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Talkies - 1926
In 1926, many short musical films where created usually called 'talkies'. Featuring many bands and, singers and dancers, Warner Bros produced 'Vitaphone shorts'. 'Spooney Melodies' was the first true musical video shorts which typically lasted around six minutes. There consistently featured art deco styled animations and backgrounds which also had the the performer of the film singing the song. -
St Louis Blues- Bessie Smith
Blues singer Bessie Smith featured in the two-reel film called Saint Louis Blues which featured a dramatised performance of the hit song. -
Louis Jordan - Lookout Sister
Later, in the mid-1940s, musician Louis Jordan made short films for his songs, some of which were spliced together into a feature film Lookout Sister. -
Tony Bennett 1956
Tony Bennett was filmed walking along the The Serpentine in Hyde Park, London as the recording 'Strangers In Paradise' played. The film has been distributed around the UK and the US resulting in Tony Bennett later claiming he made the first official music video. -
1964- The Beatles A Hard Day's Night
The Beatles first motion film 'A Hard Days Night' released in 1964 and directed by Richard Lester has been regarded as one of the first basis of visual vocabularly of todays music video. In turn the film has influenced a vast amount of contemporary musicians and artists. It has also influenced many pop and rock music videos -
The Animals - House Of The Rising Sun 1964
One of the earliest performance videos was of the band 'The Animals' promoting their latest song 'House Of The Rising Sun'. The colour clip was filmed within a studio of the band members dancing in chorepgraphed moves and featured the singer lip syncing the song. -
1966 Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues
The music video was filmed by D A Pennebaker and was used to begin a documentary on Bob Dylans career. -
MTV Launch
MTV in 1981 launched and originally played music videos 24 hours a day, seven days a week with the help of on-air presenters known as VJs(video jockeys)
The original taglines were - "You'll never look at music the same way again," and "On cable. In stereo." The original MTV no longer plays music videos 24 hours a day but its spin off channels suchas as MTV Hits and Jams still does -
Prince - Sign O' The Times 1987
In 1987, Prince released a video for his song "Sign o' the Times". The video showed the song's words pulsing to the music presented along with abstract geometric shape. This effect was created by Bill Konersman. -
2005-Youtube
In 2005, the internet saw the launch of Youtube a online video service where viewers had access to many music videos. -
Ok Go - Here It Goes Again
Ok Go found success on Youtube and as of March 2010 viewed over 50 million times, but the video was taken down and reposted and now currently has over 18 million views. -
PSY Gentleman -2013
In 2013, PSY secured the title of most viewed video online in 24 hours with over 38,409,306 on Youtube. By securing this title it shows how music has developed over time as before audiences where unable to access music videos on this vast scale.
