Music Videos

Music Videos have evolved from a "gimmick" in the early sixties and seventies, to an essential promotional piece of art, carrying the accompanying music single. Nowadays, Music Videos have become as important as the song itself, and is often used to promote both the artist, the song, and are often used for product placements, especially for products which are highly popular with teenagers, like cellphones and brands of clothes.

The YouTube Channel of VEVO, owned by Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Abu Dhabi Media Company, is the most viewed Channels on YouTube, featuring Videos of Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Kesha, Alicia Keys, Rihanna Music Videos and others.

Another popular music YouTube Channel is HollywoodRecords, who features Music videos of Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens.

One of the first occurrences of Music Videos appeared when Walt Disney introduced its "Silly Symphonies", which were mostly based on orchestra music, while Warner Brothers launched its "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies", which focused on its upcoming musical films.

The first pop music videos occurred in the sixties, when The Animals created a promotional film for their single "House Of The Rising Sun", which featured the band in a studio, with specially built set. The Beatles were the first band to perform in a feature length movie, including several of their songs. Later, The Monkees featured in a TV series, which featured several of their songs.

Music Videos became increasingly popular with the introduction of dedicated music video programs like Australian "Countdown" and "Sounds", British TV show Top of the Pops, and later with the introduction of MTV, The Music Television station, which formed its programming format around Music Videos. Video clips quickly transformed from simple band performances to choreographed, high-quality mini-movies.

One of the best known -and at most expensive at the time- is the 14 minute long mini movie created by Michael Jackson, featuring his single Thriller. Many Music Videos from that era by Michael Jackson and others were both regarded highly, and resulted in mocking videos, by artists like notorious "Weird Al Yankovic".http://www.weirdal.com/

In the nineties and early 2000s, Music Videos have become more and more costly to produce, including the video to Michael and Janet Jackson's "Scream", which cost over $7 million to produce, and Madonna's "Bedtime Story", which cost $5 million.

With the introduction of YouTube in 2005, Music Videos have become even more mainstream, and many artists now have their own YouTube Channel, featuring their music videos, as well as additional clips, "Behind the Scenes", and more.

On YouTube.com, Music Videos are some of the most popular, and most viewed videos. Many artists, including Rihanna, Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga have their own YouTube Channel,often related to VEVO.

These YouTube channels are often used to promote new song, and even to premier new releases.

Some of the more popular Youtube Channels are:

• JustinBieberVEVO: Featuring the latest Justin Bieber Music Videos including "Baby", " Never Let You Go" and "One Less Lonely Girl"
• Lady Gaga: Featuring several of her songs, including the extended version of Lady Gaga Telephone.
• Rihanna: Featuring many of her latest songs, including Rud Boy, Rockstar 101, Disturbia and Rihanna Umbrella
• Eminem: The YouTube Channel of Eminem features his most recent hits including Eminem Not Afraid, Mosh, Without Me, Toy Soldiers, and of course his biggest hit "Stan".