the history of music

1. The History of Music Videos

2. What is a music video?
A music video is a short video or film that compliments a piece of
music, usually a song with imagery.
What are they used for?
Older music videos were used simply to entertain but are now used as
a marketing strategy to promote a song or album.
When did music videos originate?
They originated in the early 1920’s with short videos which were usually
called ‘illustrated songs’.

3. The First Music Video
The ‘first’ music video was filmed at Thomas Edison’s studio in 1895 on a
device that was developed in his lab, the Kinetophone. The device was
invented by William Dickson and showed moving pictures which was fitted
with a phonograph. In the film, Dickson plays music on a violin from a
popular operetta with two men dancing beside him. The soundtrack for the
video was recorded separately on a wax cylinder which went missing for
several decades until it turned up at the Edison National Historical Site in
the early 1960’s. The video was then completed with music in 1998,
however it was never released due to the Kinetophone never catching on
with consumers.
The Kinetophone in action.
Thomas Edison
William
Dickson

4. Early Music Video
Bessie Smith was a blues singer who featured
in a two-reel short film called ‘Saint Louis
Blues’ that was shown in theatres from 1929 to
1932.

5. The Beatles in the 1960’s
Short music-films had been produced prior to the music video for ‘A
hard days night’ by the Beatles in 1964 but its been claimed that this
was the beginning of the music videos we know today. The following
year they made another video in an attempt to promote their songs
instead of having to cram in lots of public appearances on TV shows
around the world into their busy schedules.

6. Then and Now
The way we see music videos now has changed a lot since the 1920’s. Now we
can simply click a button and watch music videos online but it wasn’t so
easy back then.
1920’s – 1950s: to see a music video you would have to go to a ‘soundie’ -
musical film
1960’s – 1990’s: you were able to see music videos on your TV at this point,
usually on shows such as Top of the Pops and from 1981, MTV
2000’s + : you can now simply go onto any music website or app such as
YouTube and type in any music video to watch whenever you want

7. MTV
• Launched in the USA in 1981
• Began as a TV show that showed music videos for 24 hours a day
• The first music video to be shown was Buggles – ‘Video Killed The
Radio Star’
• Many videos shown were from the UK such as ‘Duran Duran’ which
gained them popularity and support in the USA
• Other videos that were shown at the start of MTV:
The Who – ‘You better you bet’
Rod Stewart – ‘Sailing’

8. THRILLER
In 1983 Michael Jackson's ‘Thriller’ was the most successful
video released at that time. It was directed by John Landis
and was named the ‘watershed moment for the music
industry’. This video set high standards as the setting and
format of the video were so much better then any music
videos released before it.

9. Modern Videos
The advanced progress in technology has meant that music videos now include
better effects and editing whereas back when the first video was made, they
didn’t have nothing but a recording device. This is a huge advantage
because it is more appealing to an audience and is more enjoyable to
watch. Music videos today are a huge helping hand to promote a certain
artist or song, it seems the more outrageous and odd, the better. Examples
of modern artists who use this method to promote are Lady Gaga and Miley
Cyrus.