History Of Music Videos

First example of a video as we recognise them it was shown in theatres in 1932

1929 Bessie Smith St. Louis -Blues

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 led on to create channels like MTV and Top of the pops.

1956 Tony Bennett- Stranger In Paradise

The second Music Video which is highly famous for its prison theme. In black and white like the videos of the time.

1957 Elvis Presley-Jailhouse Rock

The oldest example of a promotional music video with similarities to more abstract, modern videos

1958 Zpívají Irena Kacirkova a Josef Bek-

Dame Si Do Bytu

It influenced the filming of music videos that all/many contemporary artists use today

1964 The Beatles- A Hard Days Night

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

1967 The Beatles- Penny Lane

The song would portray a story that accompanied the lyrics and "cross-cuts" to the artist singing it.

1970 The Jackson Five-I Want You Back

This was an early example of a self-made music video, this started the development of the music video genre "Experimental".

1972 Devo-The Truth About De-evolution

This style started a whole new era for the music video and the introduction of "Top of the pops" which would promote the music and then created a competition between artists for the first time.

1980 Queen-Bohemian Rhapsody

In 1981 it was the introduction of "MTV" and the first video aired was "Video killed the radio star", it was a real break-through in the evolution of music videos and as you can see it was a very high-budget video in which we can see more development in editing

1981 The Buggles-Radio Killed The Video Star

This video was the pioneer of the 'Storyline' video which has a plot, almost like a 'mini' movie. It contains sophisticated visuals and it took the music industry to another level. Now music videos were really being seen as promotion and made into high-budget productions.

1982 Michael Jackson-Thriller

The comic book/live-action combination is called rotoscoping and took 16 weeks to complete. This just shows how the song relies on this type of promotion, mainly because it was the only the form of marketing for a song in the 20th century.

1985 A'Ha-Take On Me

1997 The Verve-Bittersweet Symphony

Undoubtedly one of the iconic videos from the ‘90s. It’s middle-finger-to-society and non-conforming message is quite cliché now, but was such a staple of what ‘90s culture was about. The video embodies the message in a creative way; it’s such a simple idea that makes the video so unique.

1995 Pharcyde-Drop

With Spike Jonze in the directing chair you know you're getting a great music video. He brings artistic innovation to everything he does. The entire thing is shot backwards, then also replayed backwards to give us one of the most, if not the most, unique hip-hop videos from the decade. This creative camera work allows for Pharcyde to do some cool stuff and ultimately makes for an unforgettable video.

Music video enthusiasts often like the aesthetic appeal of them and often watch them muted. Modern artists like Emeli, whose contemporary 'soul' music needs to have their music video reflect the genre do this.

2013 Emeli Sande-Next To Me

In the current music video era that we live in today the adoption of the 'Sex Appeal' of females has monopolised the music industry, rather than choosing the more traditional methods because they are less profitable.

2013 Iggy Azelia-Work