What was MTV?

MTV Flow: Decade 1989 on Reagan “We wanted Ronald Reagan, and we got him.” Linda Ellerbee’s closing comment sums up the this segment from the MTV documentary Decade, in which various celebrity "witnesses” are interviewed about the 1980s.  MTV Flow: Decade 1989 Haring and AIDS clip In this segment of Decade, Keith Haring discusses his decision to be open about his AIDS diagnosis. Also included are sound bites from novelist William Gibson and actor/playwright Eric Bogosian. The clip ends with the number of deaths in 1989 from AIDS.  MTV Documentary: Racism: Points of View This clip from MTV's 1991 documentary special, Racism: Points of View, comes from a segment that considers the causes of racism. It begins with Ice-T and Perry Farrell performing a cover of Sly & the Family Stone's "Don't Call Me N***** Whitey," which they did that summer on the first Lollapalooza tour. After that David Byrne states that he needs to recognize that he is r...

MTV Promo: People Really Win 1982 MTV not only often promoted contests; they regularly produced promos “naming names” of winners of past contests. This early example from 1982 shows VJs Mark Goodman and JJ Jackson appearing at the doors of winners. MTV branded itself as the channel where everyday people could get the chance to live like rock stars; the channel with the power to transform the lives of everyday people. In later years, the fantasy became couched in reality show transformations. MTV Flow: Club MTV Interview 1988 Club MTV frequently included short interviews between the host Downtown Julie Brown and dancers. Often she asked personal questions about taste related to the band or subject of the video. But many times she asked other kinds of lifestyle questions about fashion or going-out. In this clip, we see how fashion is discussed not as simply about consuming the latest brand and keeping up with trends, but a way of assembling identity. MTV Flow: Beastie Boys - ...

  In this clip of MTV flow from March 1984, we get a glimpse of just how jarring tonal changes could be between music videos both in look and sound. While MTV was slowly opening its playlist to include pop acts like Michael Jackson, it was still overwhelmingly rock oriented. Here, we get a quick lesson in how heavy metal videos could displace prestige acts based on sheer entertainment value. A video by Paul McCartney has star power, and a behind-the-scenes, making of the video approach that shows off McCartney, bandmate and wife Linda, and former co-Beatle Ringo Starr. Musically, the song could charitably be called soft rock. Whatever it is, it is totally forgettable after the next video starts: Motley Crue's "Looks that Kill". The men in the band don't just have dramatic hair, outfits, and makeup, but they hunt women--or is it the other way around?--and carry torches. There's a burning pentagram...is this satanic? Whatever it is, it sure does rock. Sorry, Paul Mc...

  Chrysler spent a lot of cash on this special 90 second ad for the Plymouth Duster that was produced especially for MTV's first ever Video Music Awards. However, the ad looks like a Broadway musical done in the style of 80s music video, rather than the "product videos" which aimed to create a distinctive stylistic identity for products. Here's the last ad break from MTV's first ever Video Music Awards in 1984. It includes a Thom McAn ad inspired by music videos, a Mountain Dew ad featuring breakdancing, and  a new campaign for Levi’s 501s…with Bruce Willis. This flow from the first ever Video Music Awards in instructive to recognize differences in approaches (somewhat subtle) to advertising on MTV. The first ad is for Levi's Cords, and is somewhat similar to the Levi's 501 ads which would be a much longer campaign. However, cords does not have a single blues musician singing the jingle, and instead has a more elaborate or typical pop jingle. Visually it i...

  In this clip of flow from MTV in November 1981, we can find an ad for The Gap that illustrates how MTV contextualized commercials via its promos and branding.  This clip of MTV flow from 1983 shows that while MTV might not have started playing hiphop yet, advertising agencies were quick to adopt it for themselves.  In this sequence of flow from August or September 1983, we can see some good examples of what kinds of ads were running on MTV, and how those ads adapted to the MTV style and audience. One features teens talking about acne in an arcade. Another features future TV star Jane Krakowski doing her best Valley Girl accent to help sell the Solar Fox video game. In a promo, MTV tells us there is something different about our TV, while showing clips from a Grace Jones video, "Demolition Man." This segment of MTV flow from July 1983 offers a number of productive glimpses into the nature of advertising on the network, as well as cross promotion and corporate synergy. Af...

This clip includes a promo for a Fleetwood Mac contest that was a part of MTV's first partnership to promote a new album. MTV began playing videos off the group's new album the day it was released in June, the band provided interviews to be used in music news segments, and to be put together in a documentary, and a “One Night Stand” contest brought a winner to see the band in concert.    This segment from MTV in November 1982, just a little over a year after launch, shows the ways in which MTV could help advertisers associate themselves with rock through specific sponsorships, but also immersion in MTV's flow. The music news includes a story on the Rolling Stones, then tour dates for the Who, sponsored by Schlitz. After this, a Schlitz ad featuring the Who plays, and again mentions the sponsorship. The MTV promo to listen in Stereo also features the Rolling Stones. Though not a part of the clip, which ends with the beginning of a song by the group Translator, the next song ...

