History of Music Videos

To describe what the history of music videos are, I should start by mentioning what a music video is. A music video is a short film/video that is used to accompany a song. Modern music videos were made as a way to help market songs and to promote their sales. Today they are commonly produced with music which help to portray the story they are trying to tell.

In terms of explaining music history, lets start at when music videos were first recorded. In 1929, the blues singer Bessie Smith appeared in a short film called St. Louis Blues which was created in 1929. This was the first time that a piece of film was used as a part of a music video

During the mid 40's, Louis Jordan made short films for his songs. In the 40's all the music video where shorts. Music videos did not become widely associated till the 1950's as music videos became famous after being shown on programmes such as: Ready Steady Go.

Ready Steady Go was a British rock/pop music TV programme that was that was broadcast every Friday evening. This show featured live bands performing their hits on TV. This show was the first of its kind to produce videos of artists performing live. During the shows three years from 1963-1966, it featured bands such as: The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. The show gained it's highest ratings on March 20th 1964 as it featured The Beatles playing "It wont be long", "You can't do that", and "Can't buy me love". This show was the first time that people could see music videos as this show was the first of its kind.

 In 1964, a brand-new BBC music programme launched on British TV. The launch of Top of the Pops was a huge success. Top of the Pops was introduced in January 1964 and run all the way though to 2006. Top of the Pops displayed the best-selling popular music artistes of the week. This ran for 42 years and aired 2,260 shows. As Top of the Pops was so popular, it was shown in nearly 100 countries and most episodes are still shown to this day. Most episodes are now shown on a Thursday evening. 

In 1981, MTV (Music television) was initially launched in America. MTV's demographic was young adults as well as teenagers and college students. The primary purpose of MTV was to play music videos 24 hours a day seven days a week so people could switch on and watch whenever they feel like it. The 80's period played classic rock acts such as: Dire Straits, David Bowie, Rush, Eric Clapton and many more. The show was a huge success but in 1995, the music video decline started. MTV reduced the amount of music videos shown as they found that music videos were starting to wear off. The rise in social media platforms such as YouTube made it possible for consumers to search for specific music videos and share videos amongst friends. 

Currently, music videos are still very popular as music artistes are always producing new music videos to help tell the story of the song. The most viewed YouTube video currently is "Despacito" with over 4.5 billion views. Music videos are showing no sign of wearing off and are now a vital part of the artistes music as it helps tell the story.