Research: History of music videos

Music videos have changed immensely over the years and become more diverse, recognizable and enhanced. The videos have improved digitally, visually, and concept wise. Music videos today portray different themes and ideologies than they used to. In today's society creating something controversial or something that will attract audiences is more important than the themes put across by the audience. Also the visuals don't necessarily have to match the lyrics anymore as audiences now watch videos for visual pleasure as well as for the song, as the video may be something they idolize, relate to, or want. Moreover, old music videos had simple and basic editing with star appeal as the star would appear in the video, however no narrative. However over time This changed and music videos became more and more supplemented to match audience demand and time line.

1929

• Bessie Smith appeared in a two reeled short film called 'Saint Louis Blues' in 1929
• It featured a dramatized performance of the Hit song
• Although it is far off from the music videos today, it can still be regarded as one of the first atempts of creating a music video.

1940

• Walt Disney released 'Fantasia'
• Fantasia was an animated film based around famous classical music pieces.
• The film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopard Stokowski

Between 1920-1940 many films were accompanied by moving images, especially animations, However some may say these weren't considered as music videos as it was only a series basic editing of images to films and musicals which had a massive demand at the time.

1956

• Tony Bennett- Stranger in Paradise
• Tony Bennett is filmed walking in Hyde Park London for his single 'Stranger in Paradise'
• The video was distributed on US and UK television which then made its mark as the first ever music video made.

1964

• Key moment in Music History and The Beatles carrier
• Their music video based the basic conventions and structure of today's music videos
• This influenced a vast number of musicians to similarly create moving images/videos to accompany their music 

1966-1968

• The Monkees was a boy band which was active between the 1965-1971
• They had their own TV show on NBC called 'The Monkees'
• Each episode include a short film like segment to accompany their songs.

1966

• The birth of Top Of The Pops
• Top Of The Pops is a music charts television show originally made by BBC 
• Every week new music singles would be aired live, however places on the show were limited which meant groups and artists had to compete for a place.

MODERN ERA OF MUSIC VIDEOS

1975

• Queen created a music video to replace a live performance for their hit song 'Bohimian Rhapsody'
• Queen were the first people to create a video specifically for a  song to be played on TV.
• Bohimian Rhapsody was the first official video made in the typical video format artists use today.

1970 to 1980 was the era of songs and moving images combination. The key development of modern music videos was video recording and the editing process. High quality video tape recorders and portable video cameras enabled most artists to produce promotional videos. However by the mid 80's releasing a video to accompany a new single had become popular and a standard. Artists were using high budgets to create these videos to attracts audiences, for example 'The Jackson 5'.

1981

• MTV is launched and the first video to be aired is 'Buggles- Video Killed The Radio Star'
• In the mid 80's artists started to use more sophisticated editing and effects. Also most videos had a storyline to it which made them a narrative based video.

1984

• Michael Jackson-Thriller was released
• It was in the concept of a short film, which means it had a beginning, a middle, and an end.
• Michael Jackson's thriller was one of the first of its type which is why it took the music video concept to another level and intrigued audiences.
• Top Of The Pops started to censor certain videos which meant a new alternative had to be made so an edited version was released due to demands.

1980

• By the mid 80's, music videos were a popular way of distributing and marketing the artists new single
• Huge artists today owe their success to the release of their appealing video. For instance 'Madonna' owed her enormous success to the well constructed and seductive appeal of her videos along side her singles.
• Although most people see MTV as the golden era of music videos, some may disagree as it made audiences depend on physical aspects visual pleasure to enjoy a song, rather than the sole sound of the music.