The history of music videos

Originally music videos were first developed through an early type of image projector developed in the 17th century, the 'Magic Lantern'. 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 the 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.

In 1926, arrival of "Talkies" produced many musical short films which took a step closer to the modern music videos and was a big development back in their times. A "Talkies" (or better known as 'Sound Film') is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially practical. The shorts (as they were called) were mainly remembered being done by The Warner Brothers and Spooney Melodies, and they were typically six minutes in duration, and featured Art Deco-style animations and backgrounds combined with film of the performer singing.

In 1980, the New Zealand group Split Enz became one of the first bands to create an entire set of music promo clips and market them on video cassette for each song on their album, 'True Colours.' Predating MTV by almost three years, 'Video Concert Hall,' was the first nationwide video music program on American television. Premiering in June 1981, one of the first US programs to play music videos was the USA Cable Network program 'Night Flight.' Night Flight predated MTV's launch by just a few months.

In 1981, the U.S. video channel MTV was launched and it began the age of 24-hour music television. They launched the channel with the video, "Video Killed the Radio Star." Throughout the 1980s, MTV expanded to become an important tool used in music marketing. Singers like Madonna not only used music videos to promote their albums, but to create their images. In 1983, the almost 14-minute-long video for Michael Jackson's song "Thriller," was released. It became the world's most successful and influential video in music video history.

In 1985, MTV launched the channel VH1 which featured softer music for an older audience than the typical young MTV audience. In 1987, MTV Europe was launched and in 1991, MTV Asia was introduced.

In 1988, the MTV show, Yo! MTV Raps was launched. The show helped to bring hip hop music to a nationwide audience. Two of the videos that are most famous for being two of the three most expensive music videos of all time are Michael and Janet Jackson's "Scream," which cost $7 million to produce, and Madonna's "Bedtime Story," which cost $5 million. "Scream" is still the most expensively video ever made.

During the 1990s, MTV launched channels around the world that included: MTV Latin America in 1993, MTV India in 1996, and MTV Mandarin in 1997. In 1996, MTV2, originally called "M2" was launched as an alternative and older music video channel.

By the mid-2000s, MTV and many of its other channels had stopped showing a large number of music videos and began showing reality television shows.

Music Videos have played an important role in the success of many artists and the music industry.