Timeline of the Development of Music Videos

 C.1900 Edison invents the gramophone in the USA: first shift from music as a solely live and audiovisual experience to recorded audio on various forms of disc

1920’s Fischinger experiments with sound/vision synchronisation on film

1927 First sound film, The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland, USA)

1930’s Creation of first ‘soundies’

1939 Introduction of the Panarom

1940’s Peak period of MGM Hollywood musical

1954 Elis Presley records ‘That’s All Right’ (Mama)

1960 Scopitone introduces in France

1963 UK’s first music TV Programme begins, Ready Steady Go (BBC)

1964 Top of the Pops TV Programme begins (BBC)

                The Beatles releases the film and album, A Hard Day’s Night (Richard Lester, UK)

1966 The Monkees’ TV Show starts on NBC in the USA

1967 The Beatles release TV promos for Penny Lane and strawberry Fields Forever

1975 Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody (Bruce Gowers)

1977 Saturday Night Fever (John Badham, USA)

1979 Buggles: Video Kills the Radio Star (Russell Mulcachy)

1980 David Bowie: Ashes To Ashes (David Mallel and David Bowie)

1981 Pop Clips on Nickelodeon

                MTV stars

                Duran Duran: Girls on Film (Kevin Goley and Lol Crème)

1983 Michael Jackson: Thriller (John Landis)

                Beginning of Country Music Television (CMT)

1984 Music Box starts in Europe

                MTV Video Music Awards launched

1985 VH1 begins

                MTV taken over by Viacom

                Live Aid

1986 Dire Straits: Money for Noting (Steve Barron) is top video

1987 MTV-Europe (MTV-E) launched, broadcasting to 1.6m homes

                Peter Gabriel: Sledgehammer (Stephen Johnson), wins best director award

1988 MTV-Europe achieves 3.5m subscribers

1989 MTV-Europe reaches 6.7m homes

                Live broadcast from Moscow Peace Festival

                Madonna: Express Yourself (David Fincher). Wins best director award

1990 Madonna: Vogue (David Fincher), wins best director award

                Launch of MTV-Unplugged

1991 Madonna Justify My Love (Jean- Baptiste Mondino)

1992 MTV launches the Real World, a fly-on-the-wall documentary following the lives of seven people sharing a New York loft

1993 MTV launches TV series Beavis and Butthead

1994 REM: Everybody Hurts (Jack Scott) wins best director award

                Launch of VH1 in UK

                Launch of MTV- Europe Music Awards

1997 MTV UK and Ireland launches as stand-alone channel

1998 Launch of Celebrity Deathmatch

1999Fatboy Slim: Praise You (Spike Jonze) wins best director award

2000 Launch of Jackass

2001 Launch of MTV Dance