| 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 | |
| 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 All Right (Mama) | |
| 1960 | Scopitone introduced in France | |
| 1963 | UK's first music TV programme, Ready Steady Go (ITV) | |
| 1964 | Top of the Pops TV programme begins (BBC) The Beatles releasethe film and album, A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester, UK) | |
| 1966 | The Monkees' TV show starts on NBC in the USA | |
| 1967 | The Beatles release TV promos for Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever | |
| 1975 | Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody | |
| 1977 | Saturday Night Fever (John Badham, USA) | |
| 1979 | Buggles: Video Killed the Radio Star (Russel Mulcahy) | |
| 1980 | David Bowie: Ashes to Ashes (David Mallet and David Bowie) | |
| 1981 | Pop Clips Nickolodeon MTV Starts Duran Duran: Girls on Film (Kevin Godley and Lol Creme) | |
| 1983 | Michael Jackson:Thriller (John Landis) Beginning of Country Music Television (CMT) | |
| 1984 | Music Box starts in Europe MTV Video Music Awards launched | |
| 1985 | VH1 begins MTV taken over by Viacom Live Aid | |
| 1986 | Dire Straits: Money for Nothing (Steve Barron) is top video | |
| 1987 | MTV-Europe (MTV_E) launched, broadcasting to 1.6m homes Perter Gabriel: Sledgehammer (Stephen Johnson), wins best director award | |
| 1988 | MTV-Europe achieves 3.5 m subscribers | |
| 1989 | MTV-Europe reaches 6.7m homes Live broadcast from Moscow Peace Festival Madonna: Express Yourself (David Fincher), wins best director award | |
| 1990 | Madonna: Vogue (David Fincher), wins best director award Launch of MTV-Unplugged | |
| 1991 | Madonna: Justify My Love (Jean-Basptiste 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 Launch of VH1 in the UK Launch of MTV 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 |