  This PM Magazine package went behind the scenes at MTV, talking with various VJs and executive Les Garland about the new channel. The positive promotion is countered by comments from Black students about its limited appeal and playlist. The whiteness of the MTV playlist since its launch is obvious in this promo, which rattles through the many new bands MTV takes credit for making popular in its first years on the air. The promo was captured in flow from November 1983—just after the video for “Say Say Say,” a duet between Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson.  This segment of flow comes from shortly after an airing of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" on March 25, 1983. The video had just been added to MTV's playlist two weeks earlier, reportedly after the president of CBS records threatened to pull all CBS artists if MTV wouldn't play it. In this flow, we see some context by way of how MTV combined classic AOR acts with newer pop or new wave acts which had been part...

  This 60-second clip from 1986 is an ad produced by MTV for use by cable affiliates. MTV’s pitch to listen in stereo had benefitted cable affiliates, who could charge subscribers additional fees for stereo connections. By 1986, stereo was becoming more common on cable and broadcast tv, and connections to stereos were becoming easier due to stereo VCRs. MTV was a major force arguing that TV (or at least MTV) ought to be heard in stereo, during a time in which set makers and TV makers didn't seem interested in improving television sound. Being "in stereo" served as another element separating MTV from regular TV, and also helped encourage record companies to spend money producing videos that would look (and sound) good. This promo, recorded off the air in September 1982, just one year after launch, describes MTV as "television you use just like radio." Best of all, you can just call your local cable company to get a hook up to your FM receiver.  This segment of MT...

This video includes three different "Top of the Hour" clips which were used by MTV to kick off every hour of programming. Additionally, a shorter version of these would play at the halfhour mark. The first was used from launch in 1981 till 1984. It features footage from the Apollo rocket launch and moonlanding, highlighting MTV's logo. The second, from 1984, is quite similar but also includes more colorful highlights in pastel colors, as well as some shots from inside mission control. It also has new patterned versions of the MTV logo. The last clip included here had a very short life span. Rather than the Apollo launch and moon landing, this clips features the space shuttle launching, and a satellite being deployed in space. This clip was found in MTV recorded on 1/22/1986, which is just days before the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded at launch. After that tragedy, MTV stopped using space imagery in its promos.    These three thirty-second promos taken from MTV’s first...

After The Bungles' music video for "Video Killed the Radio Star," this promo was the first thing to air on MTV when it launched on August 1, 1981. In it, VJ Mark Goodman describes how MTV will realize the promise of cable television by promising a new alternative, a unique marriage of television sight and sound. The promo shows how MTV utilized strategies of appropriation as fundamental to its branding and production strategies. Free public domain films are intercut with footage from music videos to introduce this new media experience, on cable, in stereo. An early MTV video presentation, produced to convince advertisers to buy time on the new station, explained the channel was the latest offering from Warner American Express Satellite Entertainment Company, “pioneers in narrowcast programming services.”  The Movie Channel had been the first 24-hour movie channel, and Nickelodeon the first day-long channel for young people. MTV would be the first to unite “the power of st...

The following video clips are related to the chapter, Laughter with Attitude: How MTV Revived, Hybridized, and Mutated Comedy in What was MTV? Guest VJ shows one early area outside where comedy made incursions into MTV. When Nick Rhodes and Simon Le Bon did theirs in in 1983, they staged a comic bit with Andy Warhol. The first two editions of Weird Al Yankovic’s Guest VJ specials were four hours long, and each hour started with his own “Top of the Hour” clip parodying MTV’s. This clip includes the very beginning of the broadcast, in which Yankovic appears from his living room, and announces he has successfully pirated MTV’s satellite signal. This clip from the second installment of "AL TV" in September 1984 includes Al commenting on the Billy Joel video which had just played, as well as parody tour dates for his own tour, using the same graphics as MTV did for various touring artists. Just like other Guest VJs, Weird Al had an album to promote, which he briefly does...

I wrote about the surprising director of a 10,000 Maniacs video, who also happened to be an actor on MTV's first (imported) TV Comedy, The Young Ones.   10,000 Maniacs, One Scumbag College Punk, and Billy Joel by Ethan Thompson Read on Substack  

Many people are aware that The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” was the first video to air on MTV. But what about after that? Honestly, there was a lot of Rod Stewart and REO Speedwagon, but you won’t find those here. In curating, I have tried to balance being representative of what was played with putting together an hour of video music that I think human beings might enjoy in 2025. Or that I like. :) Beyond the Buggles by Ethan Thompson An Hour of Video Music from MTV's First Night Read on Substack