History of the music video

A music video is a piece of film used to accompany a song, modern music videos are usually used as a way to promote an artists.

The earliest recorded music video was created by blues singer, Bessie Smith used in the song Saint Louis blues in 1929 it was unlike any modern day music videos as it had no narrative and featured a dramatised performance of the song.

In 1966 the clip of Bob Dylan performing Subterranean Homesick Blues  filmed by D A Pennebaker was much used. The clip's ironic portrayal of a performance and the seemingly random inclusion of  celebrity Allen Ginsberg  in a non-performing role also became mainstays of the form. In the Video we see Ginsberg holding up cards with selected lyrics written on the cards The clip has been much imitated over the last few decades.

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen in 1975 is considered the beginning of the music video era and set the template for the modern music video, it was the first ever music video to use advanced visual effects such as fade ins/outs, zooms, close ups, cross fading and more.