What is the History Behind Music Videos?

Many musical artists made their careers a successKilled the Radio Star." Throughout the 1980s, MTV
by using music videos. As an important part ofexpanded to become an important tool used in
the music industry, music videos not onlymusic marketing. Singers like Madonna not only
showcase an artist's singing talent, but also howused music videos to promote their albums, but
they perform. The history of music videos showsto create their images. In 1983, the almost
how the use of the videos transformed the music14-minute-long video for Michael Jackson's song
industry."Thriller," was released. It became the world's
Premiering in 1974, the Australian TV showmost successful and influential video in music video
'Countdown' played an important role in thehistory.
development of the music video industry. MusicIn 1985, MTV launched the channel VH1 which
video clips were used as a method of promotingfeatured softer music for an older audience than
acts that were to appear on the show. As thethe typical young MTV audience. In 1987, MTV
popularity of the video clips grew, the musicEurope was launched and in 1991, MTV Asia was
industry began to realize the marketing potentialintroduced.
of these music clips. One of the most notableIn 1988, the MTV show, Yo! MTV Raps was
video clips features was the AC/DC hit, "It's Alaunched. The show helped to bring hip hop music
Long Way to the Top." During the 1980s,to a nation wide audience. Two of the videos that
'Countdown' aired in 22 countries.are most famous for being two of the three
In 1980, the New Zealand group Split Enz becamemost expensive music videos of all time are
one of the first bands to create an entire set ofMichael and Janet Jackson's "Scream," which cost
music promo clips and market them on video$7 million to produce, and Madonna's "Bedtime
cassette for each song on their album, 'TrueStory," which cost $5 million. "Scream" is still the
Colors.'most expensively video ever made.
Predating MTV by almost three years, 'VideoDuring the 1990s, MTV launched channels around
Concert Hall,' was the first nationwide video musicthe world that included: MTV Latin America in
program on American television. Premiering in June1993, MTV India in 1996, and MTV Mandarin in
1981, one of the first US programs to play music1997. In 1996, MTV2, originally called "M2" was
videos was the USA Cable Network programlaunched as an alternative and older music video
'Night Flight.' Night Flight predated MTV's launch bychannel.
just a few months.By the mid-2000s, MTV and many of its other
In 1981, the U.S. video channel MTV was launchedchannels had stopped showing a large number of
and it began the age of 24-hour music television.music videos and began showing reality television
They launched the channel with the video, "Videoshows.