Music Video Timeline

1941: A new invention hits clubs and bars in the USA: The Panoram Soundie is a jukebox that plays short videoclips along with the music.

1956: Hollywood discovers the genre of music-centered films. A wave of rock and roll films begins ( Rock Around the Clock , Knock the Rock , Shake, Rattle and Rock , Rock Pretty Baby , The Girl Can Help It , and the famous Elvis Presley movies). Some of these films integrated musical performances into a story, others were simply revues.

1960: In France a re-invention of the Soundie, the Scopitone , gains limited success.

1962: British Television invents a new form of music television. Shows like Top Of The Pops

1964: The US-Television market adapts the format. Hullabaloo is one of the first US shows of this kind, followed by Shindig! (NBC) and American Bandstand ; The Beatles star in A Hard Day & Night

1966: The first conceptual promos are aired, for the Beatles song Paperback Writer and Rain.

1967: Even more ambitious videos are released for Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever.

1970: The record industry discovers these TV-Shows as a great opportunity to promote their artists. They focus on producing short early music videos which started to replace the live performance of the artist on the TV-stage.

1975: Bohemian Rhapsody a groundbreaking video released by Queen marked the beginning of the video era and set the language for the modern music video.

1979: Devo releases The Day My Baby Gave Me a which is the first music video to include computer animation as well as the first to include traditional animation.
1980: Ashes to Ashes which is considered as a groundbreaking video is released by David Bowie .
1981: MTV , the first 24-hour satellite music channel, launches. Initially few cable TV operators carried it, but it rapidly became a major hit and cultural icon.

1981: Michael Nesmith wins the first ever music video Grammy with Elephant Parts .

1984: Michael Jackson's short film Thriller is released, changing the concept of music videos forever. The Making of Thriller home video was also released in 1984. It was the first ever video about the making of a music video.

1989: Madonna's controversial video for Like a Prayer is released.

1991: Nirvana release the Smells Like Teen Spirit video changing the MTV platform from glam rock to alternative rock, and catapulting grunge and Kurt Cobain into the American and Worldwide mainstream.

1992: Guns N Roses groundbreaking video for November Rain " is released and remains as one of the costliest ever produced.

1996: Pop-up Video is first aired on VH1 .

2006: The Norwegian unsigned band Rektor makes the worlds first playable videogame music video game .