Music Video History

Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody is considered the first music video but it came about when the band were on tour and couldn't make it to Top Of The Pops each week when it reached no.1 and at nearly 9 minutes long it was considered un-radio-friendly and the record company assumed no radio station would play it, which is when they recorded the video to be played in their absence. Although it looks it doesn't look amazing today it was revolutionary at the time. MTV's first day on the air was August 1, 1981 and then rebroadcast on VH1 Classic in 2006

 

The first video played on MTV was Video Killed The Radio Star by The Buggles. But not until Billie Jean by Michael Jackson was MTV then taken seriously, and seen as an alternative to radio. Until then, music videos consisted mainly of bands grinning at the camera from exotic locations.

When Michael Jackson released Thriller and its accompanying video/mini-movie, which was the most requested video of all time, did MTV become the most popular way of discovering.
Since then music video has become an art in its own way. Queen went on to enjoy the video, and it's interesting that when 'I Want To Break Free' was released with its Coronation Street based video, (where the band are all dressed in drag and Freddie Mercury is doing the hoovering) their success in America came to a halt, as American's apparently couldn't cope with 'men' dressed in frocks.