History of music video's

I have looked into the history of music videos as I think it will help me get a better understanding of the different styles of music videos there have been over time and how they have adapted. I have done this because I want to be able to understand what type of styles have formed for different genres and what genres they relate to and help reflect so I am able to reflect my chosen genre of music as much as possible.  


Music videos have developed majorly over time due to advances in technology and changes in style. Music videos started happening because of film as they made it possible to combine moving images with sound. Music videos started to be made around the 1920’s but they were very basic and simple as they had no effects, camera movements were very simple and most artists would be singing live in the music video as they didn’t always have access to music studios so the quality wasn’t always great. As TV channels were not around when music videos began to be made, music videos were shown only in cinemas until TV channels were invented. In 1970 Music videos came about as the record industry discovered that TV shows were are good way to promote their artists.

Bob Dylan’s video to Subterranean Homesick Blues that was released in 1965 is one of the oldest music videos that was very popular. The reason so many people liked Bob Dylan’s video was due to the style of it and what occurred during it. He is shown flipping down cards with many different words on them which are lyrics from the song. He shows the words to match with the lyric he is singing so they are in sync. This was the first video to incorporate text in this way which is one of the reasons it became so famous. There are now many artists that include text in their music videos in this style along with using visual effects and editing.

The first music video that was thought to use advanced visual effects was Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen which was released in 1975. This music video marked the beginning of the video era and set the language for the modern music video. Because Queens music video was such a success in the music industry it lead to other record companies to produce promotional videos for artists single releases, which could then be shown on TV without the need for the artist to appear in person. 

Cinematography such as camera angles and movements in music videos are very important  as they help create a certain effect and genre for the video. Cinematography also helps create meaning along with the mis-en-scene used as they can be used to tell the song (Tenacious D-Tribute) or just help emphasise the overall feel of the song. Editing also plays a very important part in music videos as it also helps emphasise the songs meaning depending on what way it is used. Editing can also be used to bring many different clips together to make one video (montage) and things such as changing the pace of the video.