The History Of Music Video's

From the likes of Jackson 5 introducing Pop Legend Michael Jackson, to Destiny's Child bringing out Beyoncé, the history of music has been the most dynamic industry ever seen, and definitely the most exciting one!

1927 was the first ever musical short film to be released. The talkies featured many bands, vocalists and dancers. 

Their first feature film was entitled 'The Jazz Singer', and was released in America.

It incorporated a synchronized recorded music score, but also lip- sync singing and speech segments in several featured sequences, an astonishing thing for audiences to witness. 




The 1940's 'Soundies' were three minute long American musical films that were produced in New York, Chicago and Hollywood, mainly in 1940 itself and 1946. There were a visual Jukebox equivalent type of machine, and would play mostly Jazz, as at this time this was the genre that was most popular. 

Sticking with the 40's was another decade to dwell on, as this was the moment where Cartoon animations were released, with accompanying songs, in order to encourage a stronger audience interaction. Walt Disney's 'Fantasia' is definitely one to mention as a classic!

Moving up to the 1950's, the Television. By the Tv being released, it made it a lot easier for artists to view not just Television Channels, but also eventually Music Channels. It allowed new stars to be founded, and old ones to remain loved. 

'57 was the video birth of a star... Mr Elvis Presley. His 'Jailhouse Rock' single was released with an accompanying video, and is widely known as one of the greats!

1960's and The Beatles. In 1965 the group made around 10 'film' equivalents to chaperone their album tracks.  

On August 1st, 1981, MTV officially launched and birthed the concept of music videos. This ground-braking moment in TV and Music history was the ironic piece by The Buggles- 'Video Killed The Radio Star'. This (now considered) 'Classic Jam' is a landmark in our history, and its reaction is aimed for by many an artist in the 21st Century.

From here on, Music and their video's have continued to expand and create conventions for future artists to either conform to or challenge within their accompanied video.

One of these video's that is probably THE MOST iconic video of all time is Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'. In 1983, for audiences to witness a 'Film- Like' music video was extremely odd, however the reaction was sincerely positive. It was MJ's most successful video, but let's not forget the craze for his 'lean' seen in 'Smooth Criminal'.