Music Videos first began in 1894 when sheet music publishers Edward Marks and Joe Stern hired electrician George Thomas as well as various performers to promote the sales of their song 'The Little Lost Child'. The song itself sold more than two million copies of its sheet music following its promotion as the first ever illustrated song (by George Thomas.) Thomas used a magic lantern to project a series of still images on to a screen simultaneous to live performances-this then turned into a popular technique known as 'the illustrated song', this was the first step towards the music video.
The first types of music videos, were more 'videos with music'. In early 1900's, short films were made with musical interludes. For example, Walt Disney created animated films Silly Symphonies and Fantasia, these were based around several classical interpretations, which were based around music. Later in the mid-1940's, musician Louis Jordan made short films for his songs, these were later called 'the ancestor of the music video' by historian Donald Clarke. These were names the 'soundies' (three minute musical films between 1940 and 1946) they often included large dance sequences, similar to music videos today. Soundies covered all genres of music, from classical, to big band swing, from hillbilly novelties to patriotic songs. Over 1800 Soundies mini-musicals were made, many of which were released on home video. Since then, Music Videos began to develop. In 1956, American Singer Tony Bennett was filmed walking along The Serpentine in Hyde Park, London. Whilst the recording of his song 'Stranger in Paradise' played over it. This video was later distributed to various television stations in the UK and US-he later claimed to have made the first music video.
In 1964, The Beatles starred as themselves in 'A Hard Day's Night'. The mock documentary that was directed by Richard Lester, featured comedic and dialogue sequences as well as musical ones. It was written by Alun Owen and originally released by United Artists. The musical film included songs such as: 'I Should Have Known Better' and 'This Boy'. The musical sequences set the basic template for which a huge amount of music videos were made, affecting the modern music video today. It is currently credited as being one of the most influential musical films of all time as it inspired spy films, television shows and pop music videos. Nowadays, we watch television and we see quick cutting, hand held cameras and music underneath documentary action, we are watching a piece of media text that is inspired from 'A Hard Day's Night'.
In the late 1970's, popular music television show Top of the Pops began playing music videos during their show. The show had a strategy of only playing the week's most popular song (songs in the charts) therefore a good video increased a song's sale as dedicated fans would buy the song in the hope of it remaining popular so they can see the video again the following week. Popular music television channel MTV launched in 1981 and began the era of 24 hour a day music video broadcasting.
From this point music videos began playing an extremely large role in a song's sales. Popular artists began to become heavily reliable on their music videos in the hope they would boost sales figures.
Nowadays, music videos remain at on average around 3 minutes long (dependant on the length of the song) and tell a story/has a narrative and also features the artist as well as actors or dancers. However, we're starting to see more from music videos now, it would appear that music videos are beginning to go back to its roots, with music videos starting to be treated more as a short film again, with dialogue being added at times and more of a story being told during them. As well as this, lyric videos are starting to become popular now, artists tend to release a lyric video (a simple innovate slide show of lyrics from their song whilst the song is played simultaneously over it) prior to the song's release. This is the label's way of gaining interest in the song, announcing the official lyrics to the song that will be released, causing excitement and enticing the public to purchase the song upon it's release.
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