1878 “a horse in motion” is the first video ever made. by eadweard muybridge

1878

“A horse in motion” is the first video ever made. By Eadweard Muybridge.

Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville records a woman singing 'Au Clair De La Lune.‘ it is the first song ever recorded.

1860

“Dickson Experimental Sound Film” is the first video with a musical soundtrack. It was recorded by William K.L. Dickson.

1894

Still images were projected onto a screen during a performance of “Little Lost Child” this is the first example of illustrated song.

Music video TimelineFamous blues singer of the day Bessie Smith appears in a two reel short film called “St. Louis Blues” featuring a dramatized performance of her hit song. This is one of the earliest examples of a music video. The film played in theatres until 1932.

1929 1926

Oskar Fischinger begins work on “Visual music” a type of abstract animation, representing music with colours and shapes.

1

MGM released the first ever musical film “ The Broadway melody.”

Oliver Bentley-Jones

Tony Bennet was filmed walking along The Serpentine in Hyde Park as his single “Stranger in Paradise” played in the background. The video was played by major television stations over the world, this lead Bennet to claim he made the first music video.

1956Elvis stars in “Love Me Tender” the first of his many musical films that helped promote his records.

Walt Disney’s Fantasia is released, an animated film based around pieces of famous music

1940 1941

The Panoram jukebox was invented, a juke box type machine which took coins and in turn would rear project a short 16mm sound film. Subjects were songs by the popular bands of the day.

1964Top of the Pops, the British music chart television programme, is launched and has a big impact on the music industry, featuring live performances from many successful bands.


The Beatles’ first major motion picture “A Hard Day’s Night,” directed by Richard Lester is released. The films musical segments influenced countless subsequent music videos. The Film was the first of many Beatles' movies.

1975“Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen is made. The video is technically the first music video because it uses video tape rather than film. The film’s special effects were also considered incredibly innovative.

Devo releases “The Day My Baby Gave Me A Surprise,” the first music video to include traditional animation and the first music video to include computer animation.

1979

The Who released “Tommy” a movie based on their concept album, the movie includes performances from Elton John, Tina Turner and Eric Clapton. The movie had an innovative music video style.

1980

The Sex Pistols’ mockumentary “The Great Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle’ is released.


Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” became one of the first promotional film clips ever made.

1966

The Kinks’ “Dead End Street” became one of the first promotional film clips with a plot.

1967“Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” took the promotional clip format to a whole new level. Director Peter Goldman used innovative techniques such as slow-motion, reversed film, dramatic lighting, unusual camera angles and adding colour filtering in post-production.

Peter Whitebread directed the first colour promotional film clip with a plot for The Rolling Stones single “We Love You”

Michael Jackson’s thriller is the most successful music video ever made selling over 9 million units. It is also widely referenced as the greatest music video ever made. The video was directed by John Landis.

1983

MTV began listing directors with the artist and song credits, reflecting the fact that music videos had increasingly become an auteur's medium. This also marked the beginning of the careers of many famous directors including Spike Jonze, Michel Condry, Hype Williams and Mark Romanek.

1992 1982

Pink Floyd’s The Wall is released, an incredibly inspirational film, adapted from their massively successful concept album.

MTV is lauched. MTV as we know it today seems to be dominated by reality TV shows however the original purpose of the channel was to show music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs. The channel popularized the concept of VJs and had a massive impact on the music industry. The first video played on the channel was “Video killed the radio star” by the Buggles.

1981 1986

The music video for Peter Gaybriel’s song “Sledgehammer” used ground-breaking animation techniques developed by British studio Aardman Animation. The video went onto win 9 MTV Video Music Awards.

The first music video banned from MTV was Queen’s “Body Language” because of the video’s sexual undertone.


Norwegian band Rektor make the first ever videogame music video for their song “Princess”. It can be played on their website www.rektor.no

2006

iTunes opens and allows music videos to be downloaded off the internet

2005

Youtube is launched allowing music videos to be viewed online. Within 5 years the number of music video views online reaches 34 billion.

2008

Weezer captured the Youtube trend in their music video “Pork and Beans” which featured over 20 Youtube celebrities.

2000

Red Hot Chili Peppers release brilliant music video “Californication” which uses Playstation 2 style animation.

World’s most expensive Music video “Scream” by Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson is made. The video cost $7 million and was directed by Mark Romanek.

1995

“Ching-A-Ling” by Missy Elliot is the first ever 3D music video. The video is directed by Dave Meyers.


http://www.rektor.no/

Justin Bieber’s Baby is released. The Video is currently the most viewed video on Youtube with over 645 million views. The video will also be remembered as the first Youtube video to receive half a billion views.

2010

Rihanna's music video "S&M“ is released, the video features the singer whipping a tied-up man, taking hostages and indulging in a lesbian kiss, it was banned in 11 countries and was flagged as inappropriate for viewers that are under 18 on YouTube.

2011

Oliver Bentley-Jones started filming his Music video for My Chemical Romance’s summertime.

The Future

?A feature film will apparently be made out of Green Day’s 2004 concept album “American Idiot.”


With new technological advances Music videos should continue to become easier to make.

The first music video directed by monkeys?

1878 “a horse in motion” is the first video ever made. by eadweard muybridge

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