History of Form (Music video)

The history of music videos: 

According to music historian Donald Clarke feature films such as 'Lookout Sister' by musician Louis Jordan are the ancestors of music video. This film came out in the mid 1940s and was made up of a range of short films for his songs. Jiles Perry Richardson was the first to coin the phrase music video in 1959. In 1964 The Beatles starred in their first feature film A Hard Day's Night which features songs of their album. The mock documentary directed by Richard Lester was shot in black and white. The opening sequence is arguably one of the prime archetypes of the modern performance-style music video. They use rhythm cross-cutting and close-ups as well as long shorts.

In 1965 they began making promotional clips for distribution and broadcast in other countries. In May 1966 they filmed two colour promotional clips for their singles Rain and Paperback Writer both being directed by Michael Linday Hogg. In 1967 they made promotional clips for Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane. They used techniques borrowed from film including slow motion and dramatic lighting. 

Don't look back is a documentary film about Bob Dylans tour of the UK directed by D.A Pennerbaker. The opening black and white clip of Subterranean Homesick Blues shows Bob Dylan standing in a alleyway with cue cards of key words from the song playing over the top. This is one continuous shot, this makes it different from any other music videos before it. 

In the 1970s Top of the Pops began playing music videos for the first time.

MTV launched in 1981 in the U.S first showing the music video to Video Killed the Radio Star. MTV began showing music 24 hours a day. This lead to music videos being important in marketing the latest popular music. 

The next development for modern music video was the creation of inexpensive and easy to use recording and editing equipment. With the easier to use equipment acts could produce music videos quicker and significantly cheaper than before. This lead to them beginning to develop better effects in the videos and creating a plot to them. 

One of the most iconic music videos was released in 1983. Michael Jacksons Thriller video was directed by John Landis. This video cost $500,000 despite the cheaper equipment. 

The next step in the history of music videos is when they became available online. In 1997 the website iFilm was launched. This hosted short videos including music videos. In 2005 Youtube was released and is currently the most popular website for music videos. These websites made viewing of music videos much faster and easier. 
In 2009 30 Seconds to Mars uploaded their single Kings and Queens to Youtube on the day of its release. It gained over 100 million views. It also received over 40 million plays on MySpace.