Thirty years ago this Monday, on August 1, 1981 just after midnight. MTV began with a countdown to a rocket launch, a narrator then announcing “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll,” and then an image of an astronaut planting the MTV flag on the moon. Then the network showed its first video, “Video Killed The Radio Star” by the Buggles.
I did not have cable at the time, and I do not remember that first broadcast. But I had three friends who shared an apartment. And they paid for the essential cable, even though their apartment was so small they had to carve out three bedrooms from one room. So I was soon exposed to MTV while hanging out at their apartment. Immediately, I was mesmerized by the new network devoted to music videos that matched my short attention span.
During the first week of its broadcast, MTV only had about 80 videos. But musicians and record companies soon changed that by making more videos to market their music to fans through MTV.
Today, as MTV has long left behind much of its music legacy to focus on shows like Jersey Shore. So, I suspect that they probably play much less than 80 videos now.
Most people remember that the first video on MTV was “Video Killed the Radio Star.” Do you remember the second video? It was Pat Benatar’s “You Better Run.”
Below is the opening segment of the initial transmission of MTV. The music videos are edited out of this clip, but you can see the original VJ’s introducing themselves.
For more information, Today.com and HitFlix look back on thirty years of MTV.
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