History of Music Videos

Music videos are short films incorporating songs and imagery for promotional or artistic values. Contemporary music videos are a form of marketing and intended to endorse record sales. Music videos first came to prominence in the 1980’s with the launch of MTV (Music Television), however its origins came beforehand in the form of “illustrated song” or “promotional film”. Although the first music video ever broadcasted was 'Video Killed the Radio Star' played by MTV in 1981, some consider the music video to be much older than that year. It seems that the film Alexander Nevsky, directed by Sergei Eisenstein in 1938 had some extended images of battles which had been choreographed by Sergei Prokofiev. These new scenes were so innovative that they have lately been considered to be the first music video. Spooney Melodies can be considered in these short music videos. However it was The Beatles with A Hard Day’s Night the subsequent music videos have modelled on. The film was shot in black and white and presented as a mock documentary, using live action film segments accompanied by The Beatles tracks. The Beatles took it to the next level with Help! using international locations and colour technology. The title tracks accompanying segment is considered to be an arch-type of modern performance based music videos with the use of crossing cutting, contrasting long shots and numerous close-ups.