Beyond the Buggles: One Hour of Video Music from MTV's First Night

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

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome to the home of video clips for What was MTV?

Image
This site serves as the organizational home for the many video clips associated with the forthcoming book, What was MTV? Navigate using the sidebar on the left. If it isn't visible, click on the icon in the top left corner.  You can search the site, or view the clips by associated chapter.  While many of these clips are linked via QR code to the book, many others are included here as well. Queries about this site or the book should be sent to Ethan.Thompson@gmail.com.
Read more

Clips: Evolutions and Impacts of Advertising on MTV

  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...
Read more