In the 1920's the first variation of music videos were introduced; one of the first music videos was "Silly Symphony" from 1929 until '39, which featured a video styled around music rather than a story arc like one might see today.
Promotional Videos and Early Video Clips:
As the 60's rolled around they brought about a change and transition towards recorded live performances and the creation of promotional material, which would later be the early building blocks to the music video. The Beatles were crucial in this change of tone and image, with their musical revolution came a chance to film them playing live and share it with others, they later started doing different styles of promotional clips such as "Help" and "Yellow Submarine" both of which sporting the new style of music video.
When the Rolling Stones come on to the scene in the 60's after the Beatles they used promo-clips to advertise songs such as "We Love You." In 68' They released "Sympathy For The Devil."
As the 70's came in David Bowie did too; From '72 till '73 Bowie filmed promotional material with Mick Rock, a famous pop photographer, these songs were "John, I'm Only Dancing," "The Jean Genie," the December 1972 US re-release of "Space Oddity" and the 1973 release of the single "Life on Mars?"
The Early Years of Music Television:
In the mid-70's the start of music television started, In Australia both Countdown and Sounds premiered in 1974, this popularised the music video genre. Later on, due to the influence of these shows, in 1981 the first song aired on MTV was the hit by Buggles: "Video Killed The Radio Star." This song has now become a classic and a recognisable hit.
In 1975, Queen released their music video for "Bohemian Rhapsody" which was a smash success although it was 6 minutes long and most radio shows refused to air it. The song was said to be a great influence on all other music videos that came after due to it being released 7 years before MTV went live.
Music Videos Go Mainstream:
In the 80's videos had gain such traction due to Queen and the help of other bands as well as music television shows that they were forced to become mainstream as every band wanted one and so the golden age of music videos was created with low budget and high aspiration.
In 1981, the U.S. video channel MTV launched, airing "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles and beginning an era of 24-hour-a-day music on television.
In the early 1980s, music videos also began to explore political and social themes. Examples include the music videos for David Bowie's "China Girl" and "Let's Dance" which both explored race issues. In a 1983 interview, Bowie spoke about the importance of using music videos in addressing social issues, "Let's try to use the video format as a platform for some kind of social observation, and not just waste it on trotting out and trying to enhance the public image of the singer involved".
In 1983, the most successful, influential and iconic music video of all time was released: the nearly 14-minute-long video for Michael Jackson's song "Thriller." Along with earlier videos by Jackson for his songs "Billie Jean" and "Beat It"
The Rise of Modern Pop & Directors:
In the early 90's directors started directing music videos; one of the most notable example of a director working with a band was for Nirvana's "Heart Shaped Box" this is notable because Cobain, the lead singer and front-man had a different idea for the video, thus two videos were made, the director's cut and then Cobain's cut.
As the years progressed more notable videos were produced such as Pulp's "Common People" and "Disco 2000" which would help Oasis form Brit-pop as a genre with their hits and videos: "Supersonic" and "Wonderwall." Out of this would come the one-hit wonder: "Bitter-Sweet Symphony" which fell into same genre had a great sound and iconic music video that was never forgotten.
The Internet Era of Music Videos:
in 2005 saw the launch of the website YouTube, which made the viewing of online video much faster and easier; Google Videos, Yahoo! Video, Facebook and Myspace's video functionality use similar technology. Such websites had a profound effect on the viewing of music videos; 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.
Vevo, a music video service launched by several major music publishers, premiered in December 2009. The videos on VEVO are syndicated to YouTube, with Google and VEVO sharing the advertising revenue.
Vertical videos:
In the late 2010s, some artists began releasing alternative vertical videos tailored to mobile devices in addition to music videos; these vertical videos are generally platform-exclusive. These vertical videos are often shown on Snapchat's "Discover" section or within Spotify playlists. Early adopters of vertical video releases include the number-one hits "Havana" by Camila Cabello and "Girls Like You" by Maroon 5 and Cardi B.
One of the more recent examples of this is Billie Eilish, with hits such as "Bad Guy" & "You Should See Me in A Crown"
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