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The first ever music video was shot in Thomas Edison’s laboratory for the Kinetophone, a device that develops moving pictures and was made by Edison himself. The music video was just a test for the device and is the first attempt in history to record sound and moving pictures in synchronization.

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The first motion pictures with sound-on-film, which is a system that synchronized soundtracks with movies. A prime example of sound-on-film was ‘The Jazz Singer’, an American part-talkie musical drama film in 1927, the first feature film to be synchronized with dialogue and its soundtrack.

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The Jazz Singer | "Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet" Scene | Warner Bros. Entertainment

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Audiences learned how to follow a bouncing ball that hopped over lyrics, encouraging them to sing along in theatres. ‘Song-Car-Tunes’ By Max and David Fleischer consisted of three minute short animated films which included the bouncing ball. The Song-Car-Tunes were also one of the first few to include the use of sound-on-film in their animated shorts.

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Ko-Ko Song Car-Tune:  HAS ANYBODY HERE SEEN KELLY?

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‘Soundies’ paved the way for music videos, as these were three minute films that displayed music or dance performances in jukebox-like machines. These coin-operated machines were called ‘Panorams’, and rear-projected these performances onto a 27-inch screen. Soundies were often found in jazz bars and nightclubs and also displayed jazz singers or swing performers of that era.

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The Beatles were among the first to make a music video that was broadcasted on television. The band wanted a way to promote their music without having to make any in-person appearances, specifically in the USA. ‘We Can Work It Out’ was filmed to be broadcasted, but in a way that blended in with other television shows at the time, as the video only included a performance as promotion.

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Video Concert Hall, launched by Jerry Crowe and Charles Henderson, was the first nation wide television program to broadcast music videos and showcase them as an art form on the USA network. Video Concert Hall predated MTV for almost three years.

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David Bowie’s “Ashes to Ashes” music video was the most expensive music video to have ever been made at the time, with a budget of $500,000. The video was described to be “the greatest symbol of the period of time before MTV”, as it pushed the limits of low technology.

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David Bowie - Ashes To Ashes (Official Video)

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Music videos became mainstream once MTV aired in 1981, first broadcasting “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles. MTV was the beginning of an era to the 24-hour music on television, and was significant to popular music marketing. Artists also started to experiment with different genres of music videos, greatly contrasting the way The Beatles filmed their performance music video. However, because music videos were meant to promote the artist, a non-representational form of a music video were rare, considering the artist had to be seen in order to be considered as marketing.

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The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star (Official Music Video)

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1983 - Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and “Billie Jean”

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1983 - Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and “Billie Jean”

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“Thriller” beat David Bowie’s music video budget, having cost $800,000 to film. The almost 14-minute music video was the most influential video of the 80’s, experimenting with a storyline and setting new standards for production with zombie-like special effects. Prior to this, though, Michael Jackson broke the racial barrier by having “Billie Jean” play on MTV. Michael Jackson contributed to getting music videos by African-Americans to be played on MTV, as many criticisms for MTV’s “blatant racism” by Rick James began to rise after their refusal to air his “Super Freak” music video. Since Michael Jackson, more and more African-American artists began making appearances on MTV.

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Michael Jackson - Billie Jean (Official Video)

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Lyric videos are music videos that primarily focus on the lyrics of the song, often not having the artist featured in the video. “Sign O ‘The Times” was the first lyric video to be released, with graphics being used as the background for the lyrics, with Prince not making an appearance in the video.

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Prince - Sign O' The Times (Official Music Video)

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Between 1992 to 2001, a large amount of directors began coming out with different styles and approaches to music videos. For instance, Chris Cunningham is known for his works with Aphex Twin. Cunningham first worked on Second Bad Vilbel, and was screened on MTV. This was significant as this continued a trend with later directors.

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Autechre - Second Bad Vilbel (Official Music Video) 1080p HD

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When technology develops, platforms like Napster (a peer-to-peer file sharing device) and iFilm, which hosted short videos including music videos, MTV and other similar channels began abandoning the broadcast of music videos and turned to reality TV instead. MTV eventually dropped their music television tagline in 2010.

Youtube was launched in 2005, where music videos became easier and faster to access. Artists began seeing the success of music videos being published on Youtube, as well as other websites such as MySpace or Facebook with similar video functionality as Youtube.

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Lyric videos made a comeback after Prince’s “Sign O ‘The Times”. In 2010 lyric videos rose to popularity, the chainsmoker’s “Closer” featuring Halsey being the most watched lyric video after being released in 2016.

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The Chainsmokers - Closer (Lyric) ft. Halsey

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Maroon 5’s “Girls Like You” music video were one of the first to have their video uploaded vertically to tailor more to mobile devices or platform-exclusive marketing. These vertical videos were also shown on Snapchat’s “Discover” section or on Spotify.

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Maroon 5 - Girls Like You ft. Cardi B (Official Music Video)

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During the lockdown, Thao and Get Down were one of the first to film a music video through Zoom. This included dividing the screen into a three-by-three grid, doing the choreography through the screen. The video was produced within a week, with one take, after a 5 hour rehearsal.

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Thao & The Get Down Stay Down - Phenom (Official Music Video)