Even though only a handful of viewers actually saw MTV’s technologically challenged first moments on August 1, 1981, that date has been etched into history as the birth of the music video. But by then, the idea of linking popular music with motion pictures was nothing new.

Patrons of nightclubs in the 1940s could view Soundies of Fats Waller and Duke Ellington, and the rise of television in the 1950s made pop music a permanently multimedia form: Between “The Ed Sullivan Show” and programs like “Top of the Pops,” “American Bandstand,” and “Soul Train,” musicians have long developed visual styles to accompany their songs.

Though the phrase “music video” didn’t take hold until the late 1970s, the prototype for the form and its promotional possibilities came with the Beatles’ simple short films for “Paperback Writer” and “Rain,” songs they were loath to recreate live (the video package sent to “Ed Sullivan” in 1966 came with an apologetic intro from the band explaining that the clips were substituting for an in-person appearance). A handful of well-funded and/or forward-thinking musicians started making short promotional films in the early ’70s, and as video technology continued to advance through the decade, many directors fell for its speed, creative possibilities, and easy duplicability—not only expanding the practice, but creating a unique visual aesthetic as well.

As the ’70s went on, distribution networks for music videos (throughout this piece, I use “music video” as shorthand, even though it doesn’t directly apply in many cases) started emerging. Local television stations would often air the clips between programs, and discos started streaming them on loop via closed-circuit TV. Actual music video programs started taking shape as well: Australian television had two such shows, and ex-Monkee Mike Nesmith started a program called “Pop Clips” that briefly aired on Nickelodeon a year before MTV’s launch.

The music video format proliferated and matured during the 1980s and 1990s, but musicians and filmmakers developed its basic shape and first explored its creative limits during the ’70s, a time of tumult and innovation in the record business, from the rise of arena rock and prog through the emergence of disco, electronic dance music, punk, and new wave. Out of the hundreds of videos created during that heady decade, we’ve selected the 25 that best represent the format’s possibilities, eccentricities, and influence, and added a few dozen runners-up to cover all the bases.