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The First Music Video
100 years before YouTube was created, Edward B. Marks and Joseph W. Stern came up with the idea of creating slides to illustrate their composition, 'The Little Lost Child'. Using a magic lantern, Thomas projected a series of still images onto a screen simultaneous to live performances. This became a popular form of entertainment known as the illust. -
Vitaphone
In 1926, Warner Bros made nearly 1,000 short subjects called Vitaphone's which were sound film systems used for feature films. Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one which was widely used and commercially successful. The discs would be played on a turntable physically coupled to the projector motor while the film was being projected. -
St. Louis Blues
Blues singer Bessie Smith appeared in a two-reel short film called In 1929, St. Louis Blues film features a dramatized performance of the hit song by Bessie Smith where she was film singing the song. Numerous other musicians appeared in short musical subjects during this period. -
Walt Disney
Early 1930s cartoons featured popular musicians performing their hit songs on-camera in live-action segments during the cartoons. The early animated films by Walt Disney, such as the Silly Symphonies shorts and especially Fantasia, which featured several interpretations of classical pieces, were built around music. -
Soundies
Soundies produced and released from 1940 to 1947. They were musical films that often included short dance sequences, similar to later music videos. -
Louis Jordan
In the mid 1940s, musician Louis Jordan made short films for his songs, some of which were spliced together into a feature film like Lookout Sister. These films were, according to music historian Donald Clarke, the "ancestors" of music videos. -
Toby Bennett ''First Music Video''
In 1956, Toby Bennett was filmed walking along the Serpintine in Hyde Park as his song 'Stranger in Paradise' played. In his autobiography, he claims to have created the ''first music video''. -
Jail House Rock
In 1957, the second music video starring Elvis Presley in Jail House Rock was released in America. -
Scopitones
The Scopitones were produced in 1960 and showed short films which accompanied a song. -
The Beatles ''A Hard Day's Night''
In 1964, the Beatles starred in their first feature film A Hard Day's Night, directed by Richard Lester. Shot in black-and-white and presented as a mock documentary, it interspersed comedic and dialogue sequences with musical tones. -
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, was a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcasted weekly between 1 January 1964 and 30 July 2006. -
Strawberry Fields Forever & Penny Lane
The colour promotional clips for "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" were released at the beginning of 1967 and were directed by Peter Goldman. He took the promotional film format to a new level. -
Queen- ''Bohemian Rhapsody''
"Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song by the British rock band Queen. Bohemian Rhapsody was written by Freddie Mercury for the band's 1975 studio album A Night at the Opera. The song consists of several sections including a ballad segment ending with a guitar solo, an operatic passage and a hard rock section. At the time, it was the most expensive single ever made. -
David Bowie ''Ashes to Ashes''
David Bowie achieved his first number one hit with an eye-catching promo of ''Ashes to Ashes''. -
MTV
MTV was launched in 1981. The first music video they aired was The Bubbles 'Video Killed the Radio Star'. -
Michael Jackson ''Thriller''
In 1983, the most successful, influential and iconic music video of all time was released. The nearly 14-minute-long video for Michael Jackson's song "Thriller", directed by John Landis. The video set new standards for production, having cost US$800,000 to film. The video for "Thriller", along with earlier videos by Jackson for his songs "Billie Jean" and "Beat It", were instrumental in getting music videos by African American artists played on MTV.
