Evolution Of The Music Video Timeline with Iconic Music Videos

 1920'S-40'S

The first music videos came around during the 1920’s and 30’s. These came in the form of Soundies And Talkies and then later on the musicals first started by MGM.

The talkies were the first versions of music videos to arrive, being produced in 1926. Talkies such as vitaphone shorts that were produced by Warner Bros. featured bands, singers and dancers.

Sing -a-long shorts were shortly created after the invention of the talkies these were created by Max Fleisher which encouraged viewers to sing along with the aid of the lyrics on screen.

In 1930’s onwards MGM started making the musical after converting the “talkie” into a full colour, all talking sound movie, the first ever musical was “The Rogue Sing” made in 1930.

Soundies then came fully in the 1940’s and were mainly three minute musicals that were mainly done at the time in America In New York, Chicago and in Hollywood between 1940 and 1946. 

The soundies were the first “music videos” to be like they are today.

1950’s

During the 1950’s music videos started to be made.

In 1956 a musician named Tony Bennett claimed that he produced and made the first ever music video when he was filmed in Hyde park in London.

One of the most iconic of the time in 1957 was Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock” which started the genre of Rock And Roll during the 60’s and 70’s. 

1950's-60's-70's

Another iconic video of the era was done by The Beatles and their feature film “A Hard Day’s Night”.

Directed by Richard Lester and it was a music video documentary showing The Beatles Career So Far at the height of 'Beatlemania'.

At the start of the 60’s the visual jukebox was created called the Scopitone, it was a French invention, it allowed people to watch music videos during the 60’s and were used in bars and other areas of recreation.

In 1961 the cinebox and colour-sonic were invented in Italy and America respectively. And performed the same functions as the Scopitone

Also during the 60’s - 70’s many artist began using promotional clips to make music videos, promotional clips known also as filmed inserts are ways of promoting their band in other countries such as the USA without having to be their

The Beatles were one of the first artists to do this and their iconic video “Strawberry Fields Forever” was a example of this. 

Other iconic videos to do promotional clips include Bob Dylan's “Subterranean homesick blues”...

And “Procol Harum's – Winter Shade of Pale”.

1980'S

At the start of the 80’s a new way to watch music videos was born, MTV (Music Television) was launched in 1981 and allowed viewers to watch music videos 24/7 on the TV. 

When first launched in 1981 the first ever video played was by “The Buggles” and “Video Killed The Radio Star”.

 
Although shortly after its launch MTV began running out of new videos to play, this lead to many UK artists such as The Beatles sending their videos abroad to MTV, This Lead to these British Acts Getting a lot of overseas recognition.
Many iconic videos that were shown during the early stages of MTV include Michael Jacksons Thriller and Billie Jean

and also Peter Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer'.

1990'S- 2003/4

During the 1990’s MTV was in full swing and started when showing the music videos director(s) along with the song title and artist, and started the craze of music videos being a way for people to show their creative vision to a artist music video. 

Mark Romanek was one director during 1995 that created 2 of the most expensive and iconic videos of all time. 

These included:

• Michael Jackson’s “Scream”, which cost $7m to produce
• Madonna's “Bedtime Story”, which cost $5m to produce

2005 – Present Day

2005 Marked the launch of YouTube. A video sharing website which allowed people to upload videos and allow the viewers to watch them.

One of the first bands to experiment with YouTube was “Ok Go” and uploaded two of their most famous songs in “A Million Ways” and their most iconic video in “Here It Goes Again” which in turn gained them the fame they had.

2005 – Present Day Cont.

Another ionic music video that gained worldwide success was by Thirty Seconds To Mars’ “Kings and Queens” which gained millions of views on release day of the single in 2009.

Apple and it’s iTunes software dedicate a section of its store to allow audiences to watch music videos for free, while later on in the year started selling videos for people to buy for their iPod’s.

VEVO - 2009-present

VEVO launched at the end of 2009 and partnered with YouTube and Google to show a huge number of artists music videos and many other behind the scenes videos and interviews with artists.

Then In 2012 VEVO introduced “LIFT” which supported new and up and coming artists by showing them a series of video interviews and features allowing the audiences to get to know the artists.