History of Music Videos

Rian Eades

Music Videos - PromotionGenerally, music videos are used for promotion in order to help the artist with sales, popularity and even status in the music industry. Artists now tend to create very mainstream videos in order for audiences to engage with the artists and their music.The first hint that we saw of sales promotion through a music video was back in 1984 when ‘The little lost child’ was created using a magic lantern child and this made the sales of this song rocket.

1926 - 1930

Between these years, the first indication of any music video was revealed to the world. What people saw was music accompanying a moving image and this was bewildering to many. It instantly drew attention to the artists music and towards 1930 a lot of animation was used as music videos with music overlay which was how people would hear the songs.

1930-1950

These were the years when music videos started becoming more advanced and film musicals became very prolific during this era. During this time, music videos started to become influential and people would even become exited and would anticipate the release of a ‘music video’ even though we know the ‘first music video’ wasn’t released until 1984.

Music Videos as We Know Them

One of the first music videos which became incredible popular was in 1963. Jon & Dean – Surf City. Fans of all music types were intrigued by this song because it was the first time that they had seen a music video which referenced the lyrics.

Michael JacksonMichael Jackson holds the title of producing the worlds most expensive music video – Scream – which cost him $7 million to create. He hired film director Mark Romanek who is a very well known director to help create a theatrical performance which took the world by surprise.Some people question whether Michael Jackson’s videos made him sell more music, and whether he would be as successful without his music videos.