History of Music Videos

History of Music

1930 - 1940

The first trace of music maternal that can be found was in the 1920’s and the reason for this being debatable because of the close relationship between music tracks and visual material. The first musical material that was found was by Oscar Fischinger in Germany at 1920s and in the USA 1930s after he fled Germany due to the Nazis.  His first musical material and visual projects was Komposition in Blau (1935) and his work with Disney in Fantasia.

At this time was the first outbreak of a big hit, before 1975 there were music videos however; in 1975 it was the first outburst of movie videos moving from minor hits and one of the most selling singles in history. This music video was Queens Bohemian Rhapsody (1975) and this was the first track to become a big hit by selling 2.1m copies.

Short films from eight minutes in duration were shown in cinemas as a small part of a full programme. This was displayed by Panarom which projected a 20 inch screen with black projection, this was used in juke joints and bars to show the different types of music at the time. These videos often use more daring sexual content because at the time there weren’t the same criteria to be met like nowadays.

1960 - 1970

In the 1960s the French revived the Scopitone. This was a machine that plays song and rewinds for 36 short films. This machine allowed the music to be shown in colour and gave competition to the Panarom. This was a huge success in France and then in the mid 1965 was introduced in USA and around 1.000 machine were installed. Due to the huge advancement and demand in music videos a American business called Harman-ee produced the videos and cost around £8,000 to make. However, there was a big difference in viewers demand in France and USA. French films contained high suggestive content and were bordering pornographic. But this form of music video was short lived and because of the advancements in other videos slowly went out in popularity.

Then there was a huge burst of rock music that occurred and this was a huge hit with the younger audiences and by the late 60’s rock was a very popular choice in music.  This then obviously lead to the rise of Elvis Presley, one of the biggest rock artist in history and the fictional content that music video contained was used in his music video Jailhouse Rock which became very popular. Then in the rise of the Beatles occurred and changed the face on rock music, there popularity across the world lead rock music becoming a very popular music type. The popularity of the Beatles lead to the American creating their own group called The Monkees and the 4 band members were selected because of their looks on TV as this is the way the music appealed to the viewers. This then lead to the creation of boy bands from the 1990s to the 21^st century.  

Another big advancement in music video history is television coverage of pop music and this was to capture young audiences from in American the television programme American bandstand then Ready Steady go and top of the pop which is a UK based promgramme. This also led to music videos producing promos and major bands used this such as Rolling Stones and The Kinks.

1980 – 2003

This is the period that broadcasting of music videos really took off, MTV began broadcasting on Warner in 1981 and became a huge hit. The growth of MTV was rapid and changed the way that music videos were presented; the early years on 1980 lead to the dominance of white acts and launched a European version in 1987. Even though the success of Michael Jackson Thriller and Bad but lead to the break through of black artists. This led to the advancement in gangsta rap and had big threat to the dominance that white artist, had in the industry.  Hype Williams had a huge impact on this advancement and led the way for black artist and directors such as TLC, R.Kelly and Missy Elliott and by the late 90s took control of the music industry.

Furthermore, because of this rock realized the importance of music videos and Bruce Springsteen began the surge of rock videos.

Now – Future

The music industry now a days is very divers and audiences have got many different genres to pick out of. Since the introduction of Apple ITunes it has changed the shape that audience purchase singles as most viewers will download their music off ITunes however, the use of illegal downloading has effected the efficiency of purchasing single and has damaged marketing in the music industry. Also YouTube and social media has had arguable the biggest impact on music videos are its so easy for viewer to watch the videos either off YouTube or other social media platforms. This has allowed record companies to publish their music videos and promos online and has changed the way that viewers watch music videos. In the future they are many paths that could be taken to further develop music videos such as the advancement in 3D has been huge and this could be the next step that music video take as it could lead to be a popular choice for viewers.