History of the music video

In 1926 sound films and talkies were introduced, with many musical short films being produced. Vitaphone shorts (1926-30) produced by warner bros produced videos featuring bands, vocalists and dancers. A series named spooney melodies were the first real musical video series. The shorts were typically about six minutes in duration and featured art deco animations and backgrounds combined with the singer performing the song. This series can arguably be considered to be the earliest music video. . . . .

Music videos are a very important part of the artists promotion of there music, but go back thirty years and the videos played very little part in the artists success. The phenomenon of MTV (Music Television) gave the music video power and importance in the music industry. The channel began airing in 1981 in the USA and marked the beginning of the music videos ruling over the music industry. The first ever video showed on MTV was Video killed the radio star by the Buggles, which was shown on August 1, 1981 at 12.01 am and is widely parodied in popular media. The music channel continued to air music videos 24-hours-a-day creating a much higher demand for artists to produce a music video. It is considered that even Madonna’s career has been greatly influenced by her videos that presented a sexy, appealing look of the artist. Some experts say that Madonna has been inspired by the image that the actress Greta Garbo has used in her silent movies. MTV has been highly controversial among the fans, wth some believing that it was the beginning of an amazing, fresh, new era in music. Others believed that the channel marked the end of true musical talent, with artists becoming more appreciated for their looks rather than their true vocal abilities. One thing is for certain however, that the channel itself has changed the way we view music and has effected the music industry massively.

Previous to this massive phenomon an Australian TV show, premiering in 1974, played an important role in the development of the music video industry. The show was named countdown and showed the videos to promote bands who were going on the show. As the popularity of the vdeo clips grew, the music industry began to realise the marketing potential of these music clips. The most notable video from the show was the AC/DC hit "It's a long way to the top". During the 1980s the show was aired in 22 countries.

Below I have added the very first music video aired on MTV, Video killed the radio star by the Buggles. The video was revelutionary and very much reflected society at that time. It was bold and innovative with lots of new ideas being developed.