History of music videos


The way in which music videos are watched has changed dramatically with the sudden increase of technology in the last decade, preciously music videos were mainly consumed through the use of music channels.In more recent years music videos have been shared on many websites such as youtube for people all over the world to watch them for free in the comfort of their own home. 

In 1981 on August 1st MTV, this channel had been used to distribute music videos to audiences within america.It went on to quickly revolutionise the way in which the general public watched music videos.The first music video that was aired was The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” which was initially only aired to household within certain parts of new jersey. The brand name "MTV" was known as a influential source of pop culture and entertainment within the United States but as the brand grew it then went on to air in other parts of the world, including Europe,Asia and latin america.During the early years of MTV there were video jockeys that were provided by the record companies to introduce music videos to the audience. It was around this time period that record companies recognised that MTV was in fact a powerful tool to market music videos so money was invested in making creative, cutting-edge videos. 

In more recent years Youtube has become a key platform to watch music videos especially with the increased use of the internet.A large majority of artists have decided to upload their music videos on to youtube in order for their fans to watch them for free however both the artist and Youtube both continue to profit through the amount of views and the advertising used.This has become most people preferred choice when watching music videos as it allows them to watch any music video that they desire at any time which is not possible when watching music channels as it is not in the user control.The most watched music video on youtube is PSY- Gangnam style, it had 1,827,405,408 views. This was because the music video was unique and people have never seen anything like this before. The most expensive music video that was ever produced was scream by Michael Jackson, the total for this music video was seven million dollars.

Technologies has started to play its role in the production of music videos. The effects of green screens are making the music industry make different scenes easily rather than having to go to different locations to film the scenes that want to film. Green screen has made it easier for labels to create a music video as they could shoot a whole scene through the green screen as they can change the different backgrounds. The number of people that watch music videos has gone up dramatically as they can access them everywhere and anywhere now days, so people have different ways in watching it. Music genres have changed over the years as people have mad sub genres, such as punk, dance and electro-dance. People have gone against stereotypical media traits and they are now thinking about what different things the target audiences want to see and they have done this through sub genres of music videos.

The research i have gained will assist  with the planning of my own music video as it allows me to have a greater understanding of the evolution of the music videos and the platform in the which it is currently shown on, it has also made me learn further about the different technologies used within music videos.