History of Music Videos

50s-60s:

Television and music has always had a good relationship since American Bandstand was first aired in the 1952. This was a weekly dance show that featured the latest hit music that the attending teens would the dance to. It also had live performances by popular musicians and the audience members rated songs.

Then, Ready Steady Go (1963) and Top of the Pops (1964) appeared on TV in the UK. These were both shows that presented current music, featuring famous artistes. Bands would appear in the studio on these types of shows to perform, usually they were just miming to the track as it played.

70s-80s:

In the 70s and 80s, bands realised they could make a short film to accompany their song, having bonuses for them which were;
- getting more exposure/ airplay (on TV as well as radio)
- showcasing the bands look/ talent
- allowing the band to be arty and creative

In the mid 70s, music programmes had begun airing music videos when bands couldn't be present in the studio to perform the song. This was particularly done by Australian and New Zealand programmes as nobody could be bothered to travel to perform live in the studios. 

In 1979 Mike Nesmith, a former member of the pop rock band the Monkees, came up with the show 'Pop Clips' which was made by nickelodeon that aired music promos. Nesmith approached Warner Brothers with his idea of filling an entire network with music videos, which they loved the idea of as it was popular, round the clock programming with the only cost being royalties for the airplay of the channel, so it would also be good for making money.

MTV!

In 1981, MTV was launched by Warner Amex (and was later bought by Viacom in 1985). At the time when it was first starting, there wasn't enough American music videos to fill the schedule, but there were a lot of UK acts that had been making videos for their singles that filled the gaps on the show. MTV helped bands like Duran Duran achieve global success with their performances on MTV. Most of the early outputs on MTV were mainly featuring white, pop/rock bands and only artistes like Michael Jackson were given airplay. This was because, music like gangsta rap was seen as threatening and it wasn't until there were more comedic black artistes, like MC Hammer, that black music was then shown.

Diversification:

MTV became very successful and due to this large success it lead to shoots such as MTV2 in 1996 and VH1 in 1985. Along with airing music videos of different artistes, MTV also started to make its own content such as; 'Unplugged', 'The Real World (a forerunner of 'Big Brother'), 'The Osbornes' and 'Jackass'.

Competition:

Due to the success and popularity of MTV, other companies were keen to get involved too. In the UK, EMAP- a magazine publisher, firstly diversified into radio and then launched music television channels such as; Kiss, Q, Kerrang! and Smash Hits. By 2004 there were 23 music television channels in the UK, nine of which were owned by Viacom. As there were so many music television channels being made now, this led to a fragmentation of audiences, meaning less revenue for each individual channel.

Nowadays:

Now most people don't watch music videos on TV due to YouTube, which was founded in 2005. It is a website/ app where people can search for and watch any music video they like, without being limited to the videos selected on TV schedules.