History of Music Videos

1926 - Sound films incorporating synchronized dialogue were first introduced. They were known as 'Talkies'. Many musical short films were produced around this time and it was the first time any video had been placed alongside a song. One of the most popular talkies realeased was 'The Jazz Singer in the October of 1927. It was a smash box office success for the mid-level studio, earning a total of $2.625 million in the United States and abroad. Below is one example in the film were a song used to create a mini performance music video within the song.

1929 - Saw the rise of screens songs which were used to encourage the audience to sing along with the song. Screen songs was a series of animated cartoons produced by the Fleischer Studios between 1929 and 1038 (revived in 1945). The idea of the screen songs was to use a bouncing ball to keep in timing with the lyrics of the song, much like a modern day karaoke. Below is an example from 1930 used  for the song 'A Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight'



1930- Proved the start of the rise of the musical film genre in which songs were interwoven into the film. The most famous example of would be the scene in the 1963 film 'Summer Holiday' were Cliff Richard sings on a bus. This particular film included a total of 16 songs and went on to release a soundtrack which proved a massive success.

1964 - it was the following year when the bar for music videos was well and truly raised by the Beatles who started their string of 5 motion pictures with 'A Hard's Day Night'. The video that accompanied the song below was different as it really introduced narrative to the creation of music videos. Oppose to the popularly used performance technique. This name was used to promote the namesake album which has since reaped huge rewards. Even being named as the 5th greatest British album Ever in 2000 by Q music magazine

1965 - This was the year of the very promotional video used specifically for one song rather than a film for a full album. This came in the form of Bob Dylan's Subterannean Homesick Blues. Below is the historic video along with an overview on it's creation from D.A. Pennebaker and Bob Neuwirth producers of Bob's 'Don't Look Back' DVD. Of which the opening scene is this promotion video.

Compared to modern music videos, e.g.

This comparison allows us to see just how far the production of music videos has come. From the black and white, one shot video including nothing but the artist and the lyrics on paper all the way Tinie Tempah's 2013 text. The children of the Sun video shows a massive range of destinations from New York to London to Paris and intertwines both the narrative and performance aspects of music video creation. On top of this it also used a massive range of shot types and edits where as Bob Dylan's video stick to just the one mid shot throughout the whole video.