History of Music Videos - Timeline

According to http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/11/26/the-amazing-history-of-the-music-video/ 'music videos' (or at least what was then classed as a music video which was actually an illustrated song) actually started over a century ago.


George H. Thomas had an idea to show a collection of images to the audience whilst the selected song was being played which would show a narrative. 'The Little Lost Child' was a song in 1894 by Joseph W. Stern and Edward B. Marks. Thomas had the idea to create an 'Illustrated Song' for them and so he used still pictures which were coloured by hand and shown by projecting them onto a screen at the same time as a live perfomance of the song was being played. this helped to then sell over 2 million copies of the sheet music for the song after the 'illustrated song' had been shown.




Around 30 years later in the 1930's, the Spooney Melodies, which were a series of five animated musical shorts, released trough the Warner Brothers to show the songs of the time. They included: 

• Crying for the Carolines - 1930
• Just a Gigolo - 1931
• Say a Little Prayer for Me - 1931
• When your Lover has Gone - 1931
• For You - 1931

Around the 1950's pop music came
about. It derived from rock n' roll.
Pop music includes many aspects of
other genres such as electric, urban
and rock. Pop music from early on
consisted mainly of ballads for
it's form.

1926-1959 was the period where 'talkies', 'soundies' and 'shorts' began. 'Talkies' were sound videos that consisted of a motion picture with sound that was synchronized to it.
Music videos have also taken inspiration from Hollywood musicals that appeared from 1930-1950. These musicals in the 50's also lead to 'short-form' music videos. 

Television was the main influence that caused the interest in moving pictures/music videos to rise. Thanks to the Top of the Pops and other TV programmes, the interest began to rise even more.
Russell Mulcahy is an Australian film director who created the video for The Buggles 'Video Killed the Radio Star' which then went on to be the first video played on MTV.
Since then, other channels on television have become available to listen to music on and see the videos for the songs for example:

• MTV (which now features more TV shows such as 'Geordie Shore' and 'The Valleys')
• VIVA (also shows more TV shows now such as 'Teen Mom' and 'My Super Sweet 16')
• Scuzz
• JBTV
• MuchMusic
• Kerrang!
• VH1
• Fuse TV
• 4Music

In 1983, Michael Jackson's Thriller was released which cost director John Landis half a million dollars to make it. Not just that, it also was the beginning of African-Americans appearing in and having music videos.

Up until 2005 when YouTube was created, music videos were found aired on the television. in 2010 Lady Gaga's Bad Romance became both the most viewed video on YouTube and also the internet. 

As of 19/09/13, in the most popular videos of all time chart on YouTube shows that Adele has secured 2 places in the top 4 (music) videos with Rolling in the Deep in 1st with 431,613,249 views and Someone Like You in 3rd place with 296,795,552 views.
Thanks to social media however, people are now able to view music videos on their phones either by streaming them live via YouTube or purchasing them on the iTunes store available on Apple products.