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Talkies
Talkies are films with a soundtrack and with the arrival of them many musical short films. Vitaphone shorts were produced by Warner Bros and featured vocalists, dancers and several bands. The first feature film made into a talkie was 'The Jazz Singer', made by Vitaphone. -
The Rise of Political and Social Related Music Videos
In the early 1980's music videos related to political and social issues surrounding the time period started to become more popular and common. One influential artist famous for creating music videos that were relevant to the times was David Bowie releasing songs such as 'China Girl' and 'Let's Dance', he said "Let's try to use the video format as a platform for some kind of social observation, and not just waste it on trotting out and trying to enhance the public image of the singer involved". -
Launch of MTV
MTV was the first ever 24 hour music channel and appeared on box sets -
Launch of Country Music Television (CMT)
As country music began to rise in popularity, a dedicated country music TV channel was launched which featured and previewed many different country artist's music videos. -
Thriller Music Video
Released in 1983, Thriller is a famous dance based music video. The images work in syngery with the lyrics as the both describe and create the same atmosphere. Unlike a lot of modern music videos there is a story line in the 13 minute long Thriller music video which engaged and captured the audience and was what made this music video so famous. -
Lyric Music Videos
Some artists release two separate music videos, one with a narrative or footage and then a second music videos that show the lyrics of the song in the video. Some artists only release a lyric video, for example George Micheal released "Praying For Time", he refused to make a traditional music video so he released a clip that showed the lyrics on a black screen. -
Doo-Wop (That Thing) Music Video
Doo-Wop by Lauryn Hill is a well-known music video as it made use of split screen, showing life from 1967 and an alternative life in 1998, this was an interesting change for music videos at the time as they had been simply filmed before. -
iFilm and Napster
iFilm showed many short videos, including music videos. Napster is a peer-to-peer service that enables users to share music files, this caused music videos to become more popular as it became easier to access music videos. -
Launch of YouTube
Youtube was launched in 2005 and allowed everyone and anyone can upload videos. Famous singers are able to upload new releases but also the general public are able to upload videos of themselves singing for youtube users to see and listen to. This allows singers who want a chance of signing with a record label and have a singer career are able to be recognised for free. Examples of singers who began their singing career through Youtube are: Carly Rae Jepsen, Cody Simpson and Soulja Boy. -
Gangnam Style Music Video
Gangnam Style became very popular, a while after it's release date the video was averaging over nine million views a day. The video features a lot of dancing and unlike older music videos doesn't feature a strong narrative.
