promo films. In the 1970s, music programmes premiered in Australia. They featured music videos
and created a large following which spread to other countries. In 1978, three years before MTV, an
American program called “Video Concert Hall” showed music videos everyday.
In 1981: MTV, the first 24- hour satellite music channel, launches and it rapidly became a major hit
and cultural icon.
4. MTV – MTV first launched in 1981 and the first music video they aired was by the Buggles called “Video killed
The Radio Star” In their early days they aired basic music videos that were introduced by video jockeys. They
were provided for free by record companies and as a result, MTV was valued as a promotional tool. Directors
of music videos including Spike Jonzeand Michel Gondry worked on music videos before going into feature
films. In the 1980s MTV was a huge part of promoting careers of artists such as Madonna, Michael Jackson,
Prince and many other music legends. By the late 1980s MTV started to debut reality TV series’, documentaries,
game shows and then launched the MTV Music Video Awards followed by the MTV Movie Awards.
VH1 - In 1985 VH1 was launched. This music channel featured soft music and had a target audience of an older
demographic which widened the audience of people who enjoyed watching music videos. Their original
purpose was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos but they then also started playing reality
TV shows.
YOUTUBE - YouTube is a website that was introduced in 2005 and allows people to watch videos online. Users
can upload, share and view videos which has massively promoted them and thereford increased their
popularity. For example, Lady Gaga’s music video of “Poker Face” has 375 million views alone and her other
music videos have previously reached one billion views. Also, there are 34 billion music videos YouTube with
183 million viewers. Recently, Vevo was introduced in 2009 which also provides music videos from the “big
four” record labels.
