Music Videos Through the Ages

1920’s

Music videos in the 1920’s were called ‘talkies’, Sound Films or Vitaphones. These were produced by the Warner Bros. and First National Studios. They were mainly used for feature films. Shown on the Television.

Example: ‘The Jazz Singer’, Al Jolson (1927)

1930’s

In the early 1930’s music videos were featured in cartoons mainly made by Walt Disney. They were known as ‘Silly Symphonies’ or ‘Merrie Melodies’. These showed famous Jazz and Blues musicians with animated characters. Shown on the Television.

Example: ‘St. Louis Blues’, Bessie Smith (1930)

1940’s

Music videos in the 1940’s were called ‘Soundies’. These were three minute short musical films. Each contained dancing, live orchestra etc. They were all Jazz and Blues songs. They were shown on Jukeboxes and Music Machines in restaurants, bars, pubs etc. They cost about $12,000 to manufacture.

Example: ‘Boardwalk Boogie’, Will Bradley (1943)

1950’s

Many music videos in this era were made as a result of musicals at the time. Musicals saw many songs within and these were later taken and made into music records with their own short videos. This was the time at which the first real music clips were made.

Example: ‘Stranger in Paradise’ Tony Bennet (1953)

1960’s

In the 1960’s the first music videos were recognized. Famous bands such as the Beatles and Queen created music videos for their songs. These normally included shots of the band simply playing music in a certain location possibly relevant to the song.

Example: ‘Help!’, The Beatles (1965) 

1970’s

Many of the music videos in this era are mainly short 2-3 minute clips telling a short narrative with connotations to the song itself. Bands such as Queen were some of the first to make the music video popular.

Example: ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, Queen (1975)

1980’s

The 1980’s was the era in which the music video industry really took off as MTV was created. MTV was a music channel explicitly for music videos. By this time music videos were becoming popular hence why other music channels such as VH1 and MTV2. Artists and bands such as Adam and the Ants, Duran Duran and Madonna.

Example: ‘Thriller’, Michael Jackson (1983)

1990’s

This era was when the TV channels such as MTV started to employ directors such as Chris Cunningham, Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze. This is where music videos became the norm as videos were improving with technology in terms of graphics and special effects.

Example: ‘Firestarter’, The Prodigy (1996)

2000’s

In this era music videos are classed as normal things to release after a song. Because of this artists and bands started to make music videos unique to them such as the Foo Fighters with their videos showing the band in different places each playing a different character. Also the band Slipknot use their infamous masks in their videos.

Example: ‘Learn to Fly’, Foo Fighters (2000)

2010’s

Music videos haven't changed much since the 2000’s apart from special effects and graphics of the videos. More and more artists are using music videos to expand their popularity as videos are now accessible on many platforms e.g. YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Twitch etc. 

Example: ‘The Sky is a Neighbourhood’, Foo Fighters (2017)