HISTORY OF MUSIC VIDEOS
1974-1980
THE START OF MUSIC TELEVISION
The Australian TV shows Countdown and Sounds, both of which premiered in 1974, were significant in developing and popularizing the music video genre in Australia and other countries, and in establishing the importance of music video clips as a means of promoting both emerging acts and new releases by established acts. In the year of 1981, The Buggles Song 'Video Killed the Radio Star' became the first music video to ever be played on MTV. After this, the British television show 'Top of the Pops' began playing music videos, however, BBC placed limits that were rather strict on the amount of outsourced videos that were in their posession that they could use.
Usually when a favoured video to a song was played on the television, the sales of the song would increase as many viewers enjoyed the video and hoped to see it again whilst watching the television. In 1981, a man called Michael Nesmith started to make short musical films for Saturday Night Live. He also released a music video, Elephant Parts, and won a Grammy. This was directed by William Dear. In 1980, New Zealand group Split Enz had major success with the single "I Got You" and the album True Colours, and later that year they produced a complete set of promo clips for each song on the album (directed by their percussionist, Noel Crombie) and to market these on video cassette. Among the first music videos were clips produced by ex-Monkee Michael Nesmith who started making short musical films for Saturday Night Live.