The History of Music Videos

Music videos are a vital part of the music industry. The video can determine the artist’s success as it is not always about the vocals, it’s also about how the artist presents themselves to the media.

MTV changed the revolution of music as it was the first program to broadcast music videos. In 1981 in the USA, a new era of music videos started, soon to take over the music industry. The first ever video played on MTV was 'Video Killed the Radio Star'.

Once music videos were introduced many artists realized the importance of the production within the careers. MTV enabled artists to become more established, introduced in Britain in 1984 the first video 'Money for Nothing' by Piano Straights. Arguably the music video is as important as the song itself; to an extent it determines the success of the song.

Bohemian Rhapsody revolutionized music videos and founded the conventions for music videos in the 1930's. In the 1940's television was made common in most clubs and households. The music industry was on a decline, they countered by making a soundie (made to show artists lip synching).

In the 1960's films were made with featuring artists, beaming the earliest form of music videos. In the 1960's the growth of rock n pop was present. The target market were teenage girls. Teenagers were shown as rebellious and as ungrateful for the older generation. The Rolling Stones released a movie called 'Stones in the Park' in the 1970's where fans can watch them perform on video.

An 'American Werewolf in London' was directed by John Landis, he took this onto Michael Jacksons Thriller, the ideas within the film influenced the music idea. The music video of 'Thriller' by Michael Jackson subverted the conventions of a typical music video. The video lasted for fourteen minutes and portrayed a horror theme. It was like a short movie, instead of the vocals being the main focus of the artist; Michael Jackson's performance dominated the production. The 'Thriller' music video was introduced in 1983; the whole concept was way ahead of its time and that why it proved to be such a success. Many artists then realized how important the video was as well as the song. 

'Smack my Bitch Up' was an x rated song and music video produced by the Prodigy. It was never released due to the explicit lyrics and performance within the video. it was politically incorrect and objectified women. It promoted the life of sex and drugs.