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Vitaphone
Vitaphone was founded by Warner Bros as a sound film system for feature films in 1926. It featured almost 1,000 short subjects made by Warner and First National between 1926 and 1931.
Vitaphone was a commercial success because it was the last major analog sound-on-disc system.
These songs are considered to be the first music videos as they featured the clips from the film as well as the song so people could watch something related to the music. -
Louis Jordan
Louis Jordan was a black American musician, songwriter and bandleader who was very popular between the 1930s and 50s. He specialised in the music genres; swing, blues, jazz and R&B.
In the mid 40s, he made short clips to go along with his songs and a few years later they were pieced together with some extra scenes to make a full feature film called The Lookout Sisters -
Fantasia
A classic Walt Disney production, Fantasia was an animated film which had songs in the film. This film used classical pieces of music but changed them slightly which made Fantasia very popular. This was the first film to experiment with dynamic ranges in the theatre. This meant that playing back the music could be achieved through multiple audio channels. -
Top Of The Pops
Top of the Pops was a television programme broadcast on BBC1 weekly and featured bands and artists who would perform songs live to an audience in the studio. This became a popular way to listen to music that people already know but also undiscovered artists. This was one of the first ways that the public could view music being played rather than just listen to it. The show was cancelled in 2006 but there is still a yearly show of it around Christmas. -
The Beatles
The Beatles starred in their own film called 'A Hard Day's Night' which was directed by Richard Lester. This film and another called 'Help!' both featured The Beatles' own music as well as some comedic narrative. In 1965, they then started producing promotional videos for their songs. This is the earliest form of the 'modern' music videos. -
Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody
Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody was a single that was released as part of the album 'A Night at the Opera' and was an instant hit in the UK as it stayed at the top of the charts for 9 weeks. It was less popular in the US as it only peaked at number 9. This all changed when the song was featured in 'Wayne's World' and returned to the chart at number two in 1992. Accompanied with the song, Queen filmed a video to go with it and has become one of the most iconic and artistic music video to date. -
MTV
MTV is an American television channel which is dedicated to display music videos from a variety of bands and artists from many different genres but does target teenagers and young adults so their music genres are mostly rock, pop, rap and R&B -
Vevo
Vevo was launched 2009 as a website that featured only music and music videos. It was founded by the world's two biggest music production companies; Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group. Unfortunately, due to YouTube's success and ease of use, Vevo has not been the popular website to watch music videos, despite its founders. -
Michael Jackson's Thriller
Thriller was released before the actual song was released and was 13 minutes long, was voted as the most influential music video of all time and won multiple awards. Thriller was directed by John Landis. After Michael Jackson's Thriller, music videos started to include more narratives and performances in them. Thriller changed how music videos were filmed and consumed forever. -
Red Hot Chili Peppers' Californication
Red Hot Chili Peppers used the growing popularity of video games by creating their music video of Californication. The footage showed each of the members in the band recreated within a video game each doing a different activity. The camera followed them around from behind, mimicking the 'third-person' genre within video games. This was something that no other band or artist had achieved with their music videos. -
Pirate Bay
Pirate Bay is an infamous website which allows users to illegally download music, films and video games.It also allows people to download music videos which meant that it was a popular website to watch music videos. -
YouTube
YouTube was set up to allow the public to easily share videos around the world and quickly became one of the most popular sites on the internet. YouTube features content on video games, music, music videos, films, TV shows, movie trailers, vlogs (video blogs) and, most recently, 360° videos. -
Psy's Gangnam Style
The music video to Gangnam Style was the first ever video on YouTube to reach a billion views and topped the charts in multiple countries. Psy invented a whole new dance move that has been attempted by the majority of the world and even big, authority figures. -
Taylor Swift's Bad Blood
Bad Blood is a music video that features a whole cast of celebrities and includes a introductory fight scene. This music video was created to mimic a fighting action movie. This music video achieved multiple awards and nominations and was a massive success with fans.
