G324 - Music Video History

A music video is a short film, video or series of images that accompanies a piece of music, most commonly a song. They tend to last the duration of the piece of music but can be longer and they need to be visually memorable. This is especially important in modern times as music videos are mainly used to help market new singles and albums to promote sales, however this was not always the case.

In 1929, Blues singer Bessie Smith appeared in a short film called "Saint Louis Blues" in which she performed a dramatical rendition of her song of the same name. This was shown in theatres until 1932 and was the first film to do so.



In the 1930's, a man named Len Lye started to experiment with putting videoed experiments to pieces of music. The experiments were created using light-boxes and kaleidoscopes.



Following this, in the 1940's Walt Disney created Fantasia - an animated film based around various pieces of classical music. This was a massive leap in the history of music videos, however was still not classified as a music video in itself.



In addition, Walt Disney used an animated series of children's television shows called "Silly Symphonies" which were built around music. This method was quickly adopted by Warner Brothers who created both "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies" which were based around music from upcoming Warner Brothers musical films.






In addition, the Panoram jukeboxes were released, with eight different 3-minute long "Soundies". These were popular in taverns and nightspots until the fad began to fade out during World War 2.




Up until this point, musical scores which were accompanied by visuals were simply dubbed "visual music". However, in the 1950's, music videos as we know them today began to develop. In 1956, Tony Bennett was filmed in Hyde Park, London walking along The Serpentine whilst a recording of his song "Stranger in Paradise" was played. The film was distributed across UK and US television shows which lead Bennett to claim that he created the first music video.

The Scopitone jukebox came out around 1960 which was a revelation due to the visuals that accompanied the music being films which had been specifically created for each track.

In 1964, The Beatles released their first major motion picture entitled "A Hard Day's Night" which was directed by Richard Lester. It is arguable that the musical segments in the film set out the basic visual vocabulary we use today and has influenced many contemporary music videos.



Despite being clearly based on "A Hard Day's Night", the American TV series The Monkees was also a huge influence on the development of music videos. Each episode included a number of specially made film segments to accompany the songs used throughout the show which ran from 1966 till 1968.



In early 1967, The Beatles again drastically influenced the growth of the music video with their films for "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane". These films were the first music videos to employ techniques such as dramatic lighting, rhythmic editing and unusual camera angles. They are among the first purpose-made concept videos that attempt to illustrate the song in an artful.



The most important innovation in regards to the development of the modern music video was video recording and editing processes. The creation of high-quality colour videotape recorders and portable video cameras allowed for pop acts to produce promotional videos quickly and cheaply in comparison to the cost of using film. However, as the genre developed, music video directors preferred to use 35mm film.

Queen's video for "Bohemian Rhapsody" (1975) was deemed as 'ground-breaking' and started a whole new era for using music videos as promotional tools. The entirety of the piece was shot and edited on videotape.



By the mid-1980's it became standard for new singles to be accompanied by music videos and many acts, like The Jackson's, sught to gain a commercial edge through creating more enticing videos with million dollar budgets. This is most notable in their video for "Can You Feel It".



In the UK, TV show Top of the Pops (TOTP) was extremely important in terms of promoting singles. It created an environment of competition amongst both artists and record labels as the show placed strict limits on how many outsourced videos they would show. A good music video meant higher sales as viewers hoped to see the video again the week after. This happened to David Bowie's first number one in 1980 thanks to the promo for "Ashes to Ashes". If an act was unable to appear on TOTP in person, the show would use their on site dance troops to perform to the song, such as Pans People.



In 1981, MTV was first launched and was the first 24 hour music video station. The first video aired was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles.



From the start of 1980, artists began using much more eccentric and sophisticated effects in their music videos and added a storyline/ plot to accompany the music. Michael Jackson was the first artist to create the concept of the short film. A short film is a music video which has a beginning, middle and end. He did this both in "Billie Jean" and "Beat It" but it wasn't until the release of "Thriller" in 1983 that he truly took the music video format to a whole new level. The "Thriller" video was directed by John Landis and cost Jackson $500,000.



Occasionally, videos were made in a non-representational format in which the artist was not shown. This was done by Queen and David Bowie in their "Under Pressure" video.



In 1985, VH1 was released. This was another music focused television program however it played softer music and was meant for an older demographic. A year later, in 1986, Channel 4 begun The Chart Show which played solely music videos in reverse order of popularity. Various different chart shows like this are still around today.



In 1985, Dire Straits song "Money for Nothing" was written as a wry comment on the music-video phenomenon, however its pioneering use of computer animation for it's own video made the song an international hit.



Peter Gabriel's song "Sledgehammer", released in 1986, used special effects and animation techniques developed by Aardman animation and went on to win 9 MTV Video Music Awards.



Due to being played before the watershed, TOTP had to be quite censorous with the videos that it showed. Another approach that acts took was to create promotional videos which would be banned or edited. This would result in controversy and more publicity, helping the singles to sell. An early example of this is Duran Duran's "Girls on Film".



Starting in November 1992, MTV began to list the directors of the music videos with the artist and song credits. This was a clear reflection of the way in which music videos had become more of the director's medium than the artist's. Many music video directors, such as Gondry and Jonze, went on to direct feature films.

Two music videos directed by Romanek in 1995 are noted to be two out of the four most expensive music videos of all time, including Michael Jackson's "Scream" which cost $7 million to produce and was the most expensive music video of all time up until the release of Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" video in 2015.

Between 1994 and 2000, MTV launched more channels around the world to show music videos from their own local markets, such as MTV2 and MTV India, however by the mid-2000s MTV had almost completely stopped showing music videos and instead played reality TV shows as these had become more popular amongst viewers. Between 1999 and 2001, a peer-to-peer file sharing platform called Napster was released. This enabled users to share files including music videos.




In 2005, a big change came to the way that people viewed music videos through the launch of YouTube. This made viewing music videos faster, easier and more accessible. Music videos started to become more about gaining views than making money and artists found it easier to share videos than ever before. This made it easy for new artists and bands to be discovered, such as OK Go who achieved fame through releasing "A Million Ways" and "Here It Goes Again" in 2005 and 2006 respectively on YouTube.



In 2007, the RIAA issued cease-and-desist letters to YouTube users to prevent them from sharing videos which were property of music labels, to help prevent copyright. YouTube agreed to pay music labels in bulk amounts for allowing music videos to be uploaded which caused some issues due to some record labels not agreeing with the sharing of videos in this format. However, now the internet is the primary growth income market for record company-produced music videos.

In 2009, VEVO - a music website - was launched and became syndicated with YouTube and Google. In 2010, MTV dropped the tagline "Music Television" due to their increased commitments to reality TV. Since this, YouTube has become the biggest distributor of music videos due to ease of access across the globe.

In recent years, musicians have become even more dedicated to creating videos which reflect their music. From boy-band sensation One Direction to Hip Hop star Nicki Minaj, money is being thrown at making new videos to wow audiences and entice fans.

This information will help me when it comes to producing my own music video as it allows me to identify the ways in which music videos have evolved over the years and has helped me to understand that the only way they can continue to evolve is if more creators start pushing boundaries. A single well regarded idea can set off an entire evolutionary change in the industry which is what I should be aiming for when creating my music video; something innovative and creative.