The History of music videos

When did music videos start?

- As soon as cinema was developed, there came with it the opportunity to put songs to music.

• As the early 1920s, jazz musicians began to make short films to accompany the popular song.
• In 1965, Bob Dylan made “subterranean homesick blues” as a segment of the film “don’t look back”- this is widely recognised as one of the first music videos of 1965.

Music TV- Promos

• in the 1970s, producers of music television recognised an opportunity to make shot promotional films to promote their artists 
• They began to make ‘promos’ -early music videos. These often replaced live performances which had previously been the most common way to promote releases on TV.

Bohemian Rhapsody

• In 1975 Queen released “bohemian rhapsody” with a groundbreaking video which marked the beginning of the music video era ad set the language for the modern music video.
• This video is considered one of the first to use advanced visual effects

The first feature-length video

• Soon artists realised the power of the music video and how it could affect their images
• in his 1988 book Moonwalk, Jackson expressed interest in having director John Landis direct the music video for “Thriller”. Having seen Landis’ previous work on a horror film. Jackson based himself on a character from Landis’ film.
• In 1983 Mj released Thriller, a 14 minute music video. It was shown in many cinemas during its release. This led to acting roles in films including 1990 when he starred in Arachnophobia.