History of Music Videos

1900 - Thomas Edison invents the gramophone. This was the first step from live music to recorded audio.

1927 - The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland) was in the first film which wasn't a silent movie. The film included sound for the first time. It was also half musical.

 

1940s - Disney's Fantasia was considered to be the first music video. The film was produced and then the score was written specifically to match the film.

The 1940s was also the peak period of MGMs Hollywood musicals

1954 - Elvis Presley records That's All Right and becomes a sex symbol in the music industry.

1963 - UK's first music TV programme, Ready Steady Go.

1964 - The second UK's TV programme Top of the Pops begins.

The Beatles release the film and album A Hard Day's Night

 

1981 - MTV starts. The first TV station to be dedicated to music. This became a turning point as music videos started becoming more important than the actual song. Music videos start becoming more creative and artistic. Different concepts and ideas are experimented within music videos.
 

1983 - Micheal Jackson's Thriller becomes the longest music video with a length of 16 minutes.

1984 - MTV Music Video Awards start taking place.

1987 - MTV Europe is launched which is broadcasted to 1.6 million homes.

1990 - MTV Unplugged lauches.

1994 - MTV launches the MTV Europe Music Awards.

1997 - MTV UK and Ireland launch their own independent channel.

2001 - Launch of MTV Dance. First music channel dedicated for dance only.

2005 - Lauch of YouTube.

iTunes allows users purchase and download music videos. The number of downloads go to 1 million after 20 days of being released.

2010 - All Lady Gaga's music videos reach 1 billon views alltogether.

Vevo is launched on YouTube which is dedicated for music videos only.

2012 - South Korean artist PSY, breaks YouTube record and becomes the first to reach 1 billion views with 'Gangnam Style'.

2013 - YouTube has 60 hours of videos being uploaded every minute. 4 billion videos are being viewed everyday.

2014 - PSY breaks another record. 'Gangnam Style' is the first video to reach 2 billion views.