I had previously believed that the rise of MTV during the 80s kick-started the visual music revolution that changed how the world perceived music and the moving image (small brain behaviour, I know). But it turns out that the combination of music with moving image can be placed on a well-trodden path that goes back to many early recorded artistic endeavours.
illustrated songs
In the first decade of the 20th century, we can see a rise of use of the new and exciting technology which is today known as the early cinema. The cinema was implemented in the program of the vaudevilles, theatrical entertainment houses, within which the illustrated song became a well-liked act, gaining popularity first in vaudeville houses first and later in nickelodeons.
Illustrated songs are defined as a type of performance art that combines either live or recorded music with projected images; a singer would perform a popular song, sometimes chaperoned by a piano player, while a set of slides was being projected on a screen behind them.
“The Little Lost Child” (1894) is considered the first illustrated song. The song went on to become a nationwide hit and its success is mainly credited to illustrated song performances which one may call the first "music video."
musical shorts, films, and soundies
The next big step in music video history occurred in 1924 when Max and Dave Fleischer started a series of animated music films, “Song Car-Tunes”—the first example of the application of sound film to animation.
The importance of the “Song Car-Tunes” for music video history lies not only in that, but in the pioneer use of “the bouncing ball”, an element of these animated music films which used to lead audiences in theatre sing-alongs. The use of the bouncing ball became a kind of a cultural icon that is still used in a lot of places nowadays for karaoke.
Then came the invention of the Vitaphone which made musical shorts a more realistic possibility, as illustrated by the Fleischer “Screen Songs” (a series of musical shorts distributed by Paramount Pictures 1929 and 1938) and the fact that the Warner Brothers studio made nearly 2000 Vitaphone musical shorts from 1926 to 1930, featuring vaudeville performers, opera singers, dancers, vocalists and Broadway stars.
One of the most famous musical shorts was “St. Louis Blues” featuring Bessie Smith, perhaps the most prominent blues singer of the era who became a major influence on other jazz and blues singers.
Although it was made in 1929, it is intriguing that “St. Louis Blues” features subversive scenery (an illegal bar during the times of the prohibition), a cast of character, the band, and a story following the song (a man leaves a woman for another), in other words, all of the ingredients used in a lot of today’s
music videos. Additionally, the cast consists entirely of Black people which was rather unthinkable until the “St. Louis Blues” appeared, so we can argue that the music videos started to break social barriers even before they became what they are now.
Needless to say, musical shorts continued to be important throughout the 1930’s and a fraction of the 1940s.
The invention of the Panoram—a visual jukebox that played music accompanied by a synched, filmed image—was also considerably important during this time as it made the appearance of soundies possible.
Soundies were videos for songs either by a band/orchestra or by a solo performer (and make me wonder why we stopped inventing things with fun names like ‘soundies’ and ‘talkies’). What makes soundies special for the development of music videos through history is the fact that they often included short and choreographed dance sequences—another major step towards music videos as we know them today.
The era of early music videos ended in the early 1960’s. The last technologies important for that time were the Scopitone and the Cinebox, projector jukebox machines a.k.a the children that succeeded the Panoram. Their purpose was more or less the same; they functioned as audiovisual jukeboxes placed in bars and nightclubs, and primarily stayed within the borders of Europe (Scopitone was French, Cinebox Italian).
During this period (1924 to 1960s), the development of music videos, music video technology, and music video expansion was very apparent, but the biggest changes were yet to come.
the times they are a-changing
The prophetic title of Bob Dylan’s 1964 song perfectly encapsulates the progress that marked the history of music videos from the 1960s onwards.
“Go Now” by The Moody Blues was an important video of this era.
It was recorded in 1964 and it seems to be published at the same time as the song, leading us to the conclusion that the song marketing strategy was built around the video and showing the growing importance of the music videos as a form of promotion. The video is in black and white, featuring all five members of The Moody Blues dressed in black and shot with a light focused to their faces, a scene that will be seen again more than a decade later in Queen’s "Bohemian Rhapsody."
Clearly, with film technology becoming slightly cheaper and more accessible, the growth of broadcast television and consequently the rise of pop culture, the late 60s and early 70s represent the exploration of all these new phenomena to promote music artists.
