A music video is a film or a video that accompanies a peice of music. Music videos these days are produced to help publicise the artist or band that stars in the video. Music videos use techniques and styles from actual film, and use animation, documentaries, non-narrative approaches, and abstract film. Some videos even use a mixture of the above, and most recently they are less literal then expected. They don't always create an image or picture to go with the actual lyrics.
In the 1920's, talkies (sound films) arrived. This meant that many musical short films were being produced. This then lead onto Vitaphone production, which were done by Warner Bros. The Vitaphone was a video, but the soundtrack was not printed onto the actual film. The soundtrack was played at the same time as the film was projected, on a 12 to 16 inch phonograph record. A famous peice called The Jazz Singer in 1927, used the Vitaphone process.
A famous animation artist called Max Fleischer produced a series of sing-a-long short cartoons, these were called Screen Songs. This encouraged an audience to sing a long and to watch short films.
In the early 1930s, cartoons began to feature famous musicians performing their songs in live-action, within parts of the cartoon. Walt Disney's early shorts such as Silly Symphonies are all based around music. Also the Warner Brothers' cartoons were based around music that were upcoming songs in musical films. This happens even these days.
Bessie Smith; a blues singer of this era, appeared in a short film called St. Louis Blues in 1929, that featured a performance of the hit song.
In 1940's, a musician called Louis Jordan began making short films for his songs, and according to Donald Clarke (a music historian) these films were the 'ancestors' of the music video.
Promotional clips were also produced in the 40s, these were short films of musical selections, showing a band on a bandstand; performing, especially made for playing. Most short films featuring music around this time were jazz based.
Musical films also contributed to the beginning of the music video. A lot of well known music videos today imitate these musical films, for example Madonna did a music video for her song 'Material Girl', (produced in 1985) which immitated the film 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'. Also Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' uses a very famous dance routine, which actually originated from a musical film from the 50's called 'West Side Story'.
The first official music video was produced in 1957 when Tony Bennett was filmed walking in London as his recording of 'Stranger in Paradise' played, this was then distributed and played in the UK and the US on television. This was named a 'music video' (officially) in 1959 by J.P Richardson.
Short films were produced more reglarly in France towards the end of the 50s and beginning of the 1960s, accompany artist's songs. This triggered many other artists to do the same and in 1961 Manny Pittson began pre-recording the music, then taping the artist lip-syncing, then edited both the audio and video together.
In 1964, The Beatles starred in their first film; 'A Hard Day's Night'. It was shot in black and white, and was done as a mimic of a documentary.
"Premiering in 1974, the Australian TV show 'Countdown' played an important role in the development of the music video industry. Music video clips were used as a method of promoting acts that were to appear on the show. As the popularity of the video clips grew, the music industry began to realize the marketing potential of these music clips. One of the most notable video clips features was the AC/DC hit, "It's A Long Way to the Top." During the 1980s, 'Countdown' aired in 22 countries."-http://www.articlesbase.com/art-and-entertainment-articles/what-is-the-history-behind-music-videos-1318869.html
1980
'Split Enz' (a Newzealand group) were the first band to create a music video and market them on video cassette.
'Video Concert Hall' was the first nationwide video music programme on television in America.
1981-83
The US video channel 'MTV' was launched in 1981 and began on 24-hour television. The video to "Video Killed The Radio Star" was the first on this channel. Mtv then became the source for music marketing throughout the rest of the 80's. Artists used videos at this time to help promote their image and music. What is now seen as the worlds most successful and influential music video in history; Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' was released in 1983.
1985-87
MTV was aimed at a young audience mostly, and so they released a channel called VH1, that was for an older generation, featuring softer music that they would find appealing. In 87, MTV was introduced to Europe; "MTV Europe".
1988
Hip hop music was introduced to a wider audience in 1988 when 'Yo! MTV Raps' was introduced. Two of the most expensive videos were produced then, one of which was Michael and Janet Jackson's "Scream" costing $7 million to make. This is still the most expensive music video to be produced.
1990's
MTV expanded all over the world, and included channels like: MTV Latin American in 93, MTV India in 1996, MTV2 was also founded in 96, which was called M2 originally for an older generation. MTV Mandarin was produced in 1997.
"Music Videos have played an important role in the success of many artists and the music industry." - www.articlebase.com
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