Before the concept of film and mass entertainment, a predecessor to the music video can be found in "The Little Lost Child" composed and written by Joseph W. Stern and Edward B. Marks respectively. The significance of this song was that 2 professional comedians, Lottie Gilson and Della Fox were hired in order to help promote the by putting on a performance based on he song.
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The most common example of early music videos is St Louis Blues, by Bessie Smith in 1929, 4 years after the music was originally performed. This was before the days of common, normalized technology such as TVs and computers, so this 4 minute video was viewed in the cinema along side other short films, which was what it was classified as at the time, rather than a music video.
St Louis Blues
Fantasia was one of the first animated music videos and so set a standard for the industry. It's main purpose was not to add to the music experience as was the case with St Louis' video, but the animation was of more interest, and the music added to the experience. Most people will remember the scene of Mickey Mouse playing with magic, but few would remember the song that accompanied.
It was also significant due to being one of the first music videos to tell a narrative.
Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen started the wider release of viewing of music videos. This video was made in order to be view on Top of the Pops, a BBC show that counted down the UKs current most popular songs at the time. The video it's self mostly featured the band playing the song on stage, which is retained as a convention of the rock genre and their music videos.
Bohemian Rhapsody
The well known music video for Thriller, by Micheal Jackson, is known as a turning point in the music video industry. It's approach to it's narrative was far more direct than most music videos, having a built up story take place before the song starts. However, the narrative almost ends when the song does eventually start, focusing on dancing to the music instead. Similarly to Bohemian Rhapsody, this synchronized dancing with back-up dancers also became a staple to the pop video genre.