HISTORY OF MUSIC VIDEOSBy Bethany Gilbert

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.

1920-40sBlues 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 accompanied

by famous pieces of classical music, this was called ‘Fantasia’.

1940&50sThe 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.

The oldest example of a promotional music video with

similarities to more abstract, modern videos seems to be "Dáme si do bytu" created in 1958 and

directed by Ladislav Rychman.

1960sIn 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.

1970&80sThe 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 helped to bring hip hop music to a mass audience for the first time.

1990sIn 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 show more alternative and older music videos, debuted in 1996.

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.

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.