Digital Timeline of Music Videos

1964: The Beatles- A Hard Days Night
A video which exploited the use of practical locations as sets and the use of a narrative in a music video. This video shows the early foundations of music videos such as a story, almost like a miniature short film accompanied by music.

1975: Queen- Bohemian Rhapsody
Considered by some to be the first music video due to the use of constructed sets, atmospheric lighting and camera shots and techniques now associated with modern music videos in addition to also showing the band performing on their instruments. The use of colour in the music video helps show the advances in technology.

1980- Queen- Flash (Gordon Soundtrack)
Queen composed the soundtrack for the 1980's film and created a video which revealed scenes of the film along with the song, something often seen in synergy between films and music artists.

1981- The Buggles- Video Killed The Radio Star & Blondie- Heart Of Glass
Video Killed The Radio Star was the first music video shown on MTV on August 1st 1981 with Heart Of Glass playing a few tracks later. Video Killed The Radio Stars at the time used the idea of a music video to full effect with special effects,varied locations and sets and numerous actors in the video while also implementing extravagant costumes and Hollywood like atmospheric cinematographic and camera techniques.The songs lyrics also slightly reference what the songs video did to Radio.


1983- Michael Jackson- Thriller
Once the most expensive music videos ever made featuring at the time almost Hollywood like special effects,sets and technology. Jackson pushed the boundaries of music videos with a lengthy prologue and large dance numbers in a music video that is now a global classic.

1985- Dire Straits- Money For Nothing
A video that showed the advancements of computer animation in a video which went on to become an international hit and helped build a larger awareness of computer animation.

1987- Michael Jackson- BAD
Jackson once again pushed the envelope with an eighteen minute long music video which had the creative minds of Martin Scorcese and Richard Price behind it (Scorcese already a high profile director after being nominated for an Academy Award). The video featured Hollywood actor Wesley Snipes in a role and once again had the trademarks of Jacksons videos; large locations, big dance numbers and Hollywood camera shots.

1995- Madonna- Bedtime Story
Still to this date one of the most expensive music videos of all time with only three music videos costing more than this one, two of which are also Madonna's videos. This song features high class expensive sets and makeup.


2000- Wu Tang Clan- Gravel Pit
This video used Hollywood action, a prologue and over the top costumes to make this video as over the top as possible in addition to including a CGI T-REX made famous by the Jurassic Park films. The inclusion of the T-REX shows exactly how far music videos had continued to progress as they were able to include a staple of modern CGI from a Hollywood film in a six minute music video.

2001- Gorillaz- Clint Eastwood
This video introduced the fully animated band Gorillaz. This video used lots of animation which has now become a trademark of the band with the band even appearing via cartoon like holograms at their live concerts to preserve their trademark appearances.

2006- Gnarls Barkley- Crazy
A combination of live action and CGI were used to create this effective music video which managed to get nominated at the 2006 MTV Music video Awards for Best Group Video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2B6SjMh_w

2011- Lady GaGa- Judas
The most expensive music video ever made which consisted of large existing locations, expensive vehicles, large sets, celebrity appearances, Gaga style Hollywood costumes, varied exotic locations and a huge dance number in addition to a varied amount of camera shots and techniques.