The History of Music Videos

Meghan Moore

1894 – 19591894- Electrician George Thomas and various performers were hired to promote “The Little Lost Child” by Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern. Thomas projected still images on a screen during live performances, which would come to be known as illustrated song1926- The arrival of “talkies” (films where the actors would actually speak as opposed to silent movies) prompted the creation of musical short films and sing-along short cartoons called Screen Songs, similar to karaoke1940-1947- Soundies were produced and released which would often include short dance sequencesMid-1940s- Louis Jordan made short films for his songs, and have been called the “ancestors” of music video1930s-1950s- Music films were popular and have inspired many well-known music videos (Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend from the film Gentleman Prefer Blondes was used as inspiration for Material Girl by Madonna)1956- Tony Bennett claims to have created the first music video when he was filmed walking along the Serpentine in Hyde Park which was then set to his recording of the song Stranger in Paradise1958- Dáme si do bytu (Let’s Go To The Apartment) is seen as the oldest example of a promotional music video with similarities to the music videos of today

The similarities between Material Girl and Diamond’s Are A Girl’s Best Friend can be seen here

1960-1965Late 1950s- The Scopitone ( a visual jukebox) was invented in France, prompting French artists to make short films to accompany their songs. This in turn started the creation of many similar machines such as the Cinebox in Italy and the Color-Sonic in the USA1964- Alex Murray wanted to promote his version of Go Now. The short film clip he produced and directed to promote the single has a striking visual quality predating Bohemian Rhapsody and The Beatles promotional films for their singles Rain and Paperback Writer 1964- The Beatles starred in their first feature film A Hard Day’s Night, presented as a “mockumentary” (one of the earliest examples), interspersing the comedy with music. It became the direct model for the US TV series The Monkees.1965- Help!, The Beatles second feature was much more lavish, filmed in colour in a variety of international locations. It is arguably one of the main archetypes of the modern performance music videos with a variety of shots and camera angles being used1965- The Beatles began making promotional clips (aka filmed inserts) for distribution in other countries, such as the US, so they could promote their record releases without having to make in person appearances. These gradually became more sophisticated, with Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane taking the process to a new level with the variety of techniques used

A Scopitone The Beatles in Help!

1966-1973Mid-1960s- Concert films were being released1966- Promotional clips began to rise with a variety of bands using them such as Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd and The Rolling Stones1966- The Kinks made one of the first plot promo clips for their song Dead End Street1966- Nancy Sinatra filmed a music video for her song These Boots Are Made For Walkin’1972-1973- David Bowie made four promotional clips with pop photographer Mick Rock- John, I’m Only Dancing, The Jean Genie, the December 1972 US re-release of Space Oddity and Life on Mars? Each was made very differently. The clip for "John, I'm Only Dancing" was made with a budget of just $200 and filmed at the afternoon rehearsal for Bowie’s Rainbow Theatre concert on August 19, 1972. It shows Bowie and band miming to the record intercut with footage of Bowie's dancers (The Astronettes) dancing on stage and behind a back-lit screen. The clip was turned down by the BBC, who reportedly found the homosexual overtones of the film distasteful, although Top of the Pops replaced it with footage of bikers and a dancer, demonstrating the censorship that was already occurring at the time

David Bowie in “John, I’m Only Dancing”

1974-19801974- The creation of shows in Australia such as Countdown and Sounds were significant in developing and popularizing the music video genre in Australia and other countries as well as establishing the importance of these music videos as a means of promotion1975- Bohemian Rhapsody was created by Bruce Gowers and is credited as “the first global hit single for which an accompanying video was central to the marketing strategy”1979- Video Concert Hall was the first US nationwide video music programming and Night Flight was one of the first American programmes to showcase the videos as an artform1980- David Bowie’s Ashes to Ashes became the most expensive music video ever made, having a production cost of $1,671,487 in 2016, and was the first music video to have a production cost over $500,000 (in 1980s currency)

David Bowie in Ashes to Ashes

1981- MTV launched, airing Video Killed the Radio Star and beginning the 24-hour-a-day music on television era. By the mid-1980s, music videos would grow to play a central role in popular music marketing1982- Queen’s Body Language was the first video to be banned by MTV due to the thinly veiled homoerotic undertones plus lots of skin and sweat, deeming it unsuitable1980s- Music videos changed to be able to market the artist, and visual effects and cheaper equipment became much more available in the time. Occasionally videos were made in a non-representational form, with the artist not being shown such as in David Mallet’s video for Under Pressure, though this was rare. Music videos began to explore political and social themes such as David Bowie’s China Girl and Lets Dance both exploring race issues. In a 1983 interview, Bowie spoke about the importance of using music videos in addressing social issues, "Let's try to use the video format as a platform for some kind of social observation, and not just waste it on trotting out and trying to enhance the public image of the singer involved".1983- The most successful, influential and iconic music video of all time was released- Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Michael Jackson’s music videos including Billie Jean and Beat It were instrumental in getting music videos by African American artists played on MTV, which were rarely played previously1984- MTV launched the MTV Video Music Awards (VMA’s), rewarding The Beatles and David Bowie with the “Video Vanguard Award” for their work in pioneering the music video1985- Dire Straits’ Money For Nothing music video made pioneering use of computer animation at the time, ironically considering the song itself was a comment on the music-video phenomenon, showing a deliveryman appalled with the outlandish images and personalities that appeared on MTV

1974-1980

Michael Jackson’s Thriller

Dire Straits’ Money For Nothing

1992- MTV began listing directors with an artist and song credits, reflecting that music videos had become an auteur’s medium- Chris Cunningham, Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze, Floria Sigismondi, Stephane Sednaoui, Mark Romanek and Hype Williams all got their start around this time, with Gondry, Jonze and Sigismondi going on to direct feature films1995- Romanek directed two of the three most expensive music videos of all time to date- Michael and Janet Jackson’s Scream (the most expensive music video at $7million) and Madonna’s Bedtime Story ($5million)2005- YouTube was launched, which made the viewing of online video much faster and easier, going on to inspire Facebook, Myspace, Google Videos and Yahoo! Video. The band OK Go may be the poster for the trend that began with YouTube in regards to the effect on the viewing of music videos as the videos for their songs A Million Ways and Here It Goes Again both became well known online2009- Thirty Seconds to Mars uploaded the video to Kings and Queens on the day of it’s release, which then became featured as the iTunes Store video of the week. Kings and Queens was one of the most downloaded videos ever to be featured. The video already received four nominations at the 2010 MTV VMA’s, making the most nominated rock artist in the history of the VMAs for 1 year

1992-2004