The History of the Music Video

Overtime the music video has advanced, developed and changed as the wonderful world of media has expanded – enabling the music industry to become more diverse and entertaining.

Studying back to the 1930’s, Soundies were a brand new form of entertainment -  they were three-minute black and white American musical films each containing a song, dance, band or orchestral number. They covered all genres of music from classical to big-band swing and hillbilly novelties. By the 1940’s, Soundies became the next sensation as they developed immesnley in popularity.

An example of a 1930’s Soundie – Silent Love

Next, in the 1950’s ‘The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll” – Elvis Presley came onto the music scene. It was said that he changed the way people listened, watched and experienced music. Presley was involved in a series of 31 films as well as being the most desired singer of his time. By featuring in films, it allowed his audience to see him preform, as there was no other form of media text to showcase his talent to his fans.

In the 1960’s, the most crucial development of music videos was The Beatles ‘A Hard Days Night’ film, which influenced the way music videos, are presented. The film featured The Beatles’ songs playing over the action of the film – as a result of the onscreen musical, the performance became more cinematic. This established future ways to shoot concerts and festivals.

In 1964, Top of the Pops initially started the competition between artists and producing the best product possible. Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ became the UK’s third best-selling single of all time. The video stayed at No.1 for 9 consecutive weeks. This video also helped develop a rock music trope – making a lot of rules for rock videos (low angles, close up’s and zooms).

MTV (Music Television) forgrounded the important of the music video in the early 1980’s. The first music video on MTV was the Buggles ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ – heralding an era of 24 hour music television. Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ (1982) took the music video territory costing $500,000, which is regularly quoted ‘the most influential music video of all time’. Therefore, because of the success that followed, music videos were beginning to be seen as promotion techniques and were thus made into high-budget productions.

In modern day times, the Internet has now become a major development for sourcing music - it is the primary growth income market for record companies. 
YouTube is a one of the many video-sharing forms of social media; it enables anyone to upload, view or share videos. The role of YouTube now means that videos can be virally marketed. For example, in 2010, Lady Gaga’s music video ‘Bad Romance’ became the most viewed video on YouTube that year.

To conclude, it is clear that overtime music videos have grown and developed  - meaning that they can now be seen as a genre with its own sub genres.