History of Music Video

Although the history of music videos date back much further, music videos became popular in the 1980's, especially when MTV opened their doors and swept the TV. Prior to this time, music videos were called "illustrated song", "promotional (promo) film" or "film clip".

Music videos have a wide range of styles or filming techniques. These are animation, live action filming, documentaries and non-narrative techniques or abstract films. One of the early creations of music videos started in the late 50's when the Scopitone was invented. The Scopitone is a visual jukebox that allows artists to have a short film to accompany their music that was invented in France.

Artists such as Serge Gainsbourg and Francoise Hardy utilised this and made videos that played all over France at the time. In 1964, The Beatles starred in their first feature A Hard Day's Night directed by Richard Lester. The execution of the film made it a hit and had many musical performances in it.