Tomorrow is a very historic day for me. Not, it’s not my birthday, anniversary, or the day my son was born. Still, it would hold a significant place in my heart because at midnight on August 1, 1981, MTV showed its first video.
You may be thinking this is somewhat silly, but back in the ‘80s, MTV and I spent quite a bit of time together. Memphis didn’t have cable in 1981, so I wasn’t intently glued to the television when MTV showed its first video. Any MTV aficionado knows that the first video played on the network was appropriately titled “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles. That same person will also know that that was The Buggles big claim to fame.
I remember when I went to work study in early 1982 and one of the guys I worked with had been to Texas or somewhere where cable existed and he told me about MTV. By the time it got here (just a few months later), I was ready to check out this whole music video thing.
I was immediately hooked. Back then, MTV may not have killed the radio star but it at least gravely injured him. MTV still plays music videos today, but as far as I can tell, most of them are mainstream songs. In the early days, MTV was playing new wave bands the radio DJs had never even heard of. Artists like Duran Duran, Culture Club, Adam Ant, Men at Work, and Human League were virtually unknowns until their videos began appearing on MTV. My father had to actually order Duran Duran’s album Rio as an import because, while their songs were hits on MTV, their album wasn’t being sold anywhere here. It’s as if there were two hit charts – the songs played on the radio and the songs that reached extreme popularity on MTV, but were never heard on the radio.
The first VJs (video jockeys) were known by everyone my age. Nina Blackwood, J.J. Jackson (who has since died), Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, and the perennially cute Martha Quinn were our eyes, ears, and mouths of music in the early 80s.
As I grew older, I watched MTV less and less, but the initial memories of the first five or so years where I was a fervent viewer have stayed with me 30 years later.