Group PPT with Noor and Dima
Below, I made a collapsible writing of a brief History of Music videos
1894 - Thomas Edison
The Kinetophone and Gramophone was both used to record the sound and motion.
1926 - Talkies
Musical short films which included singing, bands and dancing such as 'The Jazz singer'
1930s - Karaoke
Cartoons included songs for the audience to sing along, a.k.a 'Sing-along Cartoons'.
● Produced by Paramount pictures
● Popular/well-known melodies so the audience may keep up
● Brought back in 1945 with color
1959
J.P Richardson born in the 1930s was the first one to coin the phrase "Music Video" with his hit song "Chantilly Lace" he soon died in a plane crash with Buddy Holly and Ritchie, this was later known as "The Day the Music Died" which was a lyric in Don McLean's song "American Pie" in 1971. Music videos before were usually imitating musicals. Musicals are a huge influence on MVs. Modern MVs often use homage or include classical Hollywood musical elements in MVs. (Madonna 'Material Girl' & 'Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend)
1967 - The Beetles
- 'Paperback Writer' (1966) PV also inspired by 'Go Now'(Releases abroad...) - 'Help!' British Musical Comedy starring The Beatles. The title track sequence is arguably an archetype of performance-type MVs nowadays. (Camera angles, editing...)
1981 - MTV!
MTV was introduced in 1981 with the first-ever music video aired on MTV "Video killed the radio star" - by Buggles. MTV became the reason for multiple successful artists like Madonna, Michael Jackson, etc because MTV was a way of promoting one's song. If the Music company sees a lot of potential in the artists and their songs, they will usually produce music videos for their singles. By the late 1980s, MTV branched out to non-video programming, geared toward teenagers and young adults. MTV also debuted animated series as well as documentaries, news, game shows, and public service campaigns on topics ranging from voting rights to safe sex.
1983 - Michael Jackson's THRILLER (13 Minutes MV)
After releasing his solo album Thriller, which was a 13-minute music video with a worldwide premiere on MTV on December 2 1983 since then it has been listed in the Guinness book of world records as one of the most successful music videos with an estimated budget of $1.2million which was the most expensive music video at the time. The meaning, purpose, and standard of Modern Music Video
Narrative beyond music
An MV as representing narrative rather than performance
Black Artists on MTV
1992-2004 - Rise of Directors
Almost 10 years after its launch MTV in November 1992 began listing directors with the artist and song credits reflecting the fact that music videos had increasingly become an auteur’s medium. Directors like David Fincher (that in the 80s were making music videos) focus on directing feature films while a whole new breed of young and talented directors take the scene to express their unique vision.
2005 to Present - Youtube: The start of Web 2.0
Although you can search for music videos on the internet since 1997, it was in 2005 when Youtube launched that the whole music industry had to change. Paired with the fact that MTV by the mid-2000s largely abandoned showing music videos to air reality tv shows, Youtube became the home for artists and directors to explore new concepts and reach out to a worldwide audience.
The mid-2000s started to feel like when MTV first launched. A focus on new ideas made low-budget music videos go viral and unshackled from the censorship of broadcast television. Ideas that weren’t possible to be broadcasted before started appearing in music videos.
Combining all these factors with the prices of digital cameras going down and the quality of the images produced going up, resulted that by the end of the first-decade indie filmmakers could produce images similar to high-budget blockbuster movies.
All this comes with an explosion of music videos. Thus never so many videos were produced and the sheer mass of new videos released each day made it even more important to figure out narrative and commercial ways to reach the audience.
2019 - Covid-19 & Tiktok
Despite Youtube still dominating the World as music video distributing tool. During the beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic, the Chinese App "Douyin" became Internationally famous. Internationally known as "Tiktok", this app changed the game for music distribution. Old songs are getting revived, songs are getting new versions as prosumers make new remixes. New artists use Tiktok to promote or get discovered. The emerging success of Tiktok is something that prosumers, music companies, and artists should watch out for.