A Brief History Of Music Videos

The earliest music videos/music promos were made in the mid 50's, however 'visual music' had already been made in the 20's by animators such as Oskar Fischinger who gave the films that label.

1950’s and 60’s developments

• In 1956 Tony Bennett was filmed walking along The Serpentine in Hyde Park, London as his recording of " Stranger in Paradise " played; this film was distributed to and played by UK and US television stations, leading Bennett to later claim he made the first music video

• Around 1960 the Scopitone , a visual jukebox, was invented in France and short films were produced by many French artists, such as Serge Gainsbourg , Françoise Hardy and Jacques Dutronc to accompany their songs. Its use spread to other countries and similar machines such as the Cine-box in Italy and Color-Sonic in the USA were patented.

• The defining work in the development of the modern music video was The Beatles ' first major motion picture, A Hard Day's Night in 1964 , directed by Richard Lester . The musical segments in this film arguably set out the basic visual vocabulary of today's music videos, influencing a vast number of contemporary musicians, and countless subsequent pop and rock group music videos.

Modern Era of Music Video 1970’s.

• In the UK the importance of Top of the Pops to promote a single created an environment of innovation and competition amongst bands and record labels as the show's producers placed strict limits on the number of videos it would use - therefore a good video would increase a song's sales as viewers hoped to see the video again the following week.

1980’s

• 1981- MTV is launched, The first video to be aired is Buggles ‘Video killed the Radio Star’

MTV

• Music video would, by the mid-1980s, grow to play a central role in popular music marketing.

Music Video today In the information technology era, music videos now approach the popularity of the songs themselves, being sold in collections on video tape and DVD.

Music video history - Timeline

• 1941: A new invention hits clubs and bars in the USA: The Panoram Soundie is a jukebox that plays short video clips along with the music.

• 1956: Hollywood discovers the genre of music-centered films. A wave of rock'n'roll films begins ( Rock Around the Clock , Don't Knock the Rock , Shake, Rattle and Rock , Rock Pretty Baby , The Girl Can't Help It , and the famous Elvis Presley movies). Some of these films integrated musical performances into a story, others were simply revues.

• 1960: In France a re-invention of the Soundie, the Scopitone , gains limited success.

• 1962: British Television invents a new form of music television. Shows like Top Of The Pops , Ready! Steady! Go! and Oh, Boy started as band vehicles and became huge hits.

• 1964: The US-Television market adapts the format. Hullabaloo is one of the first US shows of this kind, followed by Shindig! (NBC) and American Bandstand ; The Beatles star in A Hard Day's Night.

• 1966: The first conceptual promos are aired, for the Beatles' " Paperback Writer " and " Rain ". Early in 1967, even more ambitious videos are released for " Penny Lane " and " Strawberry Fields Forever ".

• 1968: The Rolling Stones collaborate with Jean-Luc Goddard on Sympathy for the Devil.

• 1970: The record industry discovers these TV-Shows as a great opportunity to promote their artists. They focus on producing short "Promos", early music videos which started to replace the live performance of the artist on the TV-stage.

• 1975: " Bohemian Rhapsody " a ground breaking video released by Queen marked the beginning of the video era and set the language for the modern music video.

• 1979: Devo releases "The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprise", which is the first music video to include computer animation as well as the first to include traditional animation.

• 1980: " Ashes to Ashes " which is considered as a ground breaking video is released by David Bowie.

• 1981: MTV , the first 24-hour satellite music channel, launches. Initially few cable TV operators carried it, but it rapidly became a major hit and cultural icon.

• 1981: Michael Nesmith wins the first ever music video Grammy with Elephant Parts.

• 1983: Night Tracks debuted on Super station WTBS (later known as TBS ) with up to 14 hours of music videos each weekend by 1985. This allowed nearly all U.S. households with Cable TV to view music videos regularly as MTV still wasn't as widely available at this point in time compared to WTBS.

• 1983: Friday Night Videos debuted on the NBC television network, allowing nearly all U.S. households to view music videos regularly.

• 1984: Michael Jackson 's short film Thriller is released, changing the concept of music videos forever. The Making of Thriller home video was also released in 1984. It was the first ever video about the making of a music video.

• 1986: " Sledgehammer ", the ground breaking video from Peter Gabriel, is first shown.

• 1989: MTV renames its "Video Vanguard Award" to the "Michael Jackson Vanguard Award" in honor of Michael Jackson for his contributions to the art of music video.

• 1989: Madonna 's controversial video for Like a Prayer is released.

• 1991: Nirvana release the " Smells Like Teen Spirit " video changing the MTV platform from glam rock to alternative rock, and catapulting grunge and Kurt Cobain into the American and Worldwide mainstream.

• 1992: MTV begins to credit music video directors.

• 1992: Guns N' Roses 's groundbreaking video for " November Rain " is released and remains as one of the costliest ever produced.

• 1996: Pop-up Video is first aired on VH1.

• 1996: M2 is launched as a 24-hour music video channel, as MTV has largely replaced videos with other content.

• 1999: M2 is renamed to MTV2.

• 2002: MTV Hits is launched as MTV2 is gradually showing fewer music videos.

• 2006: The Norwegian unsigned band Rektor makes the worlds first playable video game music video game.

(Source: http://www.slideshare.net/crosswaysfederation/music-video-a-brief-history)