The History Of Music Videos.

Music videos first became prominent in the 1980's when they first came into use by MTV.
Originally music videos were referred to as an 'illustrated song', 'filmed insert', 'promotional (promo) film', 'promotional clip' or 'film clip'.TIMELINE...
- In the 1930's animation artists were the first to make a series of sing-along cartoon shorts, inviting audience's to sing-along with the words displayed at the bottom of the screen. This is shown in such films as Fantasia and Summer Magic, as well as the Warner Brother's 'Merry Melodies'.

- Said to be "the ancestors of music videos" a feature film was created in the 1940s called, "Lookout Sister" in which Louis Jordan (a renowned American jazz/rhythm & blues musician) created a few short films which were spliced together.
- Musical films were another important predecessors to music videos, and several well-known music videos imitate classic Hollywood musicals from the 1930s to the 1950s. Madonna's 1985 video for "Material Girl" which was inspired by the song "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" from the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. 
Several of Michael Jackson's videos include dance sequences influenced by classic Hollywood musicals, including the landmark "Thriller" and "Bad" which was influenced by the stylised dance "fights" in the film version of West Side Story.

-  The Buggles 'Video killed the radio star' became the first music video to be shown on MTV in the 1980's.

- During the 1970s, Top of the Pops was born on the BBC showing top chart hits throughout the weeks.


-  During the 1980s, music videos began to change, from simply promoting the artist to using narrative, sometimes with the artist themselves not even being present in the video, such as  Queen's Under Pressure and George Michael's Freedom 90 in which he refused to star in.

- In 1986 Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer became the first music video to use special effects and animation techniques with the help of Aardman animation company.


-In 2005 yOUTUBE made its debut on the internet giving people the chance to view billions of videos that can be uploaded and accessed for free by anyone anywhere in the world. Many artists became well known and have found fame from uploading videos featuring themselves singing; artists such as Soulja Boy with his famous Soulja Boy Tell Em song and Justin Bieber who was signed to Usher's recording label in 2008.