Timeline/history of music videos

Although dating back much further, music videos first became prominent in the 1980's when they first came into use by MTV. Before then, music videos were referred to as an 'illustrated song', 'filmed insert', 'promotional (promo) film', 'promotional clip' or 'film clip'.

Development of the music video:-

- In 1930's animation artists first made series' of sing-along cartoon shorts, inviting audience's to sing-along, 'following the bouncing ball' some of the most popular were Walt Disney's 'Silly Symphonies' and Fantasia, as well as the Warner Brother's 'Merry Melodies'

- Blues singer Bessie Smith appeared in a two-reel short film called St. Louis Blues (1929) featuring a dramatized performance of the hit song. Many other musicians appeared in short musical subjects during this time. In the 1940s, musician Louis Jordan made short films for his songs, some of which were spliced together into a feature film 'Lookout Sister'. These films were, according to music historian Donald Clarke, the "ancestors" of the music video

- Musical films were another important precursor to music video, and several well-known music videos have imitated the style of classic Hollywood musicals from the 1930s to the 1950s. One of the best-known examples is Madonna's 1985 video for "Material Girl" which was closely modelled on "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" from the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Several of Michael Jackson's videos show the influence of the dance sequences in classic Hollywood musicals, including the landmark "Thriller" and "Bad" which was influenced by the stylised dance "fights" in the film version of West Side Story.

- 1967 - 1973 Promotional clips grow in importance, many of these 'filmed inserts' were used when the band themselves were unable to perform live. Examples of some of the first groups to make such 'promotional clips' were Pink Floyd and The Rolling Stones. The Kinks were the first band to make a 'plot' promo clip for their single "Dead End Street" (1966) a miniature comic movie was made. The Who also featured in many promotional clips.

- 1974-1980 Mulcahy, originally from Australia relocated to the UK and became a full time music video director, one of his biggest landmarks being The Buggles 'Video killed the radio star' as it was the first video to be shown on MTV in the 1980's

- The long running British TV show Top of the pops began showing music videos in the 1970's, although the BBC gave strict limits on what videos could be shown

- Illustrated song: In 1984 George Thomas was hired to promote the song 'The Little Lost Child'. He projected a series of still images on a screen simultaneous to live performances. This would become a popular form of entertainment known as the 'illustrated song', the first step toward a music video

- 1981-1991 music videos go mainstream. Many artists gained success through their portrayal in their music videos including Madonna and Duran Duran. During this time, music videos began to change, from simply promoting the artist to telling a story or narrative, sometimes with the artist themselves not even being present in the video. Some of these earliest videos include, Queen's Under Pressure and George Michael's Freedom 90 where he refused to appear in his video

- 1983 the most successful and influential music video was released. Michael Jackson's Thriller at nearly 14 minutes long.
Another important stage in the development of music videos was The Chart Show, introduced on Channel 4 in 1986 which consisted entirely of music videos with no presenters, instead the videos were connected through computer graphics.
In 1986 the first music video making use of special effects and animation techniques by Aarman animation was Peter Gabriel's sledgehammer, which would go on to receive 9 MTV video music awards

In 2005 was the launch of YouTube, making music videos much more Internet friendly, and making videos much more accessible and easier to view. Many artists became well known and evidently reached fame through music videos which had been viewed almost entirely online, a main example being Soulja Boy and the band OK GO receiving 15 million views for their song 'this too shall pass' on YouTube alone.