Before the introduction of MTV, rock and pop on television was limited in the UK to Top of the Pops, Old Grey Whistle Test and a odd appearance on variety shows. MTV then became the worlds first 24 hour television station. Beaming on air from August 1981, they kicked off the programme with the novelty record by British Band Buggles with the appropriately titled Video Killed the Radio Star. with this exposure it developed the booming development of the Promotional Pop video.
'You will never look at music the same way again' claimed the channel, even there developers which included ex-monkees member Mike Nesmith. Even they could not envisage how big this would develop into.
Music and visuals were just important now, you had VJ's and most Public houses were dispensing with the traditional jukebox and installing the video juke box. It was a boom industry.
After MTV introduced us to the Buggles Video, next in line was Pat Benatar You Better Run. This showed early the versatility of the channel as they embraced all types of music unlike some radio channels. They got behind the metal revival which saw Van Halen and Def Leppard taking the plaudits and the photogenic Duran Duran were benefiting from this new type of exposure into the American homes.
However, Black Artists found it a struggle to get any air time as MTV felt this didn't fit into there strategy. It wasn't until head of CBS records Walter Yetnikoff denounced MTV and that they would not be able to play any artist from CBS. On the basis of that MTV relented and played Michael Jackson Billie Jean and this then paved the way for Prince, Whitney Houston to move into the same playing field. The first black artist to play on MTV was the Specials with Rat Race but the band was of mixed race with a white lead singer which fitted in with there scheduling.
It was the video of Michael Jackson beat it which had Eddie Van Halen doing a guitar solo earned the song much rotation play. Still feeling the criticism of the absence of black music as the decade progressed dedicated programmes were exposed to the masses such as street music and hip-hop and introduced to us in the mid to late eighties.
There were starting to be many imitators of MTV but many failed. American Media Mogul and owner of CNN Ted Turner set up a rival channel to match MTV playing a wider broad of music compared to MTV but after a month he conceded and MTV purchased the channel and thus became VH1.
MTV has moved on form its original Rock roots and is a very diverse channel in all types of music. One of its successful innovations from the eighties is MTV unplugged where artists would perform acoustic and music performed in its raw output. To this day this programme still holds relevance with all types of genre being represented.
MTV did revolutionise the music industry but with the countless reality shows and the routine pop and R&B acts this has tended to diminish the MTV effect.
To see the MTV debut all the way back in 1981 click on the link below. Enjoy!
MTV debut in 1981 - Buggles kicked it all off
Recommended reading
I want my MTV - The uncensored story of the video revolution
Recommended purchasing or listening from the 80s
The Very Best of MTV Unplugged featuring some acts from the 80s
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