The history of the music video

THE HISTORY OF THE MUSIC VIDEO Significant moments in the history of the music.

THE GRAMOPHONE

Edison developed the gramophone in 1877 and Emile Berliner developed it further in 1887.

This allowed, for the first time, music to be played at home and not just witnessed in a public performance.

ALEXANDER NEVSKY

Sergei Eisenstein, a Soviet Russia propagandist film maker, produced Alexander Nevsky.

The score was composed by Sergei Prokofiev. It was the first time that a soundtrack was

specifically commissioned to fit a piece of footage.

It was the first video that set action to music and was not just a live show.

FANTASIA

Disney’s ‘Fantasia’ is arguably the first music video.

The cartoon was made specifically by Walt Disney in order to go with a piece of music.

This was done to try and get Disney’s audience interested in classical music.

READY, STEADY, GO!

Ready, Steady, Go! was broadcast from August 1963 until December 1966 on ITV.

The programme was dedicated to music and featured live performances of bands.

The programmes artists mimed to records. By late 1964, some artists performed live and the show switched to all-live performances in 1986.

Record companies used the show to ‘sell’ their band.

TOP OF THE POPS

Top of the Pops was a BBC show broadcast weekly between January 1964 and July 2006.

It featured the No.1 for that week. Record companies would try to get their

artists on the programme. If the artists were not available to perform

the song would be played while dancers (the Pans People) performed.

Videos began to be made for when artists were unavailable.

QUEEN - BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

It was created in 1975. It is seen as one of the most significant music

videos. It breaks the conventions of a music video being three and a half minutes long. It is also filled with many technological innovations and effects that were fairly new.

At this point, bands are starting to gain more power in making their own music video decisions.

MTV

Created in 1981, MTV was the only TV station being exclusively for music.

Its creation had a massive impact on the music industry and it contributed to the importance of the music video.

Eventually more music videos channels and the internet has impacted upon MTV. They have had to diversify to keep viewers and it now includes reality shows in addition to the traditional music videos.

MICHAEL JACKSON: ‘THRILLER’

Thriller was created in 1983 and was a landmark video in the merging of filmmaking and the music video.

It is often seen as the most commercially successful music video of all time.

It is 14 minutes long and had to be screened after the watershed.

It features a famous horror actor, Vincent Price.

PETER GABRIEL: ‘SLEDGEHAMMER’

The video was shot frame by frame and the artist, Gabriel, had to lie under a glass sheet for 16 hours.

It was a big experiment with stop-motion and animation.

It was seen as something new and fantastic in terms of editing and new technologies.

BEYONCE - 2014

In 2014, Beyonce released her 5yh album through the release of music videos.

There was no promotion, no teasers or news releases.

The music videos were released before the physical copy.

YOUTUBE

YouTube changed how music videos are watched, their length, how they are shared and the rate of exchange.

Videos are not confined by length, can be viewed worldwide and unofficial videos can be posed on it.

1 billion people use YouTube, 4 billion videos are posted to the site daily.

Only 38% of videos on YouTube are music videos and 60% of its audience do not speak English as their first language.