History of Music Videos

By Fabiha Ferdous

What is a music video?

• A music video/song is a short film mixing a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purpose.

• In 1894, sheet music Publishers Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern hired an electrician, George Thomas and numerous performers to promote sales of their song ‘The little lost child’

• Thomas projected a series of still images on screen simultaniously to live performance.

• This was developed in the 17th Century and commonly used for educational purposes

• This became a really popular form of entertainment and was the first step towards music videos.

How it all began…

Bessie Smith- St. Louis Blues

• This is one of the earliest examples of music videos that we are familiar with today. It was shown in theatres in 1932.

Tony Bennett• Released in 1956• ‘Strangers In Paradise’• This was filmed in Hyde Park, in London and across

the UK and US television stations. • This was the first example of using music videos on

TV, this would lead on to create channels like MTV and Top of the Pops

Chroma-Key

• A special effect for compromising two images or video streams together based on colour hues.

• This technique was a huge step for the music industry. This was used mostly in videogames and news casting

MTV • Michael Jackson- Thriller• this was released in 1982• This type of music video has a plot as there is

narrative, almost like a ‘mini movie’ • it contains sophisticated visuals and it took the

music industry to a whole other level. • After this music videos made high budget

productions

Britney Spears- Rise of the Directors

• Britney Spears- Sometimes• this was released in 199• Music videos meets the expectations of the pop

genre and makes it appealing to mainstream society, this was mainly targetted at young females through thr mis en scene

Iggy Azalea

• In the current music video era that we live in today. • the ‘sex appeal’ of females has been dominated in

the music industry. • Music videos are now very easy to access through

numerous ways such as TV channels, social network, websites and phone apps