The History of the Music Video

1895

The gramophone was invented by Edison, this meant that music can be recorded in the form of a vinyl record. Before this, music was just a solely visual experience where someone would have to go to a concert venue and physically be there to listen to the music.

1920's

Fischinger experimented with sound and visual synchronization in the form of a film.

1923

 In April 1923, New York City’s Rivoli Theater presented the first motion pictures with sound-on-film, a system that synchronized movies and their soundtracks. (“The Jazz Singer,” the first full-length talkie in cinema history, would premiere in 1927 and use the same technology.) Many early sound-on-film productions featured vaudeville stars, opera singers, bands and other popular musicians; known as musical shorts, these clips were played before feature films well into the 1940s. Later, during the 1950s, musical shorts made a comeback as filler footage between television movies, which were not yet edited to fit into time slots.

1930

Creation of the first "soundies". These were three or four minute musical films which were played on Panoram's in nightclubs, restaurants, bars and amusements. They're still of use in the modern day music industry to preserve performances of African-American artists who otherwise, couldn't get the oppourtunity to be in a film to advertise their music. Panoram's were visual jukeboxes, with someone selecting the song they wanted, the machine had a screen on the top so they could also watch music videos.

1940's

Musical films continued to be produced, with the artists still appearing in Hollywood films to promote their music. This style was later imitated by artists such as Madonna with her Vogue video. Madonna recycling the 40's Hollywood, black and white style filming reinforces Michael Shore's (1984) theory that music videos are just recycled styles of previous texts. This was also the peak period of MGM Hollywood Musicals.

Walt Disney's Fantasia was released, with the intention of combining animation with classical music.

1950's

The 1950s was the birth of the Rock 'n' Roll era, this was introduced by Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly. The first ever scoptione was also made in France and artists such as Serge Gainsbourg used the scopitone. It was a type of jukebox- it had a small screen on it playing live or animated videos that were synced to the music playing. 

1960's

UK's first music television show introduced by ITV, called Ready, Steady, Go! The artists performed on here, and then the performances were recorded to use as a music video. This wasn't as successful as hoped and stopped filming in 1969.

The Beatles released their feature film, A Hard Day's Night, where they played themselves in a fictional storyline, pausing the narrative to sing their songs and present other elements of performance. The Beatles released TV promos for Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever. The first music videos, which were not featured in films, were produced. Arguably, Bob Dylan's Subteranian Homesick Blues is the first music video.



1970's

During the 70's the mainstream genre's were Pop, Disco, Rock, Punk and R&B. Even though they had the technology, artists were not filmed for promotional purposes. Artists performed live on television show such as Top Of The Pops and Countdown. In 1975, the band Queen ordered Bruce Gowers to make a promo video for their new single Bohemian Rhapsody to show it in Top of the Pops; this is also notable for being entirely shot and edited on videotape.

The Old Grey Whistle Test airs for the first time on BBC2 and showed non chart music with a similar set up to TOTP but with a different ideology behind it, intending only to show serious rock music. Rare performances from early careers of Lynard Skynard, Bob Marley and Billy Joel were filmed on here.

1980's

MTV launched in USA with the purpose of playing music videos 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The first video which was played was The Buggles, Video Killed The Radio Star. Cheap and easy access recording equiptment was developed, meaning lesser known artists could record videos alongside their music. Directors explored with the structure of a music video, adding in storylines and plots as well as abstract and animations alongside the soundtrack. 1988 saw MTV launch Yo! MTV Raps, this introduced hip-hop to an international audience for the first time.

Dire Straits produced the first animated music video for their single Money For Nothing. And the most famous example of narrative within a music video is the 14 minute length video for Michael Jackson's Thriller.

1990's

The two most expensive music videos of the era were Michael and Janet Jackson's Scream and Madonna's Bedtime Story. MTV began launching international channels in languages other than English; with the launch of MTV India and MTV Mandarain. Continuation of teen-pop and dance-pop seen rising in the late 70's and early 80's. Launch of MTV Unplugged, where artists played their own songs before an audience, with Nirvana's performance being the most famous set filmed there.

Genre's become more specific and Britpop and Grunge emerge. Lyric videos become popularly used after George Michael refused to make a video for his song "Praying for Time" and his label released a lyric video in the place of it.

2000's

 MTV abandoned showing music videos during the early 2000's when it launched reality TV show "The Real World" which drew in consistently large audiences, considerably more than those watching when music videos were aired. Artists became more experimental with their videos, adding their individual twists on them, combining narrative with performance, performance with conceptual and abstract and subverting audiences expectations of music videos and narrative plots.

The internet became music video friendly, with the launch of YouTube (2003) and Google Video (2005) being the biggest internet music video hosts. This meant artists would not only be recognised for their music, but also for their videos. OK GO became one of the most famous bands in term of their creativity, recognised for their one shot, creative music videos to go along with their alternative rock singles. Examples of this include their one shot music video for This Too Shall Pass.

The development of Web 2.0 meant unsigned artists could shoot low budget, home made music videos and add their self-produced music over the top as a soundtrack.

YouTube is bought by Google in 2006, eliminating competition between the two conglomerates and allowing YouTube's videos to be found on Google Video. As technology advances, music videos became being made into short films, taking inspiration from Thriller by Michael Jackson. An example of this is Asking Alexandria - Through Sin and Self-Destruction which features three singles from the bands second album, Reckless and Relentless.