History of Music Videos
1890
In 1894 Thomas Edison synchronised the Kinectico and the gramophone to record sound and movement known as ‘’Dickson experimental sound film’’ he filmed a fiddle player and two men dancing.
Illustrated songs- these combined music (either live or recorded) along with which projected images played in the background. The first illustrated song was ‘’The Little Lost Child’’ in 1894, this is said to be the first music video.
1920
Max Fleischer produced a series of animated short films titled "Song Car-Tunes" in the early 1920s. Though the synchronization was still rather primitive in comparison to later sound technology, these films are remarkable for being one of the earliest examples of synchronized sound in animation.
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The "Song Car-Tunes" series featured popular songs of the time, and the animated characters in the films would appear to sing and perform the songs. The synchronization was achieved by recording the songs on phonograph records and then timing the animation to match the music.
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One of the earliest examples was ‘’my old Kentucky home’’ released in 1926.
1930
The spooney melody series came around these short films contained an animation with a live performance, comedy acts, etc. these played an estimated role in the history of films and music videos.
​Phil Spitalny and his band were one of the more popular musicians that were making musical shorts.
1940
Soundies - short films that were based on one song, were a new way to consume a variety of music in the 1940’s. They were produced during 1940 - 1947, and were shown on 6mm rear projection machines called Panorams, which required coins to be put in it to work. In a panorama, 8 soundies were typically stored on a reel, which played on loop.
1950
Now came the scopitone, this was a type of jukebox that played short films with musical performances. These were popular in bars, restaurants and other popular places. They operated on coins the films lasted 3-4 minutes. These also featured the popular music artists at that time and played their performances. While scopitones didn’t stay for long due to the advancement of technology they were still played a huge part for further musical development.
In 1953 Tony Bennett, an American jazz singer, believed he shot the first music video; a shot of him walking in a park while a recording of his song ‘’stranger in paradise’’ played in the background.
1960
Television became popular to consume music videos. ‘’We can work it out’’ by The Beatles is said to be the first music video to be broadcasted on television. The Beatles recorded multiple short art films such as ‘’Strawberry Fields Forever’’ and ‘’Hello Goodbye’’.
In 1969 David Bowie released the music video to his song ‘’Space Oditty’’ although the video is more performance based he used other elements such as the color scheme and lighting that signs the video being an art film.
1970
With music videos gaining popularity, in 1974 Queen released the ‘’Bohemian Rhapsody’’ while other music videos were mostly performance based this introduced the element of narrative. The visuals in the video match with the dramatic singing and lyrics.
1980
This year was a turning point in the history of music videos with the release of mtv music videos were broadcasted more on television which gave rise to new artists such as hip hop became popular during this era as well.
The first music video to have been played on mtv was the Buggles ‘’Video Killed the Radiostar’’. MTV hired VJs, these were people who’d host a show and comment on the music video being played and introduce the audience to new ones, Artists such as Madonna, guns and roses and Duran Duran gained popularity due to this.
In 1983 John Landis directed ‘’Thriller’’ a song by Michael Jackson, the video features Michael jackson as a werewolf and a zombie . It is known for its iconic dance sequence in which Jackson and a group of zombies perform the "Thriller" dance. The music video for ‘’Thriller’’ set a standard for narrative and creativity within videos. This also led to the concept of behind the scenes in music videos. The song "Thriller" was a massive commercial success, reaching the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart and becoming one of the best-selling singles of all time.
"Thriller’’ opened an option for more black artists to be played on mtv.
The Grammys were also introduced during this time, in 1984 Duran Duran won the first Grammy awards for their songs ‘’Girls on Film’’ and ‘Hungry Like the Wolf’’.
2000
YouTube was released in 2005. People now had direct access to music videos through their devices. This greatly increased the popularity of the artists. Music became easily accessible to the general public.