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Talkies
Many musical short films were produced in 1926, for example 'Vitaphone Shorts' featured bands, vocalists and dancers. The first feature film that included sychronized sound was called 'The Jazz Singer' and was released in 1927. The film included several vocal performances and indicated the decline of silent cinema. Additionally Max Fleischer created a number of short sing-along cartoons that encouraged audiences to join in with popular songs. -
St Louis Blues
In 1929, a two-reel short film starring Bessie Smith was produced. The film dramatised Bessie Smith's hit song from 1925 by having Smith play a woman who is left alone by a man. Featured in the short were a three-piece band and a choir who performed harmonies towards the end of the piece. -
Fantasia
Produced by Walt Disney, the film consists of eight animated segments built around pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowoski and performed by the Philadelphia Orchastra. -
Soundies
Soundies were three-minute musical clips shot on 16mm film that contained a song, dance or orchastral number and can be seen as similar to later music videos. The films were displayed on the Panoram in nightclubs, bars, restaurants etc. More than 1800 were made, and they covered all genres of music so were popular with many. -
Louis Jordan
Thought to be the 'Ancestor of the Modern Music Video', Louis Jordan appeared in dozens of soundies and starred in two musical feature films that were written espiecally for him. Some of his short films were put together in the feature film 'Look-Out Sister'. -
Musical Films
Musical films have also had an influential role on music videos, and the style of some classic Hollywood musicals have been imitated in popular videos. For example, Madonna's video for 'Material Girl' was based on the staging from the song 'Diamond's Are A Girl's Best Friend' from the film 'Gentleman Prefer Blondes'. Additionally in videos such as Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' and 'Bad', the dance sequences were influenced by the dance fights in 'West Side Story'. -
Tony Bennett
In London 1956, Tony Bennett was filmed walking along the Serpentine in Hyde Park and the clip was set to his recording of ‘Stranger in Paradise’. The clip was sent to UK and US TV stations, causing it to be aired on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. In his autobiography, Bennett claimed that he created the first music video. -
Concert Films
In the mid-1960s, concert films began to be released. A concert film is a documentary which shows an extended live performance of a musician. The earliest were filmed for the T.A.M.I show, which included performances by numerous popular rock and roll and R&B musicians. -
A Hard Day's Night
The Beatles first feature film was directed in 1964 by Richard Lester and is credited as being one of the most influential musical films of all time as it inspired many pop music videos and ‘The Monkees’ Television Show’. The main sequence was filmed in black-and-white and is considered to be one of the first performance-style music videos. New filming techniques were included during the filming of the performances, such as rhythmic cross-cutting, contrasting long shots and close-ups. -
The Who
The Who also began to star in promotional clips that had a storyline, thus demonstrating the rise of narrative based music videos. For their song ‘Happy Jack’, the video showed the band acted like a gang of thieves. Furthermore, their promotional film for their song ‘Call Me Lightning’, told the story of how their drummer-Keith Moon-came to join the band. -
The Monkees
Based upon ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, the TV series consisted of film segments that were created to accompany various Monkees songs. The series followed the band as they tried to become established rock singers. The show won two Emmy awards, and is known for introducing innovative film techniques that are still used today. -
The Kinks
The Kinks made one of the first promotional clips that included a substantial plot. In the video for their song, ‘Dead End Street’, they made a miniature comic movie which the BBC refused to air as they believed it be ‘of poor taste’. -
David Bowie
Bowie performed in a series of promotional films, directed by photographer Mick Rock, which were produced on a very low budget. The video for ‘John, I'm Only Dancing’ was made on budget of $200 and was filmed during rehearsals for Bowie’s Rainbow Concert. It showed Bowie and his band miming to the record alongside footage of Bowie's dancers ‘The Astronettes’ dancing on stage. Additionally the promo clip for ‘Jean Genie’ was produced on a budget of $350, filmed in one day and edited in two. -
Bohemian Rhapsody
In 1975 Queen hired Bruce Gowers to make a promotional video for their new single, so that it could be shown on Top of the Pops. Rock historian Paul Fowles stated that the song was the first global hit which marketing strategy revolved around an accompanying video. The magazine 'Rolling Stone' stated that it 'practically invented the music video seven years before MTV went on the air.' -
The Beatles
In order to promote the release of their songs, without having to make personal appearances, the Beatles began to make promotional clips that would be distributed and broadcasted in countries where they had an extensive fan base, such as the USA. By 1966, their promotional films had become quite sophisticated. The promotional clips, now filmed in colour, used techniques from avant garde films such as reversed film, slow motion, dramatic lighting, unusual camera angles and colour filtering. -
YouTube
The launch of YouTube, in 2005, allowed for the viewing of online video to become much faster and easier. Online video websites had a large effect on the viewing of music videos and some artists began to see success for videos that were mostly streamed online. The band 'OK Go' demonstrate this trend, having achieved fame through the videos for their songs, "A Million Ways" in 2005 and "Here It Goes Again" in 2006, which were first shown online. -
MTV
In 1981 the US video channel launched, airing 'Video Killed The Radio Star, thus beginning it's era of 24 hour a day music on television. The launch of MTV influenced the popularity of music videos, as they began to play a central role in popular music marketing by the mid-1980s. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by television personalities -
Key Innovations
The development of inexpensive video recording and editing equipment and the enhancement of visual effects allowed for pop acts to produce music videos quickly and cheaply. However, as music videos increased in popularity, 35mm film became the preferred medium. A mix of film and video was also used frequently. -
Thriller
Thriller is considered to be one of the most influential videos of all time. The video was nearly 14 minutes long, and cost $800,000 to make. Furthermore, Michael Jackson's videos played an important role in getting videos made by African American artists on MTV. Before his success, African American artists were rarely played on MTV. Thriller had a profound effect on pop-culture due to it's unique merging of film and music.
