This document provides a history of music videos from their origins in animated shorts that featured songs in the 1920s-1950s to their rise in promotion for pop music in the 1960s driven by bands like The Beatles. It describes how MTV launched in 1981 and ushered in an era where music videos played a central role in music marketing. Today, music videos are as important as the songs themselves, with hundreds of thousands of dollars regularly spent on productions and music available universally via streaming apps and the internet.

1. HISTORY
OF MUSIC
VIDEO

2. DEFINITION: WHAT IS A MUSIC VIDEO?
A short film/video that accompanies a full piece of music, usually a song.
In the modern day, music videos promote the actual music in order to
sell more copies.

3. 1926–1959: TALKIES AND SHORTS
Animation artist Max Fleischer introduced a series of sing-along cartoons called Screen Songs,
which encouraged audiences to sing along to popular songs. Early 1930s cartoons featured
popular musicians performing their hit songs on-camera in live-action parts during
the cartoons. The early animated films by Walt Disney, such as the Silly
Symphonies e.g.: Fantasia, which featured several interpretations of classical pieces, were built
around music. The Warner Bros cartoons, such as Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, were
initially designed for specific songs from the Warner Bros musical films. Live action musical
shorts, featuring such popular performers as Cab Calloway, were also distributed to theaters.

4. 1960-1973: THE RISE OF PROMOTIONAL CLIPS
In 1965, the Beatles began making promotional
clips so they could promote their records
without having to make live appearances. Their
first group of promotional videos recorded in
late 1965 meant to blend in fairly easily with TV
shows like Top of the. By the time The Beatles
stopped touring, their promo films had become
highly cultured. In 1966, they filmed two sets of
colourful promo videos for their current single
"Rain". At the end of 1967 the group released
their third film, the one hour, TV project Magical
Mystery Tour.

5. 1981–1991: MUSIC VIDEOS GO MAINSTREAM
In 1981, MTV launched, airing "Video Killed the
Radio Star" and beginning an era of 24-hour-a-day
TV music. With this new opportunity, the music
video by the mid-1980s would grow to play a central
role in popular music marketing. Many important
acts of this period, such as Adam and the Ants,
Duran Duran and Madonna, owed a great deal of
their success to the creation of their videos.
By the mid of 1980’s, MTV would be the centre of
music marketing.

6. MUSIC VIDEOS TODAY
In the era of today, a music video is just as
important as the song itself. Hefty sums of
money ($20,000 up to $500,000) are spent
to make an aesthetic appeal to the
audience that are reaching out to the
musician/band that they enjoy.
Music video enthusiasts often get rid of
the song and the background and watch
the video without it just to look at the
visual appeal of the video without the
music video.

7. Pink Floyd meaning behind
music video/the song itself:
After being insulted by the
teacher, Pink hopes that the
children in his school begin
to stand against the
abusive teachers. The song
discusses how he had a
personal wall around him
from the rest of the world,
and the teachers were just
another brick in the wall.
Sia: New Video Honors the
Orlando Shooting Victims in a
Subtle but Beautiful Way.
Sia herself has yet to officially
comment on the underlying
message of the video, but the
imagery and the narrative
strongly imply into the
tragic mass shooting at the gay
Pulse Nightclub in Orlando in
June that left 49 dead.
MEANINGS BEHIND SOME OF THE
MUSIC VIDEOS

8. ACCESSES TO MUSIC NOWADAYS
In the world of today, everyone can access music, either audio or the
video file, whenever, and wherever they are. All they need is internet to
be able to see millions of videos at any time of day, which outdates
MTV, as apps on smartphones such as Spotify and YouTube dominate
the world of social media.
Personally, I use the two apps and more to be able to listen to music
whenever I want, which is the best thing as you can access it whenever
you need.