In 1894, sheet music publishers Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern hired electrician George Thomas and various performers to promote sales of their song "The Little Lost Child". Using a magic lantern, Thomas projected a series of still images on a screen simultaneous to live performances. This would become a popular form of entertainment known as the illustrated song, the first step toward music video.
The idea for this video and song was very experimental, yet simple at the same time, with the video just being a single shot of Gus singing holding his duck
Animation artist Max Fleischer started a series called Screen Songs were viewers were asked to follow the bouncing ball on screen indicating the lyrics to a song.
This is one of the earliest examples of music videos. It was shown in theatres in 1932 as music videos weren't available to view anywhere.
Soundies were musical films that often included short dance sequences, similar to music videos later on.
Tony Bennett claims to have created "The first music video" in his autobiography, this would be the accompanying clip to his song "Stranger in Paradise"
This music video was part of the film of the same name, showcasing every song from that album of the same name. The video was very innovative as it included close ups of the singer and zoom shots of the band altogether then close ups of the guitars and such.
Bohemian Rhapsody had many innovative features such as experimental lighting and dramatic shadows, they also used effects like dissolve and kaleidoscope-like imagery.
This was the first video to be aired on MTV which was considered innovative at the time due to it being the only 24-hour music channel.
This Michael Jackson classic was possibly the first music video to not just be a music video, but a short film in it's own right, clocking in around 13 minutes. This music video was also innovative as it was very horror-based and unlike anything else seen before, with makeup and choreography.
Weird Al is a pioneer in the 'parody' genre also creating accompanying videos for his work, for example in this particular video, Weird Al depicts a comically overweight 'version' of Michael Jackson, closely mimicking the original 'Beat It' video.
a-has's video for their song 'Take on Me' was a first for animation/drawings in music videos as most of the video is in a comic book fashion.
Madonna's "Material Girl" video closely mimicked "Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend" from the film "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes". Theorist, Christian Metz, stated that Madonna's video was a "deconstruction" of Marilyn Monroe's video.
This video parodies but also pays homage to an earlier video by Robert Palmer called 'Addicted To Love'. The video depicts the men as the sexual objects as opposed to the women in the earlier video.
This music video was considered very controversial due to the graphic content included. The last part of the video was cut on most music channels for being deemed too gruesome for TV. The image of bones was created using special effects and the image of muscles was achieved using heavy makeup
The man depicted in the music video seems to be a paranoid factory worker terrified of the automated assembly robot he operates, possibly under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs or possibly painkillers, as he has a cast on his left arm. He imagines the machines watching and threatening him, seeing them outside the factory, chasing him before disappearing. This was a good example of CGI and abstract ideas in a music video
Rule the World by Take That was the soundtrack to the film Stardust that was directed by Matthew Vaughn. The video uses many clips from the film to promote it. Rule the World is just one example of a soundtrack for a movie, most films nowadays have a soundtrack and use clips from the film in the music video to promote it.
This music video pays homage to the earlier Flashdance films, depicting a woman going about her exercises, this is considered very low budget for todays and Kanye West's standards. The video may be simple but left a large impact. The video faced controversy for over sexualising a women and having nothing to do with the song. The video is mostly one shot with various camera angles
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