History of music videos

First inclination towards visuals for music (Music Video)

A music video is a short film which includes a visual to a music track, it can promote an artist or clothing etc., convey a concept, show a narrative or a performance. The first inclination towards the development of music videos would be the song 'The little Lost Child'. The song was created in 1894 by Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern, they hired electrician George Thomas and various performers to promote the song. They found that to promote the song they would make a illustrated version a visual to give the audience for the song. This is where 'Sheet Music' was invented, because they made a book containing different images, music symbols and lyrics to make the song a visual and illustrated, This is where music videos or visual music started.

Early films representing music

Later in 1929 a actual two-reel short film was released as the music video for the song, Saint Louis Blues. The video consisted of Blues singer Bessie Smith acting a dramatization about the song. The film would be played in Cinemas, before a certain film to be specific, as almost like an advert. It was shown is theaters untill 1932. Then Later on in 1940 an iconic music video would be made for classical music. Disney produced a video of their Character 'Mickey' in their film Sorcerers Aprentice, to the sound of classical music, and this was an early inclination towards performances in music videos.

1950's and 60's Developments to Music Videos


In the 1950's Tony Bennett was Filmed walking in Hyde Park singing his version of 'Stranger in Paradise', it was then broadcasted on Music Television channels and reached number one in the UK singles chart. Tony Bennett then later claimed that he made the first 'Music Video'. The 50's and 60's were important to the development of music videos and this was the promonent starting point for them, where from here they would be used massivley by Bands and Artists. The Beatles are the band which probaly set

Youtube/Present


In 2005 the internet became video friendly it saw the launch of the website YouTube, this was revolutionary as it is the number one source to view videos posted free by anyone online very easily. Youtube acted as another type of Music Television program, however it was online and free for anyone to use, therefore this meant that independent artists could post music videos online and some artists like Soulja Boy actually got recognition and fame through youtube. Today people who would here about a new song from an artist they like, they would go straight onto youtube and view their music video. Artists would post their music videos online for a wide audience to view as they could target a large audience, if they would use promotion or adverting in their videos, they would know that its hitting a large audience and they would make more money.Youtube allows artists to get millions of views for example Justin Biebers song 'baby' has over 795 million views. 

Summary

Today music videos are used as a marketing tool in order to gain sales and increase the popularity of the song and artist. If you are a popular artist, you must have a music video to make your track popular, as people would view the song online through Youtube and then possibly buy their track on iTunes. music videos cost tens of thousands of pounds to produce in today's modern industry. Therefore todays Music needs to have a music video to go with it, so there has been a massive development of music videos from the later years to now.