...MTV!
On this date, August 1st back in the oh so long ago year of 1981, when I was just 17, MTV debuted and the era of music videos began.
Today, the channel still exists but in no way does the current programming have any similarity to the format of the early years.
It's amazing to think how simple the times were back then. I remember spending hours watching video after video, especially if up late at night when nothing else was on TV but infomercials and old movies, even on other cable channels.
I love the VJs in this clip of the first few minutes of airtime on that momentous day introducing America to the concept of this daring new network. They probably were so cool looking back then with their faux-relaxed stances and attempted laid-back attitude. They actually look nervous as hell. I remember reading a lot of criticism about MTV thinking even kids my age, the no-doubt target demographic, would soon bore watching nothing but video clips filmed to a pop or rock song. They thought the network would fail within a few months. Instead, the "fad" became a sensation and teens like me loved seeing creatively shot visuals to go along with the songs we'd traditionally heard by way of the radio or physical media like records, cassettes and 8-track tapes (Yep, 8-track was still a thing then. True, a dying thing, but still available.)
Happy Birthday MTV. Though I personally stopped watching by the mid-eighties, you were a memorable and comfortable rock in my life in those topsy-turvy late-teenage years of mine.
On this date, August 1st back in the oh so long ago year of 1981, when I was just 17, MTV debuted and the era of music videos began.
Today, the channel still exists but in no way does the current programming have any similarity to the format of the early years.
It's amazing to think how simple the times were back then. I remember spending hours watching video after video, especially if up late at night when nothing else was on TV but infomercials and old movies, even on other cable channels.
I love the VJs in this clip of the first few minutes of airtime on that momentous day introducing America to the concept of this daring new network. They probably were so cool looking back then with their faux-relaxed stances and attempted laid-back attitude. They actually look nervous as hell. I remember reading a lot of criticism about MTV thinking even kids my age, the no-doubt target demographic, would soon bore watching nothing but video clips filmed to a pop or rock song. They thought the network would fail within a few months. Instead, the "fad" became a sensation and teens like me loved seeing creatively shot visuals to go along with the songs we'd traditionally heard by way of the radio or physical media like records, cassettes and 8-track tapes (Yep, 8-track was still a thing then. True, a dying thing, but still available.)
Happy Birthday MTV. Though I personally stopped watching by the mid-eighties, you were a memorable and comfortable rock in my life in those topsy-turvy late-teenage years of mine.