Maybe the biggest breakthrough of music videos until then happened because of The Beatles. Arguably one of the most important bands in music history, The Beatles were among the first to start fully utilising the vast possibilities a connection of sound and picture could bring about.
Considered to be one of the first music videos to have been broadcasted on television—”We Can Work It Out.”
The band was making some very popular full feature movies and were looking for a way to promote their record releases without having to make in-person appearances which led to resorting to music videos for promotion.
The examination of music videos in the 1960s would be incomplete without Bob Dylan’s 1965 “Subterranean Homesick Blues.”
Belonging to a documentary, the sequence features Dylan holding cue cards with selected phrases from the song lyrics and changing them according to the music, reminscent of contemporary lyrics videos. There are some intentional misspellings on the cue cards, for example, instead of success, the cue card says “suckcess”, portraying Dylan’s cynical attitude and political engagement and signifying how music videos started getting used as a representation of an artist’s unique image and aims.
In the 1960’s, the television started to evolve to the status of the most important mass media,
therefore gaining a massive influence on pop culture and how it was highlighted. Regarding the
topic of music videos, the most eminent program of the sixties was the British BBC television
show “Top of the Pops” which consisted of music videos and live performances of some of the bestselling popular artists of the week, including a review of that week’s singles chart.
The music video that practically invented MTV 7 years before its launch, Bohemian Rhapsody, also holds immense significance in this time as its video was the central marketing strategy which contributed to making it become a global hit single.
Between 1968 and 1974 artists like Pink Floyd, David Bowie, and the Rolling Stones, among others, also started working together with directors and other creatives to explore the possibilities of the music video, leaving the medium of radio and silent cinema behind.
Bowie’s Ashes to Ashes was considered the most expensive music video made until then and his interest in exploring complex themes turned it into a stepping stone towards incorporating deeper layers of meaning in music videos.
video killed the radio star
the rise of mtv
"Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll," said John Lack over footage of the first Space Shuttle Launch on the 1st of August, 1981, changing the music history forever. It was the first sentence said on MTV (Music Television), an American cable and satellite TV channel which was the biggest game changer in music history, especially as far as music videos go. MTV started airing music videos all-around-the-clock, being an immediate success. The original slogan of the channel, “You’ll never look at music the same way again,” couldn’t be more fitting and correct. It soon became obvious to all that music videos would be the key to commercial success from now on.
"Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles was, appropriately, the first music video played on MTV.
Possibly one of the most important music videos of all time came in 1983 in the form of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” directed by John Landis.
“Thriller” was another testament to the fact that music videos were here to stay, worthy of big budgets, and capable of being a central element of marketing strategies. The social impact of the iconic video was unmeasurable, launching Michal Jackson to the “King of Pop” status.
Television gained a lot of new users as a medium in the 1970’s and 1980’s, becoming the central entertainment medium that was able to reach a huge audience, and due to this, music videos also developed swiftly.
back to the future
After television changed the course of music video history, there appeared a new medium, the fastest one yet: the Internet.
With the Internet, people were given the possibility to choose the content they wanted to see, which helped the development of many new styles of music and their rise to prominence.
A milestone in music video history, especially in the last two decades, was the appearance of YouTube; launched in 2005, it made viewing music videos and engaging with artists much faster and easier than before.
YouTube made it possible for artists from all over the world to become popular and be included in the
global music scene, which was less likely in the era of television, due to the unwillingness of classic TV stations (including the music ones) to give opportunities to musicians whose music was not in English. The rise in the global popularity of South Korean music in recent years is an impeccable example of this
While we spend our time spectating if the next big thing in the music industry would be something like experiencing music videos in VR or three-dimensional holographic concerts from the comfort of your home (@ the people in STEM: please work on this; desi teenagers who aren’t allowed to go to concerts will be indebted to you for eternity), YouTube remains one of the main factors that profoundly impact the music industry and allow us to freely engage with music videos.
(A note from sleep-deprived Tashfa: Although I’ve tried to cover as many aspects of music video history, this isn’t an all-encompassing overview of it; I’m sure I’ve missed some things and I hope the fact that I haven’t mentioned Elvis at all is socially acceptable.)
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