History of Music Videos

History of Music Videos

Music videos changed dramatically because of the invention of film and cinema, which gave artists the possibility to combine music with film. Also another huge factor of why music videos have changed is because of the advances in technology. New technologies allow artists to be more unique and have turned the music video into what it is today.

However, unexpectedly music videos have been around since the 1920s as there was a boom in the entertainment sector in America and jazz became very popular. Artists such as Bessie Smith made short films to accompany her music and in 1929 Bessie smith featured in a short film- St. Louis Blues (see video below).

Also people argue that the first modern music video was in 1965 by Bob Dylan Films- ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’. The song was used in what became one of the first "modern" promotional film clips, of which later became known as the music video. In the video Bob Dylan is staring at the camera, he flips the cards as the song plays. There are intentional misspellings and puns throughout the clip: for instance, when the song's lyrics say "eleven dollar bills" the poster says "20 dollar bills".

In the 1970s music videos started to change again as the music industry discovers TV-Shows of which they used to promote their artists and music. Artists would produce short 'promos' which again were early music videos. The TV show would play the promos instead of a live performance of the artist on the TV stage, an example is below.

Another highly credited music video is Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen as it marked a new era for the music video as it is considered one of the first to use advanced visual effects. However, all of the special effects were achieved during the recording, rather than editing. The visual effect of Mercury's face cascading away was accomplished by pointing the camera at a monitor, giving a visual effect.. The video was edited within five hours because it was due to be broadcast the same week in which it was taped.