Research - History of Music Videos

History of music videos

Music videos represent a crucial part of the music industry. Artists owe their care

ers to music videos as they are being given the chance of impressing the public not just with their vocal talent but how they look, move and portray a storyline.

Thirty to forty

years ago, music videos used to be less important than it is today. MTV (Music Television) was the phenomenon that revolutionised the m

usic video industry. MTV began broadcasting in 1981 in the USA and it marked the beginning of the music video's ruling over the music industry. The very first video ever broadcast on MTV was 'Video Killed the Radio Star' by The Buggles. MTV was also broadcasting 24-hour-a-day music videos, therefore these videos were needed to be produced. Consequently, music video began to play an important role in artists' careers. MTV has been highly controversial: some saw it as the beginning of a new, fresh era in music, others considered it to mark the end of true musical talent, as artists have been become more appreciated for their looks instead of their vocal abilities.

In 1985, MT

V launched the channel VH1 which featured softer music for an older audience than the typical young MTV audience. In 1987, MTV Europe was launched and in 1991, MTV Asia was introduced.

In 1988, the MTV show

, Yo! MTV Raps was launched. The show helped

to b

ring hip hop music to a nation wide audience. Two of the videos that are most famous for being two of the three most expensive music videos of all time are Michael and Janet Jackson's "Scream," which cost $7 million to produce, and Madonna's "Bedtime Story," which cost $5 million. "Scream" is still the most expensively video ever made.

During t

he 1990s, MTV

launched channels around the world that included: MTV Latin America in 1993, MTV India in 1996, and MTV Mandarin in 1997. In 1996, MTV2, originally called "M2" was launched as an alternative and older music video channel.
By the mid-2000s, MTV and many of its other channels had stopped showing a large number of music videos and began showing reality television shows.

Because of this In today’s society, the music video is considered important as the song itself, sometimes even more important because this is how people are deciding the success of a song or artist, through how good the music video is. Collections of music videos are being sold on tapes or DVDs called ‘Digi-paks’. Many people consider that a music video should be assessed based on its visual qualities and not on the song quality. This is why using female sex-appeal in music videos is very high because many of the target audience enjoy watching such things; therefore this feature is being used excessively as it is more popular for the target public.

In conclusion, I feel the music video channel ‘MTV’ played a very important part in showcasing and revolutionising the music video industry by broadcasting them all around the world. I now feel the music video is more important than the actual song itself.