Research: History Of Music Videos

Ways we consume music videos:

                          YouTube

Sound Cloud
Music Channels
ITunes
Electronic Devices (Ps3, Xbox, IPods etc.)
Phones
Social Media (Instagram, Facebook etc.)
World Star
Daily Motion
Artist Channels

A music video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Without no doubt the demand of music videos have increased in modern day music videos, in relation to traditional music videos. Music videos are essential because it has a big influence on the success of the music and also the artist. Moreover Music videos are primarily used as a marketing device to promote the sales of the music produced. It also builds a larger fan base for the artist /band which benefits them from various aspects.

1929: 'Saint Louis Blues' For the first time in the 1920's Bessie smith appeared in two- reel short film featuring a dramatized performance of the hit song. This wasn’t regarded as a music video as it was more related to a musical.

1940: ‘Fantasia!’ Walt Disney released fantasia, an animated film based around famous pieces of classical music    

1956: Tony Bennett - Stranger In Paradise 

Tony Bennett is filmed walking in Hyde Park for his song "Stranger In Paradise". The single/hit was distributed on US and UK television, leading Bennett to claim he made the first music video.

1950-1960: Songs & Moving Images -
Key moment, 1964. This video arguably set out the basic visual vocabulary of today’s music videos, influencing a vast number of contemporary musicians at the time to create similar moving images to accompany their music.

1966 - 1968: ''The Monkees'' was a TV show. Each episode included a specifically made film segment that was created to accompany their songs.

•  The birth of ''Top of the Pops'' used to promote singles so artists had to create competitive videos to compete for airtime.

Videos used techniques borrowed from film ideas. The start of The Beatles - ''Penny Lane''.

1975: Queen - ''Bohemian Rhapsody''
Music video created to replace a live TV performance.

1970 - 1980: The key development of the modern music video was video recording with editing processes. High quality via tape recorders and portable cameras enabled pop artists such as ''The Jacksons'' due to them having a high budget to make their best music videos possible and is worth watching.

1981: MTV is launched. First music video aired was Buggles - ''Video killed the Radio Star''.

1984: Michael Jackson - ''Thriller''  took music videos format to another level.

1980's: MTV and musical success... 

•  Music video would, by the mid 1980's, grow to play a central role in popular music marketing.

•  Madonna owed a great deal of her success to the skillful construction and seductive appeal of her videos.

•  Although many see MTV as the start of a ''golden era'' of music videos and the unparalleled success of a new art form in popular culture. Others see it as hastening the death of the true musical artist because physical appeal is now critical to popularity to an unprecedented degree.

 How has music videos changed over time?

Music videos changed dramatically as history of music videos had commenced. Music videos have developed to becoming essential in the success of the artist/band. Music videos differ depending on the genre. For example music videos from the genre rock enabled the lyrics of the music to have a relation with the visuals in the music video, Therefore enhanced the popularity and fan base of the Rock genre. The developments in technology made music videos more attractive to watch and enhanced the quality of the visuals, which then creates a higher satisfaction for the audience. In addition this also develops a demand for music videos as it then becomes an ‘expectation’ which the fans cannot wait to see.

Furthermore, in comparison to the earlier years music videos can now be consumed through a variety sources such as iTunes, whereas in the early 90’s videos were seen in Films.