The history of music videos

When did music videos start?

• as soon as cinema was developed, there came with it  the opportunity to put songs to music
• as early as the 1920s, jazz musicians began to make short films to accompany popular songs.
• in 1965, Bob Dylan made 'subterranean Homesick blues' as a segment of the film ' Don't Look Back'
• this is widely recognised as one of the first music videos
• in the 1970's producers of music television recognised an opportunity to make short promotional films to promote their artists
• they began to make 'promos' - early music videos. these often replaced live performances which has previously been the most common way to promote releases on TV.
• in 1975 Queen released 'Bohemian Rhapsody' with a groundbreaking video which marked the beginning of the music video era and set the language of the modern music video. 
• this video considered one of the first to use advanced visual effects
• thriller was the first feature length video ever! In 1983 it was shown in the cinemas. It was a 14 minute music video. 
• soon artists realised the power of the music video and how ti could affect their image.
• in his 1988 book moonwalk, jackson expressed interest in having director John Landis direct the music video for 'thriller'. having seen landis previous work on a horror film. Jackson based himself on a character from landis film.