38 years ago on this day in 1981, the revolutionary television channel MTV went on the air for the first time. MTV, which stands for “Music Television,” aimed to bring something different and fresh to viewers of television. They wanted to combine music and tv to appeal to the younger generation of viewers. And were they ever successful in accomplishing just that…

The very first music video aired on MTV was an appropriate choice, “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles. However, when it first aired, it wasn’t as you might imagine with teens all around the country sitting in front of their tv’s. At first, it was only available to households in parts of New Jersey. But the craze soon caught on and not only did MTV reach viewers all over the country, it also reached Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

Throughout the 1980s, MTV totally revolutionized the music industry. As its popularity increased, music producers began to put more thought and time into music videos, going from creating basic videos to very creative and captivating ones. Artists such as Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Prince saw their music videos get major airtime in the 80s, thus helping them to soar to new popularity heights.

As with everything though, MTV began to change. By the end of the first decade, the television network started airing content other than music videos. Then in 1992, the ever-popular reality series The Real World launched. Other reality programs soon followed and led to the MTV that we know today. The only program dedicated to music videos anymore is Total Request Live, which comes on every Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. Reminiscent to its 80s origins, Total Request Live features a top 10 countdown of popular music videos.

Even though the reality tv shows attain high viewership ratings, I would love to see MTV get back to its roots and air more programs dedicated to music videos. And reality programs aren’t the only thing on MTV, but it does take up a large majority of its airtime. Possibly society is just too complexed nowadays to want to sit down in front of a tv to watch a music video. Even more possible is the fact our attention spans are shorter than they used to be, keeping people from being able to sit down and watch music videos on tv. These days we can just go online to watch any music video we want at any time we want, so there’s not much of a demand to have them on tv. But if you’re like me and would like to see a lot of things be more reminiscent of the older days, it surely would be cool to see the mid-80s version of MTV make a comeback.

Credit: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mtv-launches

Garett

TBT: The Day MTV Was Launched