Although the real origin of music videos begun in the 1920's with musical short films, the real videos started coming around when MTV made a channel around just music videos in the 1980's. That channel revolutionized the medium in which music was consumed, from just listening to actually viewing music!
So, what was actually the first music video that aired on MTV's channel ? It was “Video Killed the Radio Star,” by the Buggles:
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This video begun an era of 24 hour airing music videos on mtv.
As time moved on, the people had to do initial DIY work to get stuff going, stuff like special effects and other things had to be done manually back then, Initially it cost a lot. The most iconic music video of that era was a 14 minute long video released in 1983. It was Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and it took over $800,000 to shoot (In today's era that would be around $2m!)
As music videos evolved, it became an industry standard to shoot a music video for every song produced, it even had it's own category in the billboard awards. From 1991-2001 the artists made the videos more creative and expensive.
The most expensive videos are said to be Madonna’s “Bedtime Story,” and Michael and Janet Jackson’s “Scream,” Which are said to cost $5m and $7m respectively.
In 2005, came a new era, This is when YouTube launched and it made viewing music videos on demand possible. After 2005 though, no major leaps have been made in the evolution. Here are some of the most viewed music videos
First one being Luis Fonsi - Despacito ft. Daddy Yankee That has over 7 billion views from 2017-2020.
The second most viewed video on YouTube right now is Ed Sheeran - Shape of You [Official Video] It has over 5 billion views, also released in 2017.
The third most viewed music video on YouTube in 2020 is Wiz Khalifa - See You Again ft. Charlie Puth [Official Video]. It was released in 2015 and it has around 4.8 billion views.
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