History of

Music Videos

Naomi Boland

What is a music videos?What is the purpose of a

music video?

Narrative Performance

A music video is a short film that accompanies a song. There are three main forms, narrative, concept and performance however forms can be joined together. For example a performance-narrative music video. Theses are generally more popular as audiences view them as more interesting. A Good example of a performance narrative music video is Lady Gaga’s Telephone. The purpose of the music video is to promote the artist and song and therefore increase sales.,

The Beatles In 1964 The Beatles produced a feature film A Hard Days Night. Which featured footage of them playing some of their songs. Some say that this is the start of the music videos. The next year they made various short films of them playing a song in order to promote there albums which kicks off more artists to promote there music in tis form.

1980’s • In 1981 MTV was launched as one of the

first 24-hours a day music channel. The first music video to be played was “Video Killed the Radio Star.” This channel started the surge of music videos and it became normal for a song to be accompanied with a music video as part of the promotion for the artist. It was also in this time period that directors explored the music video adding story lines and effects. The most influential music video of the decade was released, Michael Jackson's Thriller, costing $500 000 to film and was nearly 14 minutes in length. It is said that Michael Jacksons music videos was “instrumental in getting music videos by African American artists played on MTV.”

1990’sThe 1990’s was the rise of directors. MTV started showing the names of the person who directed the music video shown along with the artist name. This allowed directors such as Mark Romanek and Michael Gondry to start their careers. Mark Romanek directed the most expensive music video of all time Michael and Janet Jackson’s Scream which cost $7 million to produce.

2000’s – The Internet

2001- Yahoo! Music begins as “LAUNCH” and offers users to watch music videos. 2005- Youtube is launched and iTunes store opens. With the new way to view music videos, the internet, this meant shows like Top of the pops where eventually cancelled because it is quicker and easier to watch a music video online then wait a week for it to be shown on TV. It also meant that artists such as Ok Go and Soulja Boy gained more success because of viewings on YouTube. After 20 days after music videos where available on the iTunes storye 1 million were downloaded.