Music Video History

In 1926, musical short films were produced, featuring bands and many artists. These artists would perform their hit songs live. Then in 1965 the Beatles started to make promotional clips for distribution and broadcast in other countries, mainly in the USA, so they could promote their record without having to go on tour, or perform live. In 1975, Queen made a promotional video to show their new single "Bohemian Rhapsody" on the BBC music series Top of the Pops. Therefore, they were becoming more popular and started to air on television. On August 1^st 1981, MTV launched the first ever music video on their TV channel. The first video ever played on the channel was the song, Video Killed The Radio Star” by The Buggles. Further down the line in 2005 there was the launch of the website YouTube, which made the viewing of online video much faster and easier. These websites had a big effect on the viewing of music videos, as some artists began to see success because of videos seen mostly online. Reference- Wikipedia.

Bessie Smith was the first artist to bring out a music video. - in 1923 she was discovered by someone from Columbia Records, and offered her a contract she signed. She was then able to make her own songs and her most popular was "Downhearted Blues,". It sold an estimated 800,000 copies, due to having a very powerful voice and lead her to tour widely. 


Len Lye- born on 5th July 1901, was known for his experimental films and kinetic sculptures. In 1929, Lyes first experimental film was premiered at the London film society, 'Tusalava'. This film was constructed using approx 4400 different drawings, each of which was photographed; a process known as cel animation. Over the top of this video, was a piece of music, in which made this a version of a 'music video'. From this, he continued to make more of these and became popular.

The most expensive music video of all time is, Michael and Janet Jackson ‘Scream’ as it was made at $7 million. Its original air date was in May 1995, and would now cost $11 million. The second most expensive music video is Madonna ‘Die another day’, released in October 2002, in which costed $6.1 million. Madonna had mainly the most expensive videos, including the songs, Express yourself and Bedtime story. Those both costing $5 million.

Key conventions found in the genre:

·         Pop-

o   high key lighting and costuming, which is also usually fashionable because of the youth target audience.

o   Usually a love narrative, teenage romance

o   Normally a performance music video, dancing, focusing on the artist or band

o   Use of voyeurism, with topless men and young attractive girls, to fit their target audience. Use of close ups help this

·         Rock-

o   low key lighting, sometimes a use of strobe lighting or shadows

o   Setting normally a dark, abandoned place, almost like a nightmare

o   Usually features at least one of the main singers

o   Instruments such as electric guitar are almost always used

o   Deep narrative, and sometimes performance

·         Indie-

o   Lower budget

o   Main settings that are easily accessed, e.g. park

o   Unique and retro look, through costume and props, props such as guitar

o   Usually live performances, with narrative in between

o   Focused on the artists as well as they story, including close ups

Most watched music videos-

·         ‘See you again’ – Wiz and Charlie Puth with 2.9 billion views

·         ‘Gangnam style’ – Psy with 2.89 billion views

·         ‘Sorry’ – Justin Bieber with 2.6 billion views

·         ‘Uptown Funk’ – Bruno Mars with 2.55 billion views

·         ‘Despacito’- Luis Fonsi with 2.5 billion views

Most popular music videos for each decade and why-

·         1960s- The Beatles, as it was the first introduction of music videos/ promo clips. Therefore, people were new to the idea and all watched these first clips.

·         1970s- Queen- Bohemian Rhapsody, as this was the first clip to be played on the BBC, Top of the Pops. Which introduced it to the public, making them watch it many more times.

·         1980s- Michael Jackson- Thriller, as Thriller sealed MTV's reputation as a new cultural force; dissolved racial barriers. At that time, Thriller was also set to be very expensive, bring $900,000 so the production was the best. The music video is also 13 minutes long, longer than any before so people wanted to watch it.

·         1990s- Nirvana- Smells like teen spirit, as it is the most iconic song of all time. As it includes many different musical elements, such as keys, within the song that everybody enjoyed. It meant that they were going to watch the video without a doubt, pushing it up higher.

·         2000s- Eminem- Lose yourself, as it had a deeper meaning than many other rap songs, and this reflected within the video.

2010s- Justin Bieber- Sorry, as it was up there with the most views on YouTube. Justin didn’t feature in the video and solely used female dancers, such as Royal Family, who are a very popular dance group. Therefore, this may have been a key factor in the success of this video.


By doing this research, it has given me a better understanding of music videos, and what were the best of all time. Meaning I can take this information and analyse why they were so great, and take as many elements and put towards my music video.