The first news when music first merged with film was in 1894 when a sheet music publisher hired electrician George Thomas to synchronise a live performance with a magic lantern that would show projected images. This became very popular at the time and if you ever have the chance to see a magic lantern in a museum it will surely blow your mind. The quality of glass plate photography is still far beyond any digital projection available today.

 

1930-The Spooney Melodey series were the first to introduce the concept of short-films mixing live-action footage of the performer. It was shown at the movie theaters before the main presentations. So now you didn’t actually need to see a full feature talkie to here music and sound, you could see the performer playing in quick segments of a music! Magic!

 

1958-The iPhone of 1958. If you dreamt of watching music videos outside a movie theater the inventor Serge Gainsbourg had the newest gadget for you – the Scopitone! During the 60s these jukeboxes started popping-up all over bars and nightclubs around Europe and in the US.

 

1965-The beatles. Considered to be the first music video to broadcast on television. The Beatles were already making some very popular full feature movies and were looking for a way to promote their record releases without having to make in-person appearances (primarily the USA). The concept is fairly straight forward and was meant to blend in with the television shows that were being made at the time.

 

1966 – Subterranean Homesick Blues (Bob Dylan) The precursor to the lyric video?

 

1968-With the path being open by Goldman and his films for The Beatles, artists and labels start to finally interact more with experimental filmmakers. As a result music films start consolidating itself as a valid platform for more audacious experimentations in the aesthetic realm. What was previously only relegated to art houses is now being seen by millions of people.

 

1974 – Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen) The music video that practically invented MTV 7 years before its launch. This song is “widely credited as the first global hit single for which an accompanying video was central to the marketing strategy”(Fowles, Paul (2009). A Concise History of Rock Music. Mel Bay Publicati.

 

1980 – Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie) The most expensive music video made until then, and also one of the most iconic. Bowie’s interest in exploring a more complex nature turns this film a stepping stone to deeper layers of meaning in music videos.

 

1983 – Thriller (Michael Jackson) Premiered worldwide on MTV, Michael Jackson and John Landis bring back the idea of blending films with music video (remember the Beatles feature films from the 60s?).

 

1994 – Sabotage (Beastie Boys). Beastie Boys didn’t feel like going through a major production and opted instead for Spike Jonze and his low budget idea of going around LA in a van shooting a music video without any license. The result is one of the most iconic music videos from the 90s in a throwback to the traditional cop American television series.

 

1994 – Buddy Holly (Weezer) Weezer in Happy Days (a tv show from the 70s)?  My favorite Spike Jonze music video. Mind bending in the 90s and still today.

 

1997 – ElektroBank (The Chemical Brothers) If one video clip was to sum-up the intermingling between Jonze’s influences and main themes this would be it–the perfect american imagery boiled-up with the body movement as a form of liberation.

 

1996 – Sugar Water (Cibo Matto) One of the signature styles of Gondry is how he plays camera movement and mise-en-scène to create mind bending concepts.

 

1999 – Let it Forever Be (The Chemical Brothers) Now blend great mise-en-scène, analog camera movements with VFX and the choreography that and set design that made the director famous two years before and you have Michel Gondry at his best!