“Video Killed the Radio Star”: the History and Analysis of Music Videos

Harvard FAS

With the U.S. launch of MTV on August 1, 1981, the media landscape for popular music production and consumption changed irrevocably. With an increased emphasis on visual aesthetics and novel modes of storytelling, the creative expectations of artists and audiences changed in response to new technologies. In this course, we will trace the history of the music video (which began long before the 80s) to understand the evolution of the commercial music industry from early animation and music…