Music Video Timeline

History of music videos 

A music video is a short clip or film which is generally accompanied by music or a song. The aim of a music video is to promote the artist and the song to their target audience. As this usually helps to increase the record sales, that is why they are also called promotion videos or simple music promotion.

In 1894 Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern, hired George Thomas, an electrician, and performer to promote their song "The little lost child". Thomas projected a series of still images using a magic lantern which were then shown on a screen concurrently. This form of entertainment which was quite common in those days was the first step towards what is now known as a music video.

Between 1902 and 1917 the phonoscene was introduced by Gaumont in France which consisted of a chronophone sound recording with chronograph film shots of actors lip-syncing which was synchronized to the sound/music played.

The last phonoscene was obtainable in 1917.

In 1926 when the "talkies" were introduced (sound images which incorporated dialogue) they helped with the influx of many short musical films.

When the vita-phone was launched by Warner Brothers in 1926 and many sound films were shown by using this system. It consisted of a soundtrack which was printed on a separate vinyl record instead of being incorporated onto the film. This was then played on a turntable which was connected on a projector while the film was being shown.

In 1929 Bettie Smith, a blues singer, performed her hit song "St. Louis Blue's" in a short film. In this period many other musicians appeared in short musical films which then persuaded musician Louis Jordan in the mid 1940 to feature in short films for his songs, of which some were joined together into a feature film, the "Lookout Sister", of which is referred to as the "ancestors" of music videos.

In the 1940's another form of music videos, the "soundies", were introduced and were only played on the Panoram visual Jukebox. These were about three minutes long musical films which were created in Chicago, New York city and Hollywood, most commonly made by torch singers, jazz musicians, dancers and comedians. The soundies were shown in night clubs, restaurant, bars, amusement centres and factory lounges, but slowly faded during the course of World War II.

Between the 1930s and 1950s, musical films were revealed to be an important stage in the evolution of music videos as they aided the inspiration we know as the music videos. For instance Marilyn Monroe's “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend”, from the film "Gentlemen prefers blondes" enthused Madonna's Material Girls video in 1985.

Tony Bennett is known for making the first music video as he was filmed in 1956 whilst walking in Hyde Park in London along the Serpentine as he was recording "Strangers in Paradise". This video was shown on television stations in the UK as well as the US.

In 1959 the disk-joy singer J.P Richardson was the first to start the term music video.

In 1960 the French invented the Scopitone which was a visual jukebox which helped many French artists such as Jacques Dutronc and others to export their songs. This method slowly started to be used by the Italians who invented the Cinebox and the US who instead had the Color-Sonic.

In 1961 the music video for "Travelin man" by Ricky Nelson was directed and edited by his father Ozzie Nelson, which included images of the world as mentioned in the lyrics.

In the summer of 1963 Jan & Dean's "Surf city" was one of the first music video to reach the top 40’s hit list, having been filmed on the Pacific Coast highway in Malibu, captured the Southern California beach atmosphere of the early 60s.

The 1964 Animals hit "House of the rising sun" was a performance clip which was recorded in a set up studio with main singer Eric Burdon lip-syncing in front of the camera which showed a high-quality clip in colour, whilst his band members were playing instruments in the background.

In 1966 Bob Dylan completed a single for his album "Subterranean Homesick Blues" which shows him shuffling sue cards directly into the camera whilst positioned in an alleyway. Filmed by D.A. Pennerbaker, the video was shown in his feature film "Don't Look back". Many other music videos inspired movies and another example is that of “the Kinks” who in the same year released their first clip for their song "Dead end Street" which stimulated the production for a comic film.





In August 1967 the Rolling Stones’ single "We love you" was firstly aired. The video consisted, of close ups, of Brian Jones looking extremely high, whilst the band were recording in the studio. The trail scenes are clearly related to the drug prosecution of which Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were involved.
In the late 1960's early 70's instead of independent music videos, bands such as the Rolling Stones with "Gimme Shelter" and the Beatles with "Let it be", preferred performing in TV shows, which then became more popular.
John David Wilson during the early 1970's started producing animated videos for artists such as Bob Dylan, Jim Croce and Juni Mitchell, which became trendy with television programmes like The Don Kirshner's Rock concert which consisted of a mixture of concert footage and camera tricks as well as special effects.

 

Top of the Pops, which is a long-running British television show, went on air in the late 70's, and showed many kinds of music videos, so for this reason that the BBC gave them a restricted number of outsourced videos they were able to broadcast.

In 1975 Queen with the help of Bruce Gowers produced a video for their new released single "Bohemian Rhapsody" which was then aired on Top of the Pops this video was known for its good special effects and good editing.

In 1980, thanks to his director David Mallet along with singer David Bowie achieved a UK number one, with the single "Ashes to Ashes" for its eye catching video, having used micro-comedic shots during the airing on Top of the Pops.

In the US in 1981, the first music channel “MTV” was aired, introducing music on television 24/7. Artists such as; Madonna, and Duran-Duran, gained most of their success by their dexterous music videos, which then became a major part of song marking in the mid 80's.

In this interlude artists and their directors, started focusing on giving music videos storylines rather than being all about the representation of the artist. More skilful music videos were made as they utilised more refined effects; some examples are the Queen's "Under Pressure" and Duran Duran "The Chauffeur" music videos.

In 1983 the music video for Michael Jackson’s hit "Thriller" was released, which was extremely influential and iconic in music video history, for its 14 minute length, amazing special effects and extraordinary storyline; which cost around $500.00 to produce. Also because of its great success, this was one of the first songs to be shown on MTV from an African-American singer.

In 1986 special effects and animation were both brought into music videos; Peter Gabriel was first to combine the two, in the video for his song "Sledgehammer" for which he was awarded nine MTV music awards.

In 1995 director Mark Romanek produced two of the most expensive music videos of all time; Michael and Janet Jackson's "Scream" costing a whopping $7 million, whilst Madonna's "Bedtime story" $5 million.

In 2005 YouTube was launched, helping many artists to succeed due to the deep impact music videos has on the industry.

Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" video became one of the most viewed on YouTube with over 430 million viewers, but was them beaten by Justin Bieber's "Baby" in 2011 with over a staggering 660 million views.

Music videos have now become an important source of income for record labels through the Internet, with sites such as VEVO, unleashed in December 2009.

(Source from wikipedia.org)