Timeline: Music video history (MTV)

C1900 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.

1920s Fischinger experiments with sound/vision synchronisation on film - abstracts and visual interpretations

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

1930s Creation of first ‘Soundies’

1939 Introduction of the 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)


1963 Top of the Pops TV programme begins (BBC) and The Beatles release the film and album ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ (Richard Lester, UK)

1966 The Monkees’ TV Show start on NBC in the USA - used many devices like surrealism, wacky comedy, lots of action, mixed with musical performance and all typical of music video form today Band members chosen for how they would look on TV but like boy bands like The Beatles from the 1990's onwards.

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 Killed the Radio Star (Russell Malcahy)

1980 David Bowe: Ashes to Ashes (David Mallet and David Bowie)

1981 Pop Clips on Nickelodeon and MTV starts and Duran Duran: Girls on Film (Kevin Godley and LOL Crème)

1983 Michael Jackson: Thriller (John Landis) and Beginning of Country Music Television

1984 Music Box start in Europe and MTV Video Music Awards launched

1985 VH1 begins and MTV taken over by Viacom and Live Aid

1986 Dire Straits: Money for Nothing (Steve Barron) is top video

1987 MTV-Europe (MTV-E) lauched, broadcasting to 1.6m homes and Peter Gabriel: Sledgehammer
(Stephan Johnson), wins best director award

1988 MTV-Europe achieves 3.5 subscribers

1989 MTV-Europe reaches 6.7 homes and Live Broadcast from Moscow Peace Festival and Madonna: Express Yourself (David Fincher), wins best director award

1900 Madonna: Vogue (David Fincher), wins best director award and 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 and Launch of VH1 in UK and 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