Music Videos A History Of...

For the first part of my research I will look into the history of Music Videos so that I can gain a better understanding of them and learn more about them for when I create my own Music Video for this project.

1930’s 1930; Musical Films were popular which included several songs interwoven with the acting. Dramatised versions of hit songs were also created including many different artists. This is often known as the ‘ancestor of music videos’.

1960’s 1964; The Beatles created the first Motion Picture music video ‘A Hard Days Night’ which then lead the way to many music videos years later. 1965: The Beatles taped 10 black and white films which are used to promote their album releases. This is the beginning of artists using video to promote their new songs using video.

1980’s 1981; The Music Video ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ by The Buggles aired on MTV and was the first music video to be shown on television. 24 hour broadcasting also meant that music videos played a central role in music marketing. 1983; The most successful and infuential music video, ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson was released. 1984; This was the first year of the ‘Video Music Awards’ and popular bands, musicians and artists gathered together as the awards were presented by MTV. It was here that Madonna performed her famous hit, ‘Like a Virgin’. 1985; MTV launches VH1, which was designed for older viewers who listen to softer music.

1990’s 1995; Stars Michael & Janet Jackson’s song ‘Scream’ is listed as the most expensive music video of all time as it costed $7 million to produce.

2000’s 2002; Music Video producers introduce creating the music videos into a DVD to sell their music on, which raises Music Video viewings by 33% 2005; I-Tunes is created and the doors for listening, viewing and downloading music videos are opened. It was only 20 days after I-Tunes had been selling music videos that over 1 million songs were downloaded. Youtube was also created and new artists could see a rise in popularity through the use of youtube on the internet. 2010; Lady Gaga is the first to reach 1 billion views on a music video as her popularity grows.

Distribution As music videos are now so popular and are become more and more advanced through developments in technology, there are also more ways to distribute them to the target audiences. Some of these distribution methods may be: - TV - Internet - Print (Newspapers, Magazines, Leaflets, Etc.) - CD and CD-ROM - DVD - Radio There are lots of ways that producers can now advertise and distribute their music/music videos and as the demand for these music products gets higher, the more distribution ideas people will come up with.