History of Music Videos

Music videos came into prominence in the 1980s due to mtv and before this they were known as 'illustrated song', 'filmed insert', 'promotional (promo) film or 'film clip'

1902-1917 - The phonoscene era - directors of music videos from this time period combined a sound recording with a film shot, with actors lip synching to the sound recording, which was then synchronized together to look like a convincing performance

1926-1959 - Talkies, soundies and shorts - Talkies were musical short films which featured bands, vocalists and dancers. 'Spooney Melodies' in 1930 was the first true musical video series. Shorts were typically 6 minutes long and featured animations and backgrounds combined with the performer singing

1960 - 1967 - Visual innovation - The development of the Scopitone (a visual jukebox) lead to the spreading of short films from france to other countries. The earliest top 40 hit video was Jan & Dean's 'Surf City', produced in 1963. The Beatles starred in many feature films for their music which helped raise popularity of the modern music video.

1967-1973 - Increased importance of promotional clips - Pink Floyd were pioneers in producing promo films for their songs in order to boost sales, as well as the Rolling Stones and The Who. 

1974 - 1980 - Beginnings of music television - Australian TV shows Countdown and Sounds helped establish the importance of music videos as promotion for new releases and emerging artists. Similarly, the British show Top of The Pops began playing music videos in the late 1970s, but had to abide by a limit placed by the BBC on how many 'outsourced' videos could be played. The Old Grey Whistle Test was a British Rock Music show who produced various music videos specifically for the show. In America, Video Concert Hall launched in 1979 and was the first music video music show on American TV. 

1981 - 1991 - Music videos go mainstream - MTV launched in the US in 1981, and began an era of 24-hour-a-day music on TV. The first major reason for the development of music videos was the relatively cheap and simple recording and editing equipment, and the development of special visual effects. The most iconic video, Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' was released in 1983. In 1984, the canadian music channel 'MuchMusic' was launched, and later, in 1985, MTV launched the channel VH1 which featured sorter music, appealing to an older demographic than the general MTV. MTV europe was launched in 1987 and Asia in 1991.  

2005 - present - The Internet becomes video-friendly - The earliest makers on internet music videos were IRC-based groups who recorded them as they appeared on TV and exchanged them online. The website iFilm launched in 1997. 2005 was the launch of YouTube which revolutionised the viewing of music videos online, and now sites such as Google, Yahoo!, Facebook and MySpace have video technology.