History of Music Videos

A music video is a short film that interlinks music and imagery, made for either artistic or promotional purposes - with modern music videos mainly being made as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Prior to the 1980s, these works were described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip", "promotional video", "song video", "song clip" or "film clip". However, music videos came into prominence in the 1980s when MTV based their format and content around this type of media.
Music videos allow the audience to engage more with the artist.

The first example of an "illustrated song" was "The Little Lost Child" by  Edward B. Marks and Joseph W. Stern. The song showed the first hint of video synchronized with the song, with the idea being to combine a series of images (using a stereopticon) to show a narrative while it was being sung. 1902, saw the synchronized recording of music and film, with music accompanying a moving image (silent films) arriving in 1920. 1926 saw the arrival of "talkies", films with spoken dialogue, with "screen songs" (extract of the film with the song featured playing over it) being introduced in 1930. A famous example of a screen song would be Footloose (1983).

1956 saw the rise of television, with many promotional films for songs being shown on that form of media. A band that used this to advantage were The Beatles, who released several promotional films to television networks in 1965 - such as "Help!".

The first properly acknowledged music video was for "Video Killed The Radio Star" by The Buggles, in 1979. The video was produced on a budget of $50,000.

MTV was launched on 1st August, 1981 to showcase several different music videos and promote the artists involved. The first video ever played on the channel was for "Video Killed The Radio Star".
MTV's coverage also helped increase the popularity of Michael Jackson, who has been described as "transforming the music video into an art form and a promotional tool through complex story lines, dance routines, special effects and famous cameo appearances; simultaneously breaking down racial barriers." Music videos of his that have been described as influential include "Thriller" (1983), a 14-minute horror musical directed by John Landis and including a monologue by horror icon Vincent Price, and "Bad" (1987), a music video inspired by the musical film "West Side Story" and directed by directing icon Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver/Goodfellas/The Departed/Shutter Island/The Wolf of Wall Street), who inspired more well-known film directors to direct music videos - such as Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind/The Green Hornet), Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich/Adaptation/Her), David Fincher (Fight Club/Se7en/Zodiac/The Social Network), and Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo/Never Let Me Go) who directed the music video for "Scream" by Michael and Janet Jackson, which is the most expensive music video ever made at a budget of $7 million.

2001 saw the release of iTunes, a  media player, media library, and mobile device management application developed by Apple Inc. It allowed customers to purchase both music and music videos to watch on any Apple devices that they own. This was followed by the release of YouTube in 2005, a video-sharing website that allows users to upload, view, and share videos.

Influential music videos include "Take On Me" by A-ha in 1985, with the video using
a pencil-sketch animation/live-action combination called rotoscoping in which the live-action footage is traced-over frame by frame to give the characters realistic movements, and "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel in 1986, providing Claymation, pixilation, and stop motion animation that gave life to images in the song - and won 9 VMA's.

Some music videos have garnered over 1 billion views on line such as "Gangnam Style" by Psy (2012) and "Baby" by Justin Bieber ft. Ludacris (2010).

There have been several music videos to cause controversy. Notable examples include "Rock DJ" by Robbie Williams (2000) which features Williams stripping his clothes off before graphically ripping his own flesh off, "S&M" by Rihanna (2010), which features Rihanna in many sexually suggestive scenes, and "Telephone" by Lady Gaga ft. Beyoncé (2009), which features both artists poisoning an entire diner.

A new trend alongside music videos are lyric videos, which show the lyrics on the screen accompanying the music. Artists who have used this include Katy Perry and Taylor Swift.