Music Video History

History of Music Videos

There is some debate as to what the first ever music video was: some argue that 'The Jazz Singer' was the first appearance of music and visuals together on screen; some believed it to be Walt Disney's 'Fantasia'; others argued it was Bob Dylan, or The Buggles, and so on. 

Over time, the purpose of music videos has changed. Originally existing in order to promote a single's release, in recent times music videos have been used to illustrate an artist's beliefs, tell a story, provide entertainment and are also being utilised as political statements.



The birth of MTV in 1981 had a massive influence on music video culture. The first video ever to be aired on MTV was 'Video killed the Radio Star' by The Buggles. This was a landmark in music video history as it was the first channel to primarily show music videos 24 hours a day.

Another milestone in music video history was Beastie Boys' 'Sabotage' which was one of the first music videos to use intertextual referencing as a basis for a parody TV episode-esque video in the style of a 70s police show. There were various references to pre-existing crime-fighting shows such as S.W.A.T, Starsky and Hutch, and so on.