The History of Music Videos

This is a typical advert for a music video in the photo scene era.

The Music Videos

Music videos started from musicals originally using the live performance and the theatrical side as an artistic expression along with the artists music.

In the early 1900's when video began it was mainly black and white and consisted of nothing but lip syncing and synchronizing with the music. This was known as the 'phonoscene era'.



In 1926 the arrival of short films entered with the introduction of 'Talkies'. This consisted with more of a art deco theme with the artist singing along side it. It mainly had a cinematic feel and made the viewers feel like the music was presented to the public as more than just music.

Musical theater influence was strong in these times as they introduced sing along to get the audience engaged. this technique is still used today with younger audience, for example Disney Original films. The first musical films often included the popular music of the time such as jazz and blues, this inspiration later music videos to take a concept form these films or to emulate them.

For example, Micheal Jackson created his groundbreaking music video to 'Thriller' by making a short horror film intertwined with the song. He also used the musical fight structure in this video as well as his later video 'Bad'.










Musical films of the current era also was a major backbone for music videos, with many music video directors taking inspiration from the films themselves. Madonna herself used musicals such as 'Diamonds are a girls best friend' to make the video material girl.

Visual innovation was introduced in the 1960s, it often referred to as a visual jukebox used to accompany their music. The movement was originated from France when a number of french arts decided to add this their music videos such as Surg Gainsbourg. Similar machines such as the Cine box and Color Sonic were made in the USA later on.
In 1961, Canadian artist Manny Pittison began prerecording the music and fining different locations to film the music videos, lip syncing along. He later edited them all together as one piece, introducing the need for different locations to be used during a music video to add variety.
An example of this would be Jan&Dean's 'Surf City', shot on location to catch the party vibe of the beach.






In 1964, mock documentaries were introduced to be used as music video inspiration by The Beatles.
they decided to use this for their video 'A Hard Day's Night'.
They later decided by the label to make small trailer like clips for the music videos around the globe like 'Help', 'Ticket to ride' and 'I feel fine'. These were even showcased on Top of the Pops.
By this time, other bands such as the bryds had decided to use this type of promotion strategy.

The time of the 80s, saw The birth of music video shows and later channels. Australian TV started airing programmes such as Countdown and sounds, showcasing music to a wide spread public in 1974.

In Britain, Top of the Pops was introduced in the 1970s but didn't showcase music videos commonly from artists or from music videos across the globe until the mid 80s.

New Zealand had created a music programme called Radio with picture on TV 2 in 1976.
but in 1981, the USA launched it's first music channel, MTV.
MTV

This was the cover of the first song played on \MTV. It was called
video killed the radio star by the buggles. This was later seen as ironic
as visuals were about to completely over shadow radio to a niche.

It was the door for artist all over America and the globe to become international star because of it's wide spread viewing. Artists such as Duran Duran and Madonna benefited greatly as their popularity grew as well as their exposure to the world.
In 1983, the most successful and influential music video was released, Micheal Jackson's 'Thriller'. The video was nearly 14 minutes long and was presented as a mini movie. This set the standard for video production such as the dancers, narrative and cost ( the music video cost half a million US$). Along with this song and his earlier hits such as 'Billie Jean' and 'Don't stop till you get enough' he made way for African Americans who wanted their music to be played on the same channels as the white. In 1984, MTV launched the MTV Video Music Awards;later known as VMA's.
In 1988, MTV decided to bring Hip Hop to mass audience using the TV show Yo! MTV Raps.

In the early 1990's, directors of videos, along with the songwriter and artists received credit at the beginning and the end of the video. this made directors to gain their name through public image and iconic symbols. Directors such as Hype Williams, Michel Gondry, Mark Romanek and Spike Jonze.

Romanek shot two of the most expensive music videos of all time; Madonna's bedtime story which cost $5million and the most expensive video of all time Michael and Janet Jackson's Scream which cost $7 million to produce.










The internet has now taken over, helping to produce stars through homemade videos in their own right. 2005 was the year YouTube was launched ; a video sharing website which allows the mass public to gain access to videos from both singed and unsigned artists. the band OK Go and artist such as Soulja boy and weezer.
In 2009, 30 seconds to mars published their music video to 'kings and queens' on the same day it was been released onto video sharing site, YouTube  it was viewed up to more than 100 million views. along with the 40 million views it got from my space it became one of the most watched videos on iTunes.


In 2010, lady gaga's bad romance became the most video on the internet, gaining 130 million views on YouTube alone and later on in the year the video had 430 million views all together. this video was later beaten by Justin Bieber's baby which got 660 million views on YouTube.







Sometimes the content of an artists can be seen as offensives and content would be blocked through censorship  what can be considered offensive can often differ to different countries depending on its culture and customs, common religion and ethics. Sometimes the label will provide an edited version or a censored version, however it is known that there are examples of video which were banned it its entirety for it content.
The first video to be banned by MTV was Queen's Body Language for homoerotic undertones and suggestive mature. However some were angered as Olivia newton-john's hit physical was given the all clear.

The birth of video sharing sites such as YouTube and Vimeo allowed users to asses videos on the go and nearly everywhere. it also allowed users themselves to create videos such as sing-a-long, lyric and fan made official videos  Vimeo will be the site that I would host my video on when it is completed.

The video sharing sites had now led to sites which allowed users to download
straight from the internet what tracks they wanted without hassle. However, this
led to sites such as lime-wire seen to allow users to download illegally without
paying for music. This led to copyright rules becoming stricter and wide spread.

Jessica then created this Prezi

History of Music Videos