In 1894, electrician George Thomas and a team of artists were hired by sheet music publishers Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern to create a visual accompaniment for the song The Little Lost Child. Using a magic lantern, Thomas projected a series of still images onto a screen that played simultaneously with live performances, creating what would become known as the illustrated song. This early experiment marked the first step toward the modern music video, blending audio and visual elements to promote a musical piece. The technique was simple yet revolutionary, as it allowed audiences to see the story of the song while hearing it, setting a precedent for future visual storytelling in music. The illustrated song became a popular form of entertainment, and its influence can be seen in the way music videos today combine narrative and performance to engage viewers.
The Silent Screen Era
With the arrival of talkies in the 1920s, musical short films began to emerge, featuring bands, vocalists, and dancers in live-action segments. Warner Bros. produced Vitaphone shorts that showcased popular musicians, while animation artist Max Fleischer introduced Screen Songs, a series of sing-along cartoons that invited audiences to follow the bouncing ball, much like modern karaoke machines. These early films often featured popular musicians performing their hit songs on camera, creating a direct link between the music and its visual representation. John Logie Baird's Phonovision discs from the 1930s featured singers like Betty Bolton, and Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies and Fantasia used music as the foundation for animated storytelling. Blues singer Bessie Smith appeared in St. Louis Blues, a two-reel short film that dramatized her hit song, and Louis Jordan made short films for his songs, some of which were spliced together into a feature film called Lookout Sister. These films, described by music historian Donald Clarke as the ancestors of the music video, laid the groundwork for the genre's future development.
The British Invasion of Visuals
In 1964, the British chart music television series Top of the Pops was created by Johnnie Stewart and Stanley Dorfman, and it became a pivotal platform for the development of the music video. The show's format required frequent studio appearances by renowned British and US artists, and when live performances were unavailable, pre-recorded or filmed inserts known as promotional videos were used. These videos served as substitutes for live performances and played a crucial role in the genre's evolution. In October 1964, a dance troupe with choreographed routines was introduced to the show, enhancing its visual appeal. One notable example was the video for Roy Orbison's Oh Pretty Woman, filmed on the rooftop garden of London's Derry and Toms department store. By the 1970s, Top of the Pops had an average weekly viewership of 12,500,000 people and had solidified its status as the premier international platform for artists launching new records. The Moody Blues producer Alex Murray created a striking visual style for Go Now in 1964, which predates Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody video by a decade. The Beatles, in their 1964 film A Hard Day's Night, directed by Richard Lester, interspersed comedic and dialogue sequences with musical tones, creating a template for future music videos. Their promotional clips for Day Tripper and We Can Work It Out in late 1965 were straightforward mimed-in-studio performance pieces, but by 1966, their color promotional clips for Rain and Paperback Writer, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, took the format to a new level. The Beatles' Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane, made in early 1967 and directed by Peter Goldman, used techniques borrowed from underground and avant-garde film, including reversed film and slow motion, to create a visually rich experience.
In 1981, the American video channel MTV launched, airing Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles and beginning an era of 24/7 music on television. With this new outlet, the music video grew to play a central role in popular music marketing. Many important acts of this period, most notably Michael Jackson, Adam and the Ants, Duran Duran, and Madonna, owed a great deal of their success to the skillful construction and seductive appeal of their videos. Two key innovations in the development of the modern music video were the development of relatively inexpensive and easy-to-use video recording and editing equipment, and the development of visual effects created with techniques such as image compositing. The advent of high-quality color videotape recorders and portable video cameras coincided with the DIY ethos of the new wave era, enabling many pop acts to produce promotional videos quickly and cheaply. However, as the genre developed, music video directors increasingly turned to 35mm film as the preferred medium. In 1983, one of the most successful, influential, and iconic music videos of all time was released: the nearly 14-minute-long video for Michael Jackson's Thriller, directed by John Landis. The video set new standards for production, having cost US $800,000 to film. The video for Thriller, along with earlier videos by Jackson for his songs Billie Jean and Beat It, were instrumental in getting music videos by African-American artists played on MTV. Prior to Jackson's success, videos by African-American artists were rarely played on MTV, as the channel initially conceived itself as a rock-music-oriented channel. In 1992, MTV began screening videos made by directors such as Chris Cunningham, Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze, Floria Sigismondi, Stéphane Sednaoui, Mark Romanek, and Hype Williams, who all brought a unique vision and style to the videos they directed. Some of these directors, including Gondry, Jonze, Sigismondi, and F. Gary Gray, went on to direct feature films.
