At 12:01 am on August 1st 1981 Music Television – MTV for short – signed on the air. The cable channel changed the cultural landscape in many ways – not all of them positive. MTV made style more important than talent. It opened up the Reality TV genera. It lowered the collective attention span of a generation. Back in 1981 it was new and fresh and something we had to have. It also started the trend of music video channels not showing videos.
Ironically the 25th anniversary of MTV is being celebrated on the sister channel VH1 Classic, which includes the demographic that was around when MTV started. Officials at MTV didn’t think kids today would care about the start of the channel since it pre-dated their own birth.
VH1 Classic will broadcast the entire first day of MTV starting at 12:01 am August 1st until August 2nd.
Recently VH1 Classic has been showing the videos from the 1st hour of the 1st day of MTV as a taste of the special broadcast. The only one well known today as a trivia answer is “Video Killed the Radio Star” from the band The Buggles. It was the very first video played. There is also 2 videos from groups who I never heard of before seeing their clips. Here is a list of the videos played in the first hour:
1. Video Killed the Radio Star – The Buggles
2. You Better Run – Pat Benatar
3. She Won’t Dance With Me – Rod Stewart
4. You better you bet – The Who
5. Little Suzi’s on the Up – Ph.D
6. We don’t talk anymore – Cliff Richard
7. Brass in Pocket – The Pretenders
8. Time Heals – Todd Rundgren
9. Take it on the run – REO Speedwagon
10. Rockin’ the Paradise – Styx
11. When Things Go Wrong – Robin Lane and the Chartbusters
12. History Never Repeats – Split Enz
13. Hold on Loosley – .38 Special
Another trivia note – MTV evolved from the program “Sight and Sound” on the experimental interactive cable channel Qube that was based here in Columbus, Ohio back in the late 70’s.