1930s
A Blues singer named Bessie Smith appeared in a two-reel short film called Saint Louis Blues (1929) featuring a dramatised performance of the hit song. it was shown in theatres until 1932. People say this is the first sign of an early music video because of the way the song was incorporated into the short film.
Also in the 1930s, Len Lye created an advert for Churchman's Cigarettes. He created the advert by experimenting with a kaleidoscope and creating different colours and shapes. This is an example of experimentation for music videos.
1940s
In 1940, Walt Disney released Fantasia, an animated film based around famous pieces of classical music.
1950s and 60s
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 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, Francoise Hardy and Jacques Dutronc to accompany their songs. it use spread to other countries and similar machines such as the Cinebox in Italy and the Color-Sonic in the USA were patented.
The hugely popular American TV series The Monkees was another important influence on the development of the media video genre, with each episode including a number of specially-made film segments that were created to accompany the various Monkees songs used in the series. The series ran from 1966-1968.
The Beatles too the genre to new heights with their groundbreaking films for "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane", made in early 1967, which used techniques borrowed from underground and avant garde film, such as reversed film effects, dramatic lighting, unusual camera angles and rhythmic editing,
In 1966 the clip of Bob Dylan performing "Subterranea Homesick blues" filmed by D A Pennebaker was much used. The clips ironic portrayal of a performance and the seemingly random inclusion of a celebrity (Allen Ginsberg) in a non-performing role also became mainstrays of the form.
1970s
Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" (1975) started a whole new era for using music videos as promos. The whole piece was shot and edited on videotape.
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 outsourced videos it would show - therefore a good video would increase a song's sales as viewers hoped to see the video again the following week. This heppened when David Bowe scored his first number 1, thats to the promo for "Ashes to Ashes".
1980s
In 1981 -MTV is launched, The first video to be aired: Buggles "Video killed the Radio Star". MTV marked the first 24 hour music video station.
Michael Jckson was the first artist to create the concept of the short film. He did this in a way with Billie Jean, directed by Steve Barron, then in a West Side Story way with director Bob Giraldi's Beat It. It wasn't until 1983 release of the Thriller short film that he took the music video format to another level. It was directed by John Ladis and it cost $500,000.
In 1985, VH1 was released. It showed softer music meant for an older demographic.
The Chart Show Channel 4 in 1986 was created to show solely music videos.
In 1986, Peter Gabriel's song "Sledgehammer" used special effects and animation techniques developed by British studio Aardman Animation. The video for "Sledgehammer" would go on to be a phenomenal success and win 9 MTV Video Music Awards.
Directors started to get involved in music videos - "Bad" by Michael Jackson was directed by Martin Scorsese in 1987.
1994-2004
Two videos directed by Romanek in 1995 are notable for being two of the three most expensive music videos of all time:Michael and Janet Jackson's "Scream", which cost $7 million to product. "Scream remains the most expensive video of all time.
In 2002, Madonnas "Die Another Day" cost $6,000,000.
2005-now
2005 saw the launch of YouTubem which made the viewing of online video much faster and easier. Such websites had a profound effect on the viewing of music videos; some artists began to see success as a result of videos seen mostly or entirely online. The band OK Go may exemplify this trend, having achieved fame through the videos of two of their songs, "A Million Ways" in 2005 and "Here it Goes Again" in 2006, both of which first became well-known online.
MTV itself now provides streams of artists' music videos, while AOL launched AOL Music. It features a vast collection of advertising supported streaming videos.
The internet has become the primary growth income market for record company-produced music videos. At its launch, Apple's iTunes Store provided a section of free music in high quality compression to be watched via the iTunes application. Recently, The iTunes Store has begun selling music videos for use to Apple's iPod with video playback capability.
VEVO is a music video website launched by several major music publishers in December 2009. The videos on VEVO are syndicated to YouTube, with Google and VEVO sharing advertising revenue.
NOW
The top 3 music videos of 2014 according to The Independent Newspaper were:
3. Shakira - Cant Remember To Forget You
2. Enrique Iglesias - Bailando
1. Katy Perry - Dark Horse
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