Iconic Music Videos

Some artists had made short video clips to accompany their songs, but it was only after the success of the 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen, that it became a regular practice to produce a music video to accompany a song. Other iconic videos changed the face of music videos and also became huge promotional vehicles for the artist. Many of Michael Jackson's music videos are among these, with 'Thriller' turning the music video into a story to accompany the song, and 'Billie Jean' establishing him as a superstar with his iconic dance sequences.

a-ha used a blend of sketched animation and live action within its video, creating another aspect to music videos, and in a more contemporary sense, Gorillaz use a cartoon for every single one of their videos. The cartoons have actually established the identity of Gorillaz, which are known more for there drawn characters than their real identity.

OK Go's music videos do not show a performance of the band itself but instead produce a routine that people remember because of how mesmerizing it is. The videos were produced on a very low budget but the simplicity of the props used make them memorable.

The majority of Eminem's music videos tell a story, relating to the lyrics of the song. His videos can vary from a sincere and meaningful narrative, evident in 'Mockingbird' and 'Stan', to the more satirical narratives of 'We Made You'.

Controversial videos, like the Prodigy's 'Smack My Bitch Up', have also affected the way in which music videos are considered. The video was banned from almost every video channel because of its explicit content,.

History of MTV and Music Videos

A music video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos date back much further, they became prominent in the 1980s, when MTV based their channel around music videos.

The long-running British TV show Top of The Pops began playing music videos in the late 1970s, therefore a good video would increase a song's sales as viewers hoped to see it again the following week.

In 1981, the US video channel MTV launched, airing 'Video Killed the Radio Star' and beginning an era of 24-hour-a-day music on television. Many important acts of this period, most notably Duran Duran and Madonna, owed a great deal of their success to the skillful construction and seductive appeal of their videos.

In 1984, MTV also launched the MTV Music Video Awards, an annual awards event that would come to mark MTV's importance in the music industry. In 1985, MTV launched the channel VH1 (Video Hits One), featuring softer music, and meant to cater to an older demographic than MTV.

From the 1990's MTV began to introduce many different genres of music to the channel. In 1991 alternative rock music was introduced to the channel with bands such as Nirvana and Green Day becoming more popular. In 1997 electronica acts were pushed by the channel with acts such as The Prodigy and Daft Punk. In late 1997 however, MTV began to move towards the pop and R&B genres as boy bands and pop 'princesses' became increasingly popular. Since then MTV has branched out with its range of channels aimed at a more niche audience, as you can see on the image to the left there are now a significant number of individual channels.

Viva, a music channel which is one of two available through Freeview TV, is owned by MTV and was only recently launched in late 2009. It replaced TMF and included programmes to accompany music videos such as Jersey Shore, South Park and Jackass.