Michael Jackson, even in death, can still hold claim to being not only the King of Pop but also the King of Pop Videos, but it would be wrong to think that his MTV-friendly mini-dramas were the beginning of music videos, as this exhibition at FACT Liverpool demonstrates so clearly. Films paired with music date back to the 1920s, and every generation since then has had a seminal group of artists and performers producing influential clips that have shaped the direction of the next – whether it be Dylan mournfully discarding lyric cards, Bjork bouncing around on the back of a truck, or Beyoncé shaking her booty as only she can, everyone has their own favourite standout music video moment.

The Art of Pop Video looks at the genre from a different angle, ranging from the Hollywood production values of Fred Astaire’s routines in Top Hat to the internet-savvy viral vids of Ok Go!, taking a historical look at the genre – including those MTV watershed moments such as Jackson’s Thriller and Peter Gabriel’s animated head-spinner Sledgehammer along with more subversive offerings from the likes of Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham and Michel Gondry – and predicts where the music video is headed in the future. The exhibition – accompanied by an exhaustive series of events, workshops and screenings – is on now, and wraps on 26th May.