The Digital Revolution
In 2005, the launch of YouTube made the viewing of online video much faster and easier, and Google Videos, Yahoo! Video, Facebook, and Myspace's video functionality used similar technology. Such websites had a profound effect on the viewing of music videos, and some artists began to see success as a result of videos seen mostly or entirely online. The band OK Go capitalized on the growing trend, having achieved fame through the videos for two of their songs, A Million Ways in 2005 and Here It Goes Again in 2006, both of which first became well-known online. At its launch, Apple's iTunes Store provided a section of free music videos in high quality compression to be watched via the iTunes application. More recently, the iTunes Store has begun selling music videos for use on Apple's iPod with video playback capability. The 2008 video for Weezer's Pork and Beans also captured this trend, by including at least 20 YouTube celebrities, and the single became the most successful of Weezer's career in chart performance. In 2007, the RIAA issued cease-and-desist letters to YouTube users to prevent single users from sharing videos, which are the property of the music labels. After its merger with Google, YouTube assured the RIAA that they would find a way to pay royalties through a bulk agreement with the major record labels. This was complicated by the fact that not all labels share the same policy toward music videos: some welcome the development and upload music videos to various online outlets themselves, viewing music videos as free advertising for their artists, while other labels view music videos not as an advertisement, but as the product itself. As of 2017, the most-watched English-language video on YouTube was Shape of You by Ed Sheeran, and as of 2018, the most-watched remix video on YouTube was Te Bote by Casper Mágico featuring Nio García, Darell, Nicky Jam, Bad Bunny, and Ozuna.
The Battle for Airwaves
As the concept and medium of a music video is a form of artistic expression, artists have been on many occasions censored if their content is deemed offensive. What may be considered offensive will differ in countries due to censorship laws and local customs and ethics. In most cases, the record label will provide and distribute videos edited or provide both censored and uncensored videos for an artist. In some cases, it has been known for music videos to be banned in their entirety as they have been deemed far too offensive to be broadcast. The first video to be banned by MTV was Queen's 1982 hit Body Language, due to thinly veiled homoerotic undertones plus much skin and sweat. However, the channel did air Olivia Newton-John's 1981 video for the hit song Physical, which lavished camera time on male models working out in string bikinis who spurn her advances, ultimately pairing off to walk to the men's locker rooms holding hands, though the network ended the clip before the overt homosexual reveal ending in some airings. The video for Girls on Film by Duran Duran, which featured topless women mud wrestling and other depictions of sexual fetishes, was banned by the BBC. MTV did air the video, albeit in a heavily edited form. In 1990, Madonna's music video for the song Justify My Love was banned by MTV due to its depiction of sadomasochism, homosexuality, cross-dressing, and group sex, which generated a media firestorm. In Canada, the debate over the banning of Justify My Love by the music video network MuchMusic led to the launching in 1991 of Too Much 4 Much, a series of occasional, late-night specials in which videos officially banned by MuchMusic were broadcast, followed by a panel discussion regarding why they were removed. In 2000, the music video for Rock DJ by Robbie Williams caused controversy due to the graphic nature of the video, which features Williams stripping naked then peeling off his skin to reveal bloody flesh, followed by ripping off his muscles and organs until he is nothing but a blood-soaked skeleton. The video was censored in the UK during daytime hours and was broadcast unedited after 10 pm. In 2001, Björk's video for Pagan Poetry was banned from MTV for depictions of sexual intercourse, fellatio, and body piercings. Her next single, Cocoon, was also banned by MTV as it featured a nude Björk, though the nude body was usually a fitted bodysuit rigged with red string. In 2002, t.A.T.u.'s video for All the Things She Said caused controversy as it featured the young Russian girls, Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova, embracing and eventually kissing. British TV presenters Richard and Judy campaigned to have the video banned, claiming it pandered to pedophiles with the use of school uniforms and young girls kissing, although the campaign failed. Capitalizing on the controversy, the kiss was choreographed into their live performances. In 2021, Lil Nas X's video for Montero (Call Me By Your Name) included various provocative scenes, including one in which he gives a lap dance to Satan. The video was widely criticized by conservative and religious groups, who saw it as promoting Satanism and immorality. Lil Nas X responded to the backlash by defending that it was just a way of expressing his own sexuality and challenging societal norms. He profited from the controversy by promoting his own merchandise, including a pair of Satan Shoes that were made in collaboration with a company called MSCHF, which featured a bronze pentagram, an inverted cross, and a drop of real human blood. The controversy related to Montero eventually helped dragging the song to even greater success, debuting at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and earning applause from critics for its bold and innovative approach to music and visuals.
