Research - A Brief History of Music Videos

Since cinema was invented, it created the ability to bring songs and music to life. Advances in technology have transformed the music video into what it is today. Surprisingly, music videos have been around since the 1920's.

• In 1929, jazz singer Bessie Smith starred in a short promotional film called St. Louis Blues, featuring her songs. It was so popular, it was shown in cinemas until 1932.
• In the 1960's, The Beatles began to feature their music in their own films, which spurred on album and single sales
• In 1970, the record industry discovered TV shows as the way to promote a band, so began to use them to show music performances and videos.
• 1975 brought Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, which used advanced techniques at the time that no-one had ever seen before
• In 1981, MTV was launched, which showed music videos 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It was the first music video-only TV channel in the world.
• 1983 brought along Michael Jackson's Thriller, the most anticipated music video of all time. The 14-minute long short film, was, at the time, the most expensive music video ever made, and is now synonymous with being the music video that changed the face of the record industry.
• The rise of using intertextuality really began in 1985, with the release of Madonna's Material Girl, directed by Mary Lambert, and featured scenes used in Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend, featuring Marilyn Monroe.
• In 1992, the rise of using famous directors in videos increased, with the likes of Martin Scorsese, Spike Jonze and Mark Romanek beginning to direct big-budget short films
• In 1995, Romanek directed Scream, by Michael & Janet Jackson, and in doing so, created the world's most expensive music-video, at a cost of $7m.
• Videos really changed in 2005, with the rise of YouTube and the iTunes Music Store, where videos were suddenly accessible to all, anywhere, 24 hours a day. People could now purchase videos, and carry them wherever they go.