A Brief History Of The Music Video

In 1975 Queen released the first single that was accompanied with a music video called "Bohemian Rhapsody". The video is simple,a subdued colour scheme [Blue,Red,White,Black], spotlights to light each member of the band, a lot of shots of the instruments (And the members playing them), cutting between shots using "Cross Dissolve".



Five years later in 1980, David bowie released his music video for "Ashes to Ashes". This video was considered a "Groundbreaking Video" because at that time it was the most expensive music video ever created. It consists of bright colours and strange outfits, with a lot of green screen and different locations.



MTV was launched in 1981 and it was the first 24 hour music channel, although initially only a few TV operators show it, but it rapidly gained more popularity.

In 1983 "Friday Night Videos" officially debuts on TV and allows nearly everyone in the US with a TV to watch music videos regularly. Also, Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" was released this year and was the first music video/song heavily played that was recorded by a black artist.


1984 Michael Jackson broke the convention again and rather than a traditional music video, he decided to create a short film for his song "Thriller" with a inception style narrative with a movie inside a movie, inside a daydream, inside a narrative where the movie's were actually real.