Music Video Timeline

1920's
Oscar Fischinger, a German man created short films for music tracks and visual material  in Germany e.g. 'Komposidion in Blau' (1935)

1930's
Oscar Fischinger worked on the disney film 'Fantasia' the film was hugely backed by music with no dialogue. This was this first real sign of  music videos using animation.

1940's
The Panarom was invented. It allowed music and film to be played together, but the user couldn't select the film. The Panarom died out after the war.

1950's
Television coverage of pop music tried to attract a new teenage audience from 'American Bandstand' through 'Ready Set Go' and 'Top of the Pops'

1960's
The Scopitone was invented the machine lets the user play, skip and rewind 36 short colour films. Around 1000 machines were installed before dying out in the mid 60's because of television.

1970's
In the 70's 'serious rock' gained places on television such as 'The Old Grey Whistle Test'. Promo clips became massively popular with bands these gained airplay on television.

1980's
MTV began broadcasting on the Warner satellite. Viacom bought MTV, a major media conglomerate. Later launching MTV in Europe lead to a swift acceleration in views and subscribers. By the end of the 80's it was vital to have a music video for a successful record.

1990's
Hype Williams lead the way for black artists in the music industry producing videos for people such as TLC, Missy Elliot and R.Kelly. By the late 90's he was commanding budgets of $2million. His work generated high record sales in return.