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'Talkies'
Short musical films essentialy where people could sing along to screen films. For instance with Walt Disney and Warner Brothers cartoons, the Looney Tunes melody was originally made for upcoming Warner Brothers musical films. -
Bessie Smirh, first music video
Blues singer Bessie Smith appeared in a two-reel short film called St. Louis Blues (1929) including a performance of the song, therefore could be classified as one of the first music videos ever (Sources are very muddled with the first as the definition is blurry, eg. this isn't exactly a video just for one song) -
Tony Bennett, first music video
Tony Bennett claimed to have created "the first music video" when he was filmed walking along the Serpentine in Hyde Park in London. This clip then went on to be set to his recording of 'stranger in paradise'. And this was sent to UK and US television stations and aired on shows. (So can be clasiffied maybe as the first 'official music video.'). -
Elvis Presley
Was another very early music vdieo, arguably one of the first music videos. Featuring a very grainy black and white image of Elvis Prsley and his fellow prison inmates dancing around a 2 floor 'jail set' to his song 'Jailhouse rock', the purely performance video was certianly one of the first and set the tone for many more to come. -
Concert film
Concert films, a documentary film following the artists on their tours, behind the scenes have proved very popular and even feature in some music videos (e.g. some music videos are artists live performances.) The first concert film spans back to 1964; the 'T.A.M.I' Show which was filmed over 2 days at the 'Santa Monica Civic Auditorium' and included performances by numerous rock and roll and R&B musicians. -
The Beatles promotional films
The Beatles filmed 10 films which were used to promote their album releases. This was one of the first uses of music video promotion and was a very creative way of doing this also (As a lot of promotions these days are just adverts on the TV, this becames very repetetive and doesnt stand out.) -
I want you back- Jackson five
This song essentialy started the trend used prominently throughout the 1970s where the main focus wasn't just an artist singing, The editting process for this music video was very fresh and new; using more professional techniques like "Chroma-Key" (Overlapping an image onto another one; 'Green screen.)This style lead to videos using "Cross-Cutting"; where the song would portray a story and keep cutting to the artist singing; something which has now been incorporated into a narrative music video. -
Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody
This song with the promotional video accompanying it revolutionised the way music videos were made, Using ballads, a guitar solo, opera and hard rock all in the same song. -
MTV's first broadcast
with the first song being 'video killed the radio star' by the buggles. (British new wave music.) This was the first way that people could see and listen to music on a mass scale. -
Michael Jackson's Thriller
Michael Jackson's thriller revolutionised music videos to come. Lasting 13 minutes long was voted as the most influential pop music video of all time and was listed in 2006 as the Guinness World Records 'most successful music video' selling over 9 million copies. -
Michael and Janet Jackson's 'Scream'
This music video (Directed by Mark Romanek) remains as the most expensive music video ever with a production cost of $7,000,000. -
The tapeless video format
New innovations like the digital camea and the tapeless video format being invented allows more and more people to create music videos for their songs; in modern day anyone can pick up a camera and film their own videos now due to its wide availability. So also with improved editting softwares the music videos have become much more visually appealling, they are getting better and better. -
YouTube
Starting the rise of the Internet, where artists could get their music videos seen to the millions in a matter of minutes, all without paying a penny to publicise. Music Videos would have never gotten so big without the proliferation of the Internet and social media platforms. Currently the most subscribed music channel on youtube is 'RihannaVEVO' being just shy of 17 million subscribers. -
Radiohead: House of cards
Was made with scanning technology and lazer- mapping as opposed to the conventional camera and lights; a very unconventional music video. -
Psy's Gangnam style
Achieved the most watched music video ever on Youtube with over 2.3 Billion, even breaking Youtube's maximum view limit before they had to update it to show such a huge amount of views on one video. -
Beyoncé's album 'Beyoncé'
became the fastest-selling album in iTunes history after its unannounced release on December 13, 2013. With the option to buy her songs with the music video incorporated, it's certainly positive for publicity.
