History of the Music Video

Below is a brief video with different music video clips from over the years and demonstrates how much they have evolved and how much intricate they have become.



The History of MTV 



Evolution of the music video 

From the Beatles making promotional clips for “Paperback Writer ” and “Rain” in 1966, to Kanye West premiering “New Slaves” on the sides of buildings in cities around the world a few weeks ago, the music video – through its content and capabilities – has never failed to come up with new ways to entertain us.
Driven by an almost endless sense of anticipation from the audience, and aided by numerous digital advancements, music videos have become wildly sophisticated in the last several years. Technology has been able to amend the way the artists both conceive and render their projects. 
For our "Evolution of the Music Video" series, we'll spotlight some of the recent twists and turns that have taken place as the art form has developed through the years. This first installment below centers on a list of innovations in a variety of contexts.
In the next three weeks we’ll turn to the progressive contours made in hip-hop, EDM and the now thoroughly creative realm of lyric videos. But to start off, let’s check the some of the variety that's out there, and clock a few the innovations that have taken place in pop videos as the form has evolved.

CREATIVE SCOPE
It's almost impossible to overstate how much Michael Jackson's "Thriller" raised the stakes. Shot on 35mm film instead of video, the 1983 classic incorporated dramatic interludes, state-of-the-art FX, and Jackson's own dancing wizardry. Since then, artists and directors have continuously raised the bar along with the budget. Jackson's $7 million “Scream,” with MJ and sister Janet cavorting in a space station, remains the one to beat, but Guns N' Roses did their best on “November Rain,” a $1.25 million epic that led Dave Grohl to sniff, “When a musician starts to use the phrase 'mini-movie' to describe a video, it's time to quit.” Far from it. From “Bad Romance” to “Marry The Night, ” Lady Gaga has revived the idea that a video can be an event, using wild costumes and shock value in equal measure to regularly send the Internet into meltdown mode. Never to be outdone, Kanye Westblew “Runaway” into a head-scratching half-hour boy-meets-phoenix musical, complete with a giant bust of … Michael Jackson.


TECH ADVANCES
About a third of the way through the Maccabees ' VEVO Presents performance of "In the Dark," the UK outfit suddenly become animated computer pixels. By the time they finish, the screen is a supernova of 3D effects. Shot with Kinekt cameras and animated using a 3D app, the 2012 performance is another example of how the most creative music videos have made viewers go, “How did they do that?” Back in the '80s, Dire Straits used then-groundbreaking computer animation on“Money for Nothing,” and CGI technology was used to morph faces together in Michael Jackson's“Black and White.” This rapidly evolved into the nightmarish imagery of Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker,"where the hairy DJ's head is sutured to a video vixen's body, and the altogether more beautiful robot tryst in Bjork's “All is Full of Love.” Sometimes, though, it's the simplest ideas that stick in the mind, like the stop-motion Lego animation of The White Stripes' “Fell in Love With A Girl” or the multiplying Kylie Minogues sidestepping passersby in “Come Into My World.”


CROWD SOURCING
Interactivity has only made the musical bond between star and fan more intimate, so sure why not ask the audience for a little help? Britrockers Feeder did that as far back as 2001. Before YouTube was a daily destination, their promo for “Just a Day” used clips sent in by fans of themselves rocking out to the song. Five years later, the Beastie Boys made a whole concert film from fan footage calledAwesome; I F*cking Shot That! Recently, Yeah Yeah Yeahs tried it on “Cheated Hearts,” creating a purposefully silly collage of tributes and headbanging. Over the years, crowd-sourcing has become more refined. Fans of the Dave Matthews Band make up the cast of   “Mercy,” and for “Daylight,”Maroon 5 even commissioned video diaries for an epic clip.

COMMERCE
Whether it's Busta Rhymes and P. Diddy telling us to “Pass the Courvoisier,” or Lady Gaga sprinkling her glitter dust on both Virgin Mobile phones and Miracle Whip in “Telephone,” there's been a fine line between a creative video and subtle advertisement. Montreal e-retailer Ssense.com took things one step further for FKi and Iggy Azalea 's interactive video “I Think She Ready.” As the video plays, floating hotspots invite users to “Shop This Look.” Click on the button, and a page pops up offering Iggy's Lanvin earrings and Zanotti shoes. The video was inspired by online campaigns from retailers oki-ni and ASOS that let users click on dancing models for a similar experience. Widening the purchase landscape is on the mind of innumerable brands these days.

INTERACTIVE VIDEOS
Perhaps the most impressive advancement in the last several years is interactivity. Many artists have created videos that let the viewer become a participant in the video experience. Arcade Fireand director Chris Milk helped solidify the interactive era in 2010 with The Wilderness Downtown , an entire site centered around the band's "We Used To Wait" that took viewers back to their childhood neighborhoods. Using more of a puzzle mentality, Chairlift 's "Met Before" is a kind of romantic "Choose Your Own Adventure." Users decide whether to follow singer Caroline or instrumentalist Patrick through story lines that change with a click of the mouse. Brooklyn indie rockers Tanlines , meanwhile, are prolific interactive video-makers. Notthesa.me offers a selection of background and musician choices, while "Brothers" uses a click-and-drag app to move the camera 360 degrees around the singer's apartment.


VIDEO GAMING
Long before Iggy Pop turned up as a DJ on Grand Theft Auto IV , music and video games enjoyed a close relationship. Way back when, there was a Journey arcade game, where for 25 cents you could try to reunite the “Don't Stop Believin'” hit makers with their instruments. In 2003, duo Junior Senior paid tribute to that era when they used 8-bit graphics for their frantic “Move Your Feet” video. Cheeky electronica group Hot Chip expanded a glitch in FIFA 2012 into an entire surreal video for “Don't Deny Your Heart” that literally climaxed in an on-pitch orgy. Perhaps the best and most recent dip into this realm was when MGMT brought it full circle with their online-only “Electric Feel” game, where players choose from a multitude of outcomes in a trippy version of Dragon's Lair .


VIRAL VIDEO
It may be ultra-modern, but Psy's “Gangnam Style” is reassuringly old school. It has silly schtick like the Beastie Boys' "Fight For Your Right To Party," and gimmicky dance throwdowns like Michael Jackson's “Beat It.” So why is it the most-watched video in the world ? Sharing. In the '80s slackers slumped in front a TV to watch videos a la Beavis & Butthead; now fans pass around both links and commentary on social media. And the most inspired of them create their own imitations in the same way kids tried to show off their MJ moonwalks in the school playground. The spinoffs of  Beyoncé 's"Single Ladies" are innumerable. It's a path to viral glory that was first built on the treadmill featured in OK Go 's in “Here It Goes Again,” which first broke the Internet in 2006. All hail the digital age, but don't forget: today's "Harlem Shake" could be tomorrow's "Friday."


LYRIC VIDEOS
At first, lyric videos like Prince's “Sign O' The Times” were made to highlight the music's message. But with new music now discovered through leaks or blog placements, the lyric video has become a cornerstone of the music industry, popular placeholder until the official vid arrives. It also beats searching for lyrics on unauthorized ad-heavy sites. With it becoming commonplace, the level of creativity has jumped immensely. In Katy Perry's “Wide Awake,” words are peppered with Facebook updates that chronicle her artistic history, while Justin Timberlake's “Suit & Tie” was a perfect B&W taste of The 20/20 Experience.

Source: http://www.vevo.com/c/EN/US/news/music-videos-a-constant-evolution