HISTORY OF MUSIC VIDEOS:

Music videos are viewed worldwide on a daily basis and can both me a method of
meaning and marketing, the internet definition of a music video is a short video
or film made to accompany a song or piece of popular music, often as a
cinematic or dramatic interpretation of it. More recently in the media music
videos have been presented as a marketing strategy in which attracts particular
target audiences to buy records. Music videos became a prominent feature of the
media in 1980, following developments within the music industry. Before 1980
when the music video concept became established many accompanying videos
were referred to as illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film",
"promotional clip", "promotional video", "song video", "song clip" or "film clip".
Conventions of music videos can differ for example; some may use animation to
present their ideas and concepts while others may use the method of
documentary means, following the narrative concept of music videos established
by Simon Firth, in his musical theory. In Differing terms ,some music videos may
be performance based, for example as seen in the Red Hot Chilli Peppers SnowHey Oh music video which takes direct footage from the bands live concert as
the subject of the music video- This also follows the Performance music video
theory identified by Simon Firth.
An outstanding development in the media, that ultimately gave rise to the music
video concept, was down to Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern, Sheet music
publishers who hired electrician George Thomas and various performers to
promote sales of their song "The Little Lost Child" Using a magic lantern, which
was an image projector developed in the 17 th century, Thomas projected a series
of still images on a screen simultaneous to live performances. This would
become a popular form of entertainment known as the illustrated song, the and
was arguably a step closer to the establishment of the known term Music
Videos
Later on, with the new addition of "talkies( a film with a soundtrack, as distinct
from a silent film)to the media in 1926, many musical short films were produced
again suggesting a new concept of accompanying music videos emerging.
Another development re-enforcing the addition of music videos came from
musical films that mirrored classic Hollywood films, which of course would have
played a big part in the popularity of music videos as the film industry was on
the rise, an example would be Madonnas ,Mary Lambert directed, musical film of
Material Girl, of which closely mirrored the themes of Jack Coles staging of
Diamonds are a girls best friend therefore again improving the popularity of the
video, as people would view it due to intertextual references between the Coles
storyline and Madonnas musical film. This concept too, supports Andrew
Goodwins theory of intertextuality between different media texts, supporting
and building upon the importance of music theories within the music media
industry.

An monumental claim later came from Tony Bennet, an American artist, who
claimed in his written autobiography to have created the first ever music video,
of which took place in Hyde Park, London in 1956 with the resulting clip being set
to his recording of the song "Stranger in Paradise". A year later in 1957 the
second music video was said to have been created however this time in the
United States of America starring Elvis Presley.
A couple of years later in 1964, the worldwide phenomenon band The Beatles
stared in their first feature film A hard days night directed by Robert Lester.
This black and white music video followed a mock documentary presentative
method. Again this music video also followed intertextual references between
other media products for example it was modelled against the US TV series the
Monkees. Shortly after the Beatles featured in their more sophisticated second
music video which supported their song Help in 1965 which was filmed in
London with the new addition of colour. This too followed technical developments
within the media, again giving rise to the popularity of music videos. Furthermore
the cinematic ability shown within this video was bound to attract and appeal to
a wider target audience, for example the use of cross-cutting, contrasting long
shots and close-ups, and unusual shots and camera angles, such as the shot 50
seconds into the song, in which George Harrison's left hand and the neck of his
guitar are seen in sharp focus in the foreground while the completely out-of-focus
figure of John Lennon sings in the background, representing a deep focus shot.
Possibly the outstanding development in music videos came in 1981 when the
US video channel MTV launched airing "Video Killed the Radio Star" and
beginning an era of 24-hour-a-day music on television. With this new
development, calling out for music video material, the music video would, by the
mid-1980s, grow to play a central role in popular music marketing. Many
important acts of this period, most notably Adam and the Ants, Duran and
Madonna, owed a great deal of their success to the skilful production and
construction and sexual, seductive appeal of their videos.
MTV was also responsible for the addition of the new channel VH1,in 1985 which
brought the addition of softer toned music of which was aimed to appeal to an
older audience and therefore again suggesting that music videos were becoming
of more central importance to the entire population and not just that of the
youths, portraying the importance of this development.
In November 1992, MTV began listing directors with the artist and songs credits
on their musical platforms reinforcing the idea that music videos had in fact
become a auteur or creative vision skill, again placing created respect and
importance on the develop of music videos in the industry.
More recently the creation of the website YouTube gave rise to a national musical
platform of which is still widely used today due to the free accessibility of it,
furthermore this made it easier, cheaper and more accessible for consumers to
access music videos on the go giving them more choice in their musical
consumption, with this too, came more emphasis on the music videos of songs,
with for example the music video of Coldplays Paradise currently holding

400,992,262 views on YouTube, increasing the competition among artists for

their music videos to be better than the others currently on the market today.
MTV itself now provides streams of artists' music videos, while AOL's recently
launched AOL Music features a vast collection of advertising supported streaming
videos. The Internet has become the primary growth income market for record
company-produced music videos, which too also reflects the importance of
technological digital developments as an major factor leading to the success of
music videos and too their popularity.