On August 1, 1981, the music channel MTV aired for the first time ever.
After a countdown to the images from a rocket launch into space, John Lack - one of the channel's founders - said the words "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll", and in six words changed the history of music forever. Just like the iconic channel's famous slogan at the beginning of its journey, the world has "not looked at music the same way". Watch the historic moment here:
In a very cynical and perfect way, after a short performance by the channel's presenters (Howie Jace), the first clip that was broadcast on the channel was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by "The Buggles".
The mythical channel that was initially only available to households in certain areas of the New Jersey area, grew and spread at wild speed, while revolutionizing the music industry and becoming an influential source for pop and entertainment culture in the United States and later for the entire world.
The revolution that conquered the United States, spread like wildfire and manifested itself in the opening of parallel channels in other parts of the world, including Europe, Asia and Latin America, all under the MTV brand.
Here it is worth noting that the "MTV Europe" channel was launched on the exact same day that the MTV channel was first launched, just 6 years later. On August 1, 1987, the European branch of MTV aired and the first clip that have been broadcasted was "Money for Nothing" by "Dire Straits".
Dedicated sub-channels such as "MTV2", "MTV Classic", "MTV Live" and more were opened, with these channels constituting the main source from which we extracted information about bands and artists, new performances, new songs and music news.
In the early days of the channel it included basic music videos presented by the VJs and whose creation was initiated by the record companies that recognized MTV's value as a promotional tool. The video industry went on to evolve as bands and record companies invested heavily in creating videos that transcended and broke the boundaries of the song they were meant to represent, such as Michael Jackson's "Thriller."
In the late 1980s, the channel began broadcasting programs for teenagers and later even reality series, as the place of these gradually grew at the expense of pure music, thus making the channel less and less relevant for music lovers.
Despite this, this channel will be remembered as the one that caused a huge revolution in the world of music.
For us, it evokes nostalgia and memories from many hours of watching to the small hours of the night. In the age before the Internet and YouTube, this was one of the main sources for us to discover new music, so we will always have a warm place in our hearts to MTV.
And if you are interested in who the artists whose video clip was broadcast during the first broadcast on the channel, here is the list:
1. The Buggles
2. Pat Benatar
3. Rod Stewart
4. The Who
5. Ph.D.
6. Cliff Richard
7 The Pretenders
8. Todd Rundgren
9 REO Speedwagon
10. Styx
11. Robin Lane and the Chartbusters
12. Split Enz
13. 38 Special
14. April Wine (Canadian)
15. Rod Stewart
16. Iron Maiden (First metal band)