Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" in 1975 is considered the first music video, which was popular despite its poor quality and helped popularize the format. In 1981, MTV launched with "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles, establishing music videos as a way to promote artists on television. Britney Spears' 1998 video for "...Baby One More Time" was a marketing success that helped launch her career and showed how videos targeted younger audiences. Modern videos like Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" in 2012 have much higher production quality and make more use of narrative and editing techniques. Overall, the purpose and style of music videos has evolved from early promotional clips to become

1. HISTORY OF THE MUSIC VIDEO Noun: A video or short film that accompanies
a song commonly used As a marketing device to
boost sales.

2. ARGUABLY THE FIRST….
QUEENS BOHEMIAN
RHAPSODY – 31ST
OCTOBER 1975
Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody is considered the first
music video. Queen could not attend Top of the pops
due to their successful tour, as a result they sent in a
video. The 9 minute song wasn’t predicted to be
successful or radio friendly due to its length.
However the music video was very popular amongst
the contemporary audience, which revolutionised the
consumption of music for audiences. With poor
lighting, limited shot types, lack of narrative and
character with an overall poor quality it is easy to see
how much music video has advanced during the last
40 years.

3. MUSIC TELEVISION’S FIRST….
BUGGLES VIDEO KILLED
THE RADIO STAR – 1ST
AUGUST 1981
Buggles video killed the radio star was the first music
video to be aired on MTV it gained relative success.
Music videos were introduced by video jockey’s and
aired in order to publicise emerging artists.
Compared to today’s music videos it seems very
performance focused however it has a slight more
narrative in balance, With a budget of $50,000 it
wowed its audience and went up in the charts due to
the popularity of the music video. For the first time
expensive props and settings were used for effect.
The channel now allowed people to not exclusively
consume music through the means of audio such as
radio etc but now gave viewers a chance to enjoy a
visual element to accompany the music.

4. …BABY ONE MORE TIME
Quite interestingly the music video was made to be
identifiable to a younger audience, hence the school
uniform, the costume for the video cost only $17.
This one of the first time a music video has been
seen as a marketing tool. It was received with
controversy due to the on show mid-riff of Britney.
Despite this she received many awards including
MTV best female video and is widely considered as
one of the best all time videos. Despite it being very
performance focused due to the nature of pop music
and Britneys image being part of the whole product.
The era saw the rise of narrative within its music
video’s.
BRITNEY SPEARS …
BABY ONE MORE TIME –
30TH SEPTEMBER1998

5. …CALL ME MAYBE
Due to the technological advance made in the 21st
century there is a hugely noticeable difference in
the capability and quality of the video. With
several different shot types in and edits allowed a
seeming less continuity edit in a pop-up book
style with several different costumes etc. It is also
the first music video to be featured in 4K
resolution which shows since previous music
videos are advancing as quickly as other forms of
media. The video is high on performance whilst
containing a narrative.
TAYLOR SWIFT WE ARE
NEVER EVER GETTING
BACK TOGETHER –
AUGUST 13 2012

6. EVOLUTION….
Since 1975 when Queen made there video to be played in there absence music video
has changed in its purpose and performance narrative balance. These were seen to
be the most inspirational videos in the way they captured the attention of there
audiences and added the needed extension of lyrics necessary. As time has
progressed its noticeable that music videos have become more of a short film which is
extremely cinematic. Generally music video has become more performance focused
with more of a clever balance.

7. EVOLUTION….
Since 1975 when Queen made there video to be played in there absence music video
has changed in its purpose and performance narrative balance. These were seen to
be the most inspirational videos in the way they captured the attention of there
audiences and added the needed extension of lyrics necessary. As time has
progressed its noticeable that music videos have become more of a short film which is
extremely cinematic. Generally music video has become more performance focused
with more of a clever balance.