The Physical Legacy
Music videos have been released commercially on physical formats such as videotape, LaserDisc, DVD, and Blu-ray. Similar to an audio album, a video album is a long-form release containing multiple music videos on a disc. The market for video albums is considerably smaller than for audio albums and audio singles. Video albums are eligible for gold certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) after record labels shipped 50,000 units to retailers, while both audio albums and singles have to ship 500,000 units to achieve gold. One of the early video albums was Eat to the Beat in 1979 by American rock band Blondie, a videocassette containing music videos of all tracks from their fourth studio album of the same name. It was produced by Paul Flattery for Jon Roseman Productions and directed by David Mallet. The music videos were recorded in New York and New Jersey, with some songs featuring the band playing in a concert fashion, and some others having scenarios based on the songs' lyrics. Another popular video album was Olivia Physical in 1982 by Olivia Newton-John, which won the Video of the Year at the 25th Grammy Awards. The video collection features music videos of all songs from her ninth studio album, Physical. Due to the increase of video albums popularity, Billboard magazine introduced the weekly best-selling music video sales ranking in the United States, titled the Top Music Videocassette chart on the 30th of March 1985, now known as the Music Video Sales chart. Its first chart-topper was Private Dancer in 1984, a videocassette by Tina Turner containing four music videos. The Official Charts Company began the similar chart in the United Kingdom on the 30th of January 1994, with Bryan Adams's So Far So Good reaching number one. According to the RIAA, the Eagles' Farewell 1 Tour-Live from Melbourne in 2005 is the top-certified longform music video with 30-time platinum (three million units shipped), while the Rolling Stones' Four Flicks in 2005 is the top-certified music video boxset with 19-time platinum (1.9 million units shipped). The term visual album achieved prominence in modern usage after the release of American singer-songwriter Beyoncé's 2013 self-titled album. A video single contains no more than three music videos in the form of a videotape, LaserDisc, or DVD. In 1983, British synth-pop band the Human League released the first commercial video single titled The Human League Video Single on both VHS and Betamax. It was not a huge commercial success due to the high retail price of £10.99, compared to around £1.99 for a 7-inch vinyl single. The VHS single gained higher levels of mainstream popularity when Madonna released Justify My Love as a video single in 1990 following the blacklisting of the video by MTV. Justify My Love remains the best-selling video single of all time. The DVD single was introduced in the late 1990s as a replacement for the videotape single. Although many record companies in the United States refused to issue CD singles, they readily issued DVD singles, and some popular DVD singles include Kelly Clarkson's A Moment Like This, Jessica Simpson's With You, Beyoncé's Crazy in Love, Christina Aguilera's Fighter, Britney Spears's Toxic, and Iron Maiden's Satellite 15... The Final Frontier. In the United Kingdom, up to three physical formats are eligible for the chart, and DVD singles are quite common, with the single available on DVD as well as CD and/or vinyl record. As with other single formats, DVD singles have a limited production run, often causing them to become collector's items. The DVD single never experienced a high amount of popularity in the United Kingdom because when artists started releasing them in the early 2000s, the CD single had started declining. They were also seen as expensive. Some artists would not release DVD singles and instead put their music videos as enhanced content on a CD single/album. Beginning in the early 2000s, artists in Japan may release singles in the CD+DVD format. Japanese singer Ayumi Hamasaki has been credited as the creator of the CD+DVD format, with one of the examples being her 2005 single Fairyland. The CD+DVD format is more expensive and usually contains one or more music videos, and sometimes a making-of section or other bonus material is included. The Japanese music conglomerate Hello! Project released corresponding DVD singles for almost all of its CD single releases. The company calls them Single Vs. A Single V usually contains a music video for the title song plus several more of its versions and a making-of. Sometimes, an will be released at Hello! Project fan club events that will offer alternate shots of a promotional video, or bonus footage, like backstage footage or footage from a photoshoot not released anywhere else. As of 2017, Single Vs were no longer released; instead, Hello! Project acts now put the music videos on DVDs included in a CD single's limited edition. The DVD singles are popular and chart in the generic Oricon DVD sales chart, due to the non-existence of a separate DVD single ranking in Japan.
The Fan-Made Frontier
Unofficial, fan-made music videos are typically made by synchronizing existing footage from other sources, such as television series or films, with the song. The first known fan video, or songvid, was created by Kandy Fong in 1975 using still images from Star Trek loaded into a slide carousel and played in conjunction with a song. Fan videos made using videocassette recorders soon followed. With the advent of easy distribution over the internet and cheap video-editing software, fan-created videos began to gain wider notice in the late 1990s. A well-known example of an unofficial video is one made for Danger Mouse's illegal mashup from his The Grey Album, of the Jay-Z track Encore with music sampled from the Beatles' White Album, in which concert footage of the Beatles is remixed with footage of Jay-Z and hip-hop dancers. In 2004, a Placebo fan from South Africa made a claymation video for the band's song English Summer Rain and sent it to the band. They liked the result so much that it was included on their greatest hits DVD. In 2016, a Flash animation for the song Come Together by the Beatles was included on The Beatles Blu-ray disc. These fan-made videos have become an integral part of the music video landscape, allowing fans to express their creativity and connect with their favorite artists in new and innovative ways. The rise of user-generated content has also led to the creation of music video stations, such as 24 Hours of Love on MTV2, which premiered in 2002, and CD:UK Hotshots on ITV1, which ran from 1998 to 2007. These stations have provided a platform for fan-made videos to reach a wider audience, and have helped to democratize the music video industry. The concept of the music video has evolved from a simple promotional tool to a complex art form that encompasses a wide range of styles, techniques, and themes. From the early illustrated songs to the modern digital revolution, the music video has played a crucial role in the development of popular music, and its influence can be seen in the way music videos today combine narrative and performance to engage viewers.