History Of Chosen Medium (Music Videos):

An early example of a music video is; St Louis Blue's - Bessie Smith - 1929. Where the blue's singer Bessie Smith appeared in a short film called 'Saint Louis Film' featuring a performance of the hit song - it was shown in the theatres until 1932.

In 1940, Walt Disney released Fantasia, an animated film based around famous pieces of classical music.

In1950's & 60's -

1963 - 'The Summer Holiday' was released which starred the artist Cliff Richard as the mian male role. And it also which featured the musical hit 'Summer Holiday' - Cliff Richard's well known songs. (Below)

The Beatles' first major motion picture, 'A Hard Day's Night' in 1964 - Which starred the characters as themselves. It took the genre to new heights with their groundbreaking films for 'Strawberry Fields Forever' and 'Penny Lane' made in the early 1967 which used techniques like; dramatic lighting, unusual camera angles and rhythmic editing. These two landmark films were the first to purpose-made concept videos for many of their famous songs; shown in performances or abstarct ways to 'illustrate' the song in an artful manner - rather than creating a a film of a performance. (The Opening scene of ' The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night' is shown below which features the theme tune 'A Hard Day's Night'.

1966 - Bob Dylan's clip performing 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' The clip's ironic portrayal of a performance; featuring randomly celebrity Allen Ginsberg - in a non-performing role. Which was all filmed and performed in one single shot; with Bob Dylan holding certain lyrics on cards in a alleyway behind a theatre.

The 1970's -

Queens - Bohemian Rhapsody also started a whole new era for using music videos as promos. Which was only formed 1975 - 10 years after Bob Dylans single shoot for his song 'Subterranean Homesick Blues'; this shows how videos have developed.

An american band 'Devo' - 'The Truth About Devolution' were also important developments in the evolution in the genre and these Devo video cassette releases were arguably the first to form long-form video productions; as well as Bob Dylan's single shoot of 'Subterranean Homesick Blues'. The UK importance of 'Top Of The Pops' created competition and an environment of innovant between bands; artists and record labels.

The 1980's -

1981 - MTV is launched; the first video to be aired is 'Buggles - The Video Killed The Radio Star'. (Above)

Above - David Bowie scored his first UK number one in nearly a decade - thanks to eye catching demo - 'Ashes to Ashes'.

In the early mid 1980's - artists started to add more sophisticated effects to their videos, and added a storyline or plot to their music video. 

Michael Jackson was the first artist to create the concept of a short film; which has a beginning, middle and end. He did this in a small way in 'Billie Jean' then in 'Beat It' which has influences from the musical film 'The West Side Story', but it wasn't until the 1984 release of 'Thriller' short film that he took the music vido format to another level. (Below)

Top Of The Pops was concious in its approach to video content, so another approach was for an act to produce a promo that will be banned or edited and so use the resulting controversy and publicity to promote the release.
Early examples are - Duran Duran's 'Girls On Film' ( Below) and Frankie Goes To Hollywood - 'Relax'.

1986 - Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel was first shown.

1989 - Madonna - Like A Prayer - is released.

Madonna owned a great deal of her success to the skilful construction and seductive appeal of her videos. It has been suggested by these short films; artists like Madonna have constructed an image that echoes their image/ego. Although MTV see the mid 1980's as an 'Golden Era' of music videos and an unparalleled success of new art form in popular culture. Others see it as hastening the death of the true musical artist; because physical appeal (aka the artists image)  is now critical to popularity; which justifies Madonna's success and popularity.

Music Today:

Music today also justify popularity by the success of their music videos. Instead of watching music videos for the music, they now appreciated for the visual qualities/effects, whilst the viewer remains uninterested in the audio. This is a normal sociological reaction; by the increasing trend in the music business to be focused/interested on the visual appeal of artists, rather than the quality of the track.
 

1991 - Nirvana 'Smells like teen spirit' was released; changing MTV from Glam rock to Alternative Rock - catapulting Grunge genre into the American and Worldwide mainstream. (Above)

1992 - Credit was given to music video directors. And Guns'N'Roses video November Rain was released and remains one of the costliest ever produced. (Above).

1996 - Pop-up video first launched VH1. And M2 is launched as a 24-hour music video channel; as MTV has largely replaced videos with other content. But then in 1999 is renamed MTV2; which is then replaced by MTV Hits in 2002 so MTV2 plays fewer videos.

2006 - The Norweigain unsigned band 'Rektor' makes the world's first playable videogame music video game. ( Above)