History of Music Videos
'A Music Video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music, most commonly a song.'
Modern Music videos are now primarily used as a marketing device. Artists would create a captivating music video that would entice their audience into buying the song and from this they are able to gain a higher revenue stream. Commonly music videos are are called promotion videos due to them being considered a promotional device.
Some of the earliest music videos were filmed in the mid 1950's however music videos do go back as far as the 1920's with animators such as Oskar Fischinger who made 'visual music'.
A defining moment for the modern music videos was when The Beatles released their first major motion picture. 'A Hard Day's Night' which was released in 1964. The release of this video influenced many artists of the different genres to produce such videos.
The Beatles also released short films for 'Strawberry Fields Forever' and 'Penny Lane' which were made in 1967. the editing styles made this videos so influential as they used dramatic lighting, camera angles that had never been seen before and multiple film effects.
Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' started a new era for using music videos as a promotion or a marketing tool. the iconic video is one that sticks in the minds of the viewer and from this creates popularity enticing a wider audience. The song is a take on the 1970s progressive rock genre and was the most expensive single ever made at that time.
MTV was launched in 1981 and the first video to be aired was 'Video Killed the Radio Star'. Surprisingly David Bowie scored his first UK number one in nearly a decade with his catchy video for 'Ashes to Ashes'
In the mid 1980s the effects that artists used where more sophisticated. Artists began to adda storyline or a plot to the video. Michael Jackson was the first artist to create a complete concept of a short film for his music video. A small incorporation of these effects was with 'Billie Jean' and 'Beat It'.
In 1984 Michael Jackson released 'Thriller' a short film that took music videos to another level. "Thriller" was created by John Landis who directed An American Werewolf In London At fourteen minutes the video is substantially longer than the song, which ties together a narrative featuring Jackson and actress Ola Ray in a setting heavily inspired by horror films of the 1950s.
There are multiple Videos within the last seventeen years that are iconic and have created platforms for artists around the world. One Direction created a music video for their single 'Best Song Ever' the video is six minutes long and appeals to their target audience by showing a different side to the band which is something that most artists do not convey.
Gangnam Style was released on July 15th 2012. On december 21st Gangnam Style became the first YouTube video to reach one billion biews. The music viceo has been veiwed ver 2.70 billion times on YouTube. This music video has been YouTubes most watched video since november 2012 which overtook the music video for 'Baby' by Justin Bieber.
'Baby' was released by Justin Bieber a Canadian artist. The official music video is the seventeenth most viewed video of all time on YouTube. The Music Video was used to entice al of Justin Bieber's fans and made them the beliebers they are today. His Videos soon changed to a more dark and mysterious side of Justin Bieber when he released Boyfriend and 'What Do You Mean' video that are more serious and have a more believable narrative piece throughout.