The origins of music videos is much debated, some artists such as Tony Bennett considering themselves to be the first artist to have a music video, whilst others consider the combination of film and music to have triggered the start of music videos. Having researched I found music videos have arguably evolved out of film, the 'talkies' of the 1920/30's presented the audience with the opportunity to watch acting and singing whilst hearing the music simultaneously for the first time, music had of course had been played on the radio but this was the root of a visual accompaniment.
Studios began producing 'musical short films' a form of music video which were not full feature length and contained the artist singing their hit song amongst the storyline. For example, in 1929 Blues singer Bessie Smith starred in the two - reel short 'St. Louis Blues' in which she gave a rendition of the hit song,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTXBZFvFXdA - This is the link to the full short film 'St. Louis Blues'.
Alternatively the song itself is below,
The 'Soundies' of the 1940's were a continuation in the evolution of the music and could contain big, glitzy, show cases of the song with dances. A prime example of this, and of music within film is Marilyn Monroe's iconic performance of Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend from the 1953 film 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUGfC7GYi18
In 1956 Jazz singer Tony Bennett performed 'Stranger in Paradise' and later claimed to have made "the first music video"after he was filmed "walking along the Serpentine in Hyde Park, London in 1956, with the resulting clip being set to his recording of the song "Stranger in Paradise".[8] The clip was sent to UK and US television stations and aired on shows including Dick Clark's American Bandstand"
The defining moment of music videos occurred in the 60's, legendary band The Beatles' hit film A Hard Day's Night(1964) contained their performance of the hit song of the same name, the staging of the song mirrors the structure of a modern day narrative music video. Watch the video below and see for yourself!
However, the first ever official music video to be posted to the massively popular music channel MTV in 1979 was The Buggles' 'Video Killed The Radio Star' which currently has over 9 million views on youtube.
This video is aptly named and The Buggles correctly comment in their video how the phenomena of music videos and now with advances in technology and websites such as Youtube and Spotify, the artists themselves are the ones who are suffering, "we meet in an abandoned studio". The video itself is very eclectic and is a hybrid of different genres containing various elements, there is a narrative section, intertextual references to television and radios as well as performance sections of the band playing.
After looking at the origins of the music video, the audience can see how swiftly music videos evolved and have become spectacular works of art. I will now look at the various different types of music videos and which are to be considered the 'best of all time'
Sources: http://www.slideshare.net/crosswaysfederation/music-video-a-brief-history
http://www.nypress.com/official-history-of-music-video/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_video
