Industrial Research - History of Music Videos

• In 1894, the idea of illustrated song came about. This was the first time music was merged with a flim. Edward B.Marks and Joe Stern were hired by George Thomas to take their performance of song and syntonised it with a series of still life images. 
• It was not until the 1920s, when Musical Short Films were coming into popularity. This was the end of silent film and the movie industry began to develop. It suddenly became necessary to fit sound to moving picture and the first film to successfully do this was 'The Jazz Singer'. 
• throughout the 1930s, Warner Bros created a series of live-action short videos and it's aim was to showcase the most popular sounds of the time. They were shown in movie theatres and featured a performer playing a form of short and sweet segment of a piece of music.
• In the 1960s, music videos were deemed and understood to be a form of 'promotional video' for a band or artist. Artists used specific shot types in order to capture specific moments for the video in order to promote the artists in the best and most influential way possible. The Beatles were one of the first bands known to create a 'promotional video' during their rise to fame throughout the 1960s. 
• Bohemian Rhapsody was one of the most popular and influential videos to come from the 1970s. With the introduction of 'Progressive Rock' and 'Glam Rock', the video ensured to capture the cinematography aspects of how incredible and creative music videos were about to become. Queen used the latest technology and software in order to encapsulate the viewers into believing what a music video could look like. 
•  MTV rose to fame in the 1980s. This meant that although it was evident music videos were pre-existent to the 1980s, they really took off during the decade to come. With the ability to broadcast and show videos on TV, the artists begun to get more recognition for their creativity on top of their musical skills. It lead to an increase in profit for artists as they had their videos to help them sell their singles, songs and albums. The first video to appear on MTV was 'Video Killed The Radio Star', sung by the Buggles. However, the video that arguably took MTV and music videos that one step further is 'Thriller' by Michael Jackson. The video was a 13-minute long screenplay rather than just an average music video. 
• During the 1990s, special effects grew into popularity and started to become used more and more frequently in music videos. With this, videos such as ‘Hit me Baby One More Time’ by Britney Spears and ‘Wannabe’ by the Spice Girls, the use of special effects was put to good use. 
• YouTube started to take over for publishing and showcasing music videos from MTV. With the chance to rewatch and rewind videos to one’s desires meant that people could also have access to these videos more frequently and at the click of a button. YouTube also created the possibilities of being able to share, like, subscribe and comment on music videos - encouraging fans to engage with the artists and react to how they feel the video was in general. 
• Overall, due to the development and advancements of technology, people are now able to watch and interact with videos when they wish and no longer have to wait for them to be shown on TV. Alongside this, the premises that YouTube allows free interaction and video play for not only music videos but for all other forms of entertainment means that the technology behind the way the media works will continue to grow and develop.