The music video through the ages

Already in 1894 came what is usually called the first music video. Americans Edward B. Marks and Joseph W. Stern hired electrician George Thomas to help them market their song The little lost child.

With the help of a ski icon he projected pictures on a canvas while the song was played live. The little lost child became a huge hit and was sold in over two million sheets of paper. Whether the projected images contributed to the success is left unsaid.

During the 1920s and 1930s, the film industry underwent a massive change as the sound film began to be established. The movie The Jazz Singer from 1927 is considered to be the first feature film to synchronize sound with a picture and in this way you could for the first time see and listen to a music performance that was not live.

The film was groundbreaking at the time, but today it is difficult to see past actor Al Jolson's problematic use of blackface makeup.

In 1930 came a series of short films called Spooney melodies. The films cut between an artist's live performance and other environmental images and are reminiscent of the modern music video. These short films were a popular feature of cinemas before the feature film started.

In order to avoid appearing on live TV, Beatles investigated other ways they could market their music. On November 23, 1965, the band came to record ten clips where they stood in a studio and mimicked, which they later sent to the broadcasters. Among other things, the hit We can work it out which is considered to be the world's first music video to be broadcast on TV.

The following year, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg explored new opportunities as he directed a marketing clip for the band's new single Paperback writer. Admittedly, the band was still pretty stylish and mimicked behind their instruments, but Goldman also cut some pictures of the band in other situations and played with different snapshots.

In 1967, Swedish director Peter Goldman began experimenting extensively with the format as he made videos for Beatles Penny Lane and Strawberry fields forever. He used slow motion and backward filming, among other things, and applied color filters in post production. Although these techniques had been used for decades in traditional filmmaking, it was brand new to the music video.

Goldman's films became an eye-opener for the industry and quickly some of the world's largest bands started jumping on the experimental video trend. Pink Floyd and Rolling Stones are considered some of the pioneers.

In 1981, all teenagers' favorite channel MTV was launched. The first music video broadcast on the channel was fittingly enough The Buggles Video killed the radiostar. MTV's launch was the start of the music video's heyday. The channel became an important medium for musicians to appear in and the films became more and more lavish. It was not uncommon for some music videos to have a higher budget than many feature films.

In 1983, iconic music videos were released for the song Thriller. Pop star Michael Jackson collaborated with director John Landis and together they created a nearly 14 minute horror movie homage.

The music video lived strongly on MTV until the early 2000s when the channel slowly began to prioritize other television programs. Instead, Youtube, launched in 2005, became the new home for the music video to grow in. Now anyone could upload their music and thus reach the world.

With Youtube also came the lavish music video to further boost and spread. In July 2012, South Korean rapper Psy released the single Gangnam style which quickly gained a billion audience and for five years topped the list of video platform's most viewed clips in five years.

Even the political music video, which broadcasters may have previously rated, got a residency via Youtube. One example is the symbolically heavy music video for MIA's song Born free, directed by Greek Romain Gvaras. In the video, a police patrol goes around a city and captures red-haired people who they then execute.

Today, the need for music videos as a marketing channel is possibly less than before, not least with the streaming platforms' entry into the market. At the same time, videos are still emerging that shake the cultural world, and examples such as Childish Gambino's This is America and Beyonce's Formation are proof of how respected the format is still as an art form.