The First Music Video

To find some information on the history of music videos I wanted to find the first music video ever made. After searching through Google, Wikipedia and YouTube I found this song which is believed to be the first music video made as it was the first on MTV when it began airing on television. The video itself has created many conventions of recent music videos today as it uses both narrative and performance, as well as many close ups of the artist.

So what was the first music video aired on television?

Key Facts

• The first ever music video produced was "Video Killed The Radio Star" by The Buggles.
• The video was first screened on MTV at 12:01am on 1st August 1981 in America.
• Below is the music video for "Video killed the radio star", this was the start of a revolution in the music video industry.

The music video for 'Video Killed The Radio Star' shows both narrative and performance, although this style is now around 30 years old it is still used in many recent music videos today. Some videos, more towards the Rock genre now use solely performance style videos as this shows the technique used to make the music as well as it being live as it shows a more exciting atmosphere to the song. Other genres such as RnB tend to use more narrative than performance, as they are generally about love so the videos show parts of a love story or relationship between two people.

Narrative - A music video which is classed as a narrative shows the audience visuals which connote a story. This idea is used usually so that the target audience can listen to their favourite songs as well as being able to follow a story line. Many record companies want narrative music videos as it is another profit creating tool, as the fans of the artist will watch the video created revenue through music channels wanting the video on their channel.

Performance - A performance music video consists of live footage of the artist or band performing the song. This style is often used for heavy metal and rock music as it shows how the band created the music, some artists also film concerts they perform at which may be included in the video. The idea of using live footage from concerts creates profit for the record company as the fans who were at that concert will want to see the video as they may be in it, thus creating demand from music channels.