Music Videos - History

A music video is

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  "A distinctive art form which can allow really interesting creative oppurtunities." (P.Fraser 2005)
  
  
  
  
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  "Music video is not primarily a commodity form but a promotional one," (A.Goodwin 1992)
  
  
  

A music video can be whatever a person wants, like all of the media it has specific conventions and codes which the audience recognise because they are repeated so many times across all music genres. Usually the video lasts the length of the song however as music videos have grown this does not always apply. Most music videos follw a narrative and artists/bands use the video as an outlet to tell a story.

Music videos are used as apromotional vehicle to reinforce the images/brand of the artist/brand, it is a creative artefact of interest in itself.


Music and moving images have always gone together, they are used to help the song reach new audiences and helps the song become visually more dimentional. In the 1920's and 1930's, artists were used to add music to films  and then the musical film genre was created. Musical short films were created by inventors such as Lee de forest (picture below)

The  musical the Jazz singer, released in 1927 by warner bros. was the first feature film which was a musical.


In the 1960's and 1970's artists and programs such as top of the pops used promo's to introduce artists and also they were used on tour however they were still experimental.


In the 1980's artists began seeing the need for promo's for each release, changes and advancements in teachnology started the MTV revolution and the growth of genre based channels such as Kerrang.

Below is the first ever music video that aired, it is by The Bugles - Video killed the radio star:

Buggles-Video Killed The Radio Star

By Muhammad Patel