1. The History of Music Videos
Sophie Boston A2 Media Studies

2. What is a music video?
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and
imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music
videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to
promote the sale of music recordings.
Music videos are now available on many platforms over the internet,
the most popular sites being YouTube, Vevo and Vimeo.

3. A brief history
Although the origins of music videos date back much
further, they came into prominence in the 1980s, when
MTV based their format around the medium.
In 1894, sheet
music publishers
Edward B. Marks
and Joe Stern
hired electrician
George Thomas
and various
performers to
promote sales of
their song "The
Little Lost Child".
In 1926, with the arrival of
"talkies" many musical short
films were produced.
Soundies, produced and
released from 1940-1947,
were musical films that
often included short dance
sequences, similar to later
music videos. In the mid-
1940s, musician Louis Jordan
made short films for his
songs, some of which were
spliced together into a
feature film Lookout Sister.
These films were, according
to music historian Donald
Clarke, the "ancestors" of
music video.
In 1940, Disney released
animated film,
Fantasia. It received
mixed critical reaction
and was unable to make
a profit due to World
War II cutting off the
profitable European
market, the film's high
production costs, and
the expense of leasing
theatres and installing
the Fantasound
equipment for the
roadshow
presentations.
The long-running British
TV show Top of the Pops
began playing music
videos in the late 1970s,
although the BBC placed
strict limits on the
number of 'outsourced'
videos TOTP could use.
Therefore a good video
would increase a song's
sales as viewers hoped
to see it again the
following week.
In 1981, the music channel
MTV was launched in the
US. The first music video
shown on MTV was The
Buggles' "Video Killed the
Radio Star", this was
followed by the video for
Pat Benatar's "You Better
Run". In the early 80’s also,
artists were now starting to
add stories/narratives
behind their music videos.
E.g. Michael Jackson’s Billie
Jean. As well as this, some
music videos were being
sold as video tapes and on
DVD. This was also the start
of the ‘sexualising women
to promote the music’
phase.
A big turning point in music
video history was in 1992,
when MTV began to credit
music video directors. Since
1894, music videos have
increased in technology and
creativity – we now have
special effects, prosthetic
makeup etc, and with many
video encapsulating the idea
of telling a story behind their
video. Music videos, since the
early 2000’s are now available
to view via the internet, e.g.
YouTube and have remained
to be a beacon of interest
and entertainment for
audiences and will continue
to be for some time.