Background of the music video

Music videos are short films shown with a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Music videos origins do date back further but generally came into life in the 1980s, due to MTV.

The videos use a wide range of techniques and styles, such as animation, documentaries, live performances, and non-narrative videos.


1980: This is when the music video started to raise in popularity, partly because of MTV setting up a 24 hour music channel, which played songs along with the videos. The first being 'Video killed the radio star'. From this point onwards a huge amount of music were put together with a music video. The most popular of the decade being Michael Jacksons 'Thriller' costing around $500,000 to film.


1990: In the 1990s there was a rise in the number of music video directors. This increase also relates back to MTV as they started to give the names of music video directors who had directed certain videos, allowing some popular directors such as Michael Romanek to push on with their careers.


2000: By the 21st century the industry for music and their videos was blossoming, hugely due to internet. This allowed viewers to quickly access sites such as Youtube and watch the music videos, eventually put an end to shows such as 'Top of the Pops'. In addition the spread of the internet enhanced artists popularity as well increasing the need for a music video  as millions of viewers would watch, letting record labels market their artists.