Music Video History

By edwardbarrow

  • Bessie Smith

    Bessie Smith
    St. Louis Blues is a 1929 American two-reel short film starring Bessie Smith.
    The video was filmed in June 1929 in Astoria, Queens. The film is about 16 minutes long. This is one of the earliest examples of music videos that we are familiar with today. It was shown in theatres in 1932.

  • Fantsia

    Fantsia
    Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. With story direction by Joe Grant and Dick Huemer, and production supervision by Ben Sharpsteen, it is the third feature in the Disney animated features canon. The film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra.

  • "Stranger in Paradise" is a popular song from the 1953 musical Kismet and is credited to Robert Wright and George Forrest.

    "Stranger in Paradise" is a popular song from the 1953 musical Kismet and is credited to Robert Wright and George Forrest.
    Tony's song "Stranger in paradise" was filmed in Hyde Park, London and was played across UK and US television stations. However, Bennett later claimed that his music video was the very first. This was the first example of using music videos on TV, this would lead on to create channels like MTV and Top of the pops.

  • A Hard Day's Night

    A Hard Day's Night
    "A Hard Day's Night" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. Written by John Lennon, and credited to Lennon–McCartney, it was released on the movie soundtrack of the same name in 1964.
    The crucial moment in the development of music videos was the Beatles "A hard days night", influencing the filming of music videos that all/many contemporary artists use today.

  • The Beatles, Penny Lane

    The Beatles, Penny Lane
    The Beatles took music videos to another level with their next video and started using the codes and conventions that modern post productions teams know today, such as dramatic lighting, unusual camera angles and rhythmitic editing.

  • Jackson 5, I want you back

    Jackson 5, I want you back
    The 1970's saw the music video change with more emphasis on just the artist singing. This style lead to music videos to the "Cross-Cutting" stage where the song would portray a story that accompanied the lyrics and "cross-cuts" to the artist singing it. However the key to this innovation was the edting process, dealing with more professional techniques like "Chroma-Key".