1927: The Jazz Singer (musical film)
1940: Fantasia (Disney)
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'n'roll films begins (Rock Around the Clock, Don't Knock the Rock, Shake, Rattle and Rock, Rock Pretty Baby, The Girl Can't 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, Ready! Steady! Go! and Oh, Boy started as band vehicles and became huge hits.
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's Night
1965: Bob Dylan Films Subterranean Homesick Blues as a segment for D. A. Pennebaker's film, Dont Look Back, with two alternate takes.
1966: The first conceptual promos are aired, for the Beatles' "Paperback Writer" and "Rain". Early in 1967, even more ambitious videos are released for "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever".
1968: The Rolling Stones collaborate with Jean-Luc Godard on Sympathy for the Devil
1970: The record industry discovers these TV-Shows as a great opportunity to promote their artists. They focus on producing short "Promos", early music videos which started to replace the live performance of the artist on the TV-stage.
1974: ABBA pioneered the use of "Promos" with their clips, directed by Lasse Hallström. These contained innovative effects, camera angles and a less static look than was the norm at the time. The band continued using such videos throughout the 1970s.
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. The video is considered one of the first to use advanced visual effects.
1979: Devo releases "The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprise", which is the first music video to include computer animation as well as the first to include traditional animation. Another 1979 video with computer animation was "Computer Games", by New Zealand band MiSex.
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.
  • "Shock Treatment" is released in theatres.

1981: Michael Nesmith wins the first ever music video Grammy with Elephant Parts.
1983: Night Tracks debuted on Superstation WTBS (later known as TBS) with up to 14 hours of music videos each weekend by 1985. This allowed nearly all U.S. households with Cable TV to view music videos regularly as MTV still wasn't as widely available at this point in time compared to WTBS.
1983: Friday Night Videos debuted on the NBC television network, allowing nearly all U.S. households to view music videos regularly. Michael Jackson's Billie Jean video is released on TV, and for the first time a black artist video is aired on Mtv with the video for his Beat It hit single.
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 and it became at the time the best selling VHS ever.
1985: Madonna's video for her hit single Material Girl is released. It is largely based on Marilym Monroe's performance of "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" in the film "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" A huge storm of interest of explodes for the video. The video is considered one of the most memorable and always comes up in "The Best Videos" lists.
1986: "Sledgehammer", the groundbreaking video from Peter Gabriel, is first shown.
1989: MTV renames its "Video Vanguard Award" to the "Michael Jackson Vanguard Award" in honor of Michael Jackson for his contributions to the art of music video.
1989: Madonna's controversial video for "Like a Prayer" is released.
1990: MTV bans Madonna's Justify My Love video. It was released as a video single, the first of its kind.
1991: Nirvana release the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video catapultes grunge and Kurt Cobain into the American and Worldwide mainstream.
  • First use of the now famous morphing special effect in a music video, with Michael Jackson's Black or White (directed by John Landis) from his album Dangerous'.

1992: MTV begins to credit music video directors.
1995: Release of the most expensive music video ever, Scream from Michael Jackson's HIStory album. A duet with his sister Janet.
1996: Pop-up Video is first aired on VH1.
1996: M2 is launched as a 24-hour music video channel, as MTV has largely replaced videos with other content.
1999: M2 is renamed to MTV2.
2002: MTV Hits is launched as MTV2 is gradually showing fewer music videos