Timeline of Music Video History

c1900 => Edison invents the gramophone in the USA: first shift from music as as a solely live and audiovisual experience to recorded audio on various forms of disc
1920s => Fischinger experiments with sound/vision synchronisation on film
1927 => First sound film, The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland, USA)
1930s => Creation of first 'soundies'
1939 => Introduction of Panarom
1940s => Peak period of MGM Hollywood Musical
1954 => Elvis Presley records That's Alright (Mama) 
1960 => Scopitone introduced in France
1963 => UK's first music TV programme, Ready Steady Go (ITV)
1964 => Top of the Pops TV programme begins (BBC)
               The Beatles release 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 Rapsody (Bruce Gowers)
1977 => Saturday Night Fever (John Badham, USA)  
1979 => Buggles: Video Killed The  Radio Star (Russel Mulcahy
1980 => David Bowie: Ashes to Ashes (David Mallet and David Bowie)
1981 => Pop Clips on Nickelodeon 
               MTV starts
               Duran Duran: Girls Film  (Kevin Godley and Lol Creme)
1983 => Michael Jackson: Thriller (John Landis)
               Beginning of country music
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 Nothing (Steve Barron) 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
               Modonna: 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 (Jake 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  
1999 Fatboy Slim: Praise You (Spike Jonze), wins best director award
2000 => Launch of Jackass
2001 => Launch of MTV Dance