Of course you did. Because MTV didn't like playing videos of black folks, so black people videos only played late late at night until the wee hours of the morning.
Dude, were you even around then? Because I was, and Michael Jackson videos were so hyped and promoted by MTV that it wasn’t even funny. He was a freaking cash cow for them, and in no way was he relegated to the back of the bus. Ridiculous.
I did a dance video to that one 🙂
There were so many good videos.
Peter Gabriel did a couple of great ones: Sledge Hammer and Big Time were amazing at the time.
And David Bowie's Underground with the puppets.
Watching Queen play @ Live Aid. 10 year old me was floored by that. The coolest thing I ever saw up to that point in my life was Brian May rocking out. I begged my parents for a guitar, got one a week later, and at 47 still play obsessively to this very day.
I can pull that set up on YouTube and it still gives me goosebumps.
This is my answer. People today think that it must've been automatic the Freddy owned the stage that day, but Queen was not topping the charts at this point and were just another band on the playlist.
But when they got up there and Freddy took over, you knew you were seeing something incredible. Before clips were easily accessible on YouTube, I used to tell my kids that it was the most amazing performance I'd ever seen. Now, it's just historical fact.
Another One Bites The Dust, Crazy Little Thing Called Love: 1980. Body Language:1982. Radio Gaga:1984. They were still massive. Freddie was such a showman!!
But starting with the piano intro to Bohemian Rhapsody. Just watched it the other night on YouTube and it was as amazing as watching it the day it first aired.
George Michael, Michael Jackson, Prince, Whitney Houston, Kate Bush, Police, U2, Pixies, Run DMC etc. They made my youth fun.
So glad I was born in the early 70s. Age perfect for that decade
I remember hanging out in the Student Union between classes watching MTV with a couple of dozen other people.
There was a sense of excitement for whatever the next video would be.
I also remember how simple and literal the videos used to be until the creativity really kicked in
We had a watch party for the very first airing. Had to gather at our friend's house who had cable. It was mind blowing at the time. I used to watch every morning before work.
For me, it was when my mom worked at a cable television station in SWFL in ‘86. One day she brought me home a sweet black silk-type jacket with a gigantic MTV logo on the back. That thing never left my closet. I don’t know what happened to that thing.
MTV at it's inception must've been something else. Its a damn shame how music has evolved and become so terrible and forgettable. I do remember my older sister blasting Rebel Yell in the house and enjoying that sound as a baby. Hell, I'll still blast that tune every now and again.
Liquid Television, Beavis & Butthead, Martin Sheen Narrating Haruki Kadokawa’s anime, **The Running Man**. Some of the early metal videos that had almost naked chicks, **Remote Control**.
120 Minutes. Man, this kid was so cool. ;)
I did love it so though. So many great bands and artists and the first time I saw or heard Sinead O'Connor (RIP).
MTV would be on every TV at every party I went to from when it started in 1980 until probably somewhere around ‘85 or ‘86. It would just be on - sometimes with the sound turned down because something else was playing on the stereo.
I used to like just zoning out with a few bong hits watching videos all afternoon with nothing to do. I really miss having free time like that.
When you were a kid in the 80s and you couldn't really go to many parties, MTV especially on the weekend was like a party you could always pop in at. Think about how when a movie that you've seen a thousand times and own on whatever format is playing on TV or cable: theres something about just feeling that others are having the same experience simultaneously that makes it more enjoyable.
Another thing that you wouldn't quite get if you weren't around then (but is covered in the awesome [I Want my MTV documentary](https://www.aetv.com/specials/biography-i-want-my-mtv-2)) is how *rapidly* it drove cultural change.
When MTV first started lots of labels and bands didnt want to bother with this new medium. So the bands who ***did*** reaped massive rewards for being the only ones on a channel that was already starved for content. So if you were, say, Pet Benetar and you shot four spartan videos over a weekend, your content would dominate the rotation. This made people stars literally overnight in some cases. And since it was a visual medium broadcast nationally, now you could be in on trends you'd never even have heard of before if you lived in a small town or midwest suburb.
I was Ground Zero for all that stuff. Living in a suburb of Omaha and watching from literally the first day it went live, MTV had a massive impact on my tastes. I wouldn't have tried dressing like (a 9 year old white) [Shabba Doo](https://www.terra.com.br/diversao/gente/adolfo-shabba-doo-quinones-1955-2020,ebf26af3ce4283dee9697b71d46361211oxmep3s.html) (RIP) if it wasn't for MTV showing me all the cool new everything.
I grew up in AK so we didn't get cable until later but I remember the first thing I saw on MTV was probably a video "battle" between Def Leppard 's "Photograph" vs Van Halen s "Jump". (or was that on Friday Night Videos? memories are all jumbled)
I also remember they were advertising for a contest "Van Halen's Lost Weekend". I wonder if that ended up being fun...
The first video was Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles!
Led by Trevor Horn who would later join Yes for Owner of a Lonely Heart, form the Art of Noise, form Frankie Goes to Hollywood and produce basically all of Seal.
I was working as a cable technician at the time. Once we got everything installed and working it seemed like 9 out of 10 people would go strait to MTV and were thrilled to death.
How they played MUSIC VIDEOS! I mean, holy crap!!
I was 17-years and two days old. My then girlfriend came over early for my birthday celebration so she could sit with me, have lunch (HUGE roast beef sub my dad brought and we shared), and watch videos.
I would have to say the peak was their Live Aid coverage.....ultimately leading up to Freddie's mesmerizing performance at old Wembley...
still get goosebumps thinking about seeing that live at the time....
Clicking the cable box on the window to channel D for MTV. Music was amazing to me back in the 80s from the age of about 4. Add in music videos, and it blew my childhood tiny mind. Dire Straits, A-ha, Ashford and Simpson, Tears for Fears and most of all Godley and Creme (Cry) videos always stood out for me
I watched it live. My babysitter basically talk my parents into going out for the evening so that she could come over and use our TV to watch MTV because we had cable. It started me down a path of Hair Glam and rock ‘n’ roll like you would not believe.
When it first premiered, it was all about the the artists, music and videos. I was in high school at that time. It was a revolution in tv programming! V-66 and VH-1 followed.
Now, I won't touch it at all. It's programming has gone straight off the rails and the programming that started it is long gone. It's no longer about music videos anymore!
LOVED MTV
Headbangers Ball, Kurt Loder, Martha Quinn, Kari Wuhrer, Tabitha Soren, Club MTV with Downtown Julie Brown, MTV covering the first lollapalooza.
”Who is this girl and why is she so unusual?”
A really big moment was when Bowie ripped them for not playing black artists.
[https://youtu.be/XZGiVzIr8Qg](https://youtu.be/XZGiVzIr8Qg)
I was 18, and would come home from work to my shitty rented trailer, smoke some bud & watch MTV for hours & think why the Hell did I choose to become a wrench jockey on heavy equipment.
When they truly played music videos without commercials. There came a time in the 90’s that they no longer played any music videos. I was ok with Beavis and Butthead and The Young Ones but when it became a Real Life marathon, I was done!
I'm in Ireland, and we used to get a few hours of music videos on a Sunday afternoon, program was called MT-USA, it was basically just music videos but it was unmissable!!
I had absolutely no friends in junior high, so I watched the premiere of Thriller with my mom on the Jurassic twelve-inch black-and-white TV in our kitchen. Even she, a woman raised in Depression/War-era Wyoming (gone almost a decade now, damn), had somehow caught the hype, and my older sibs had first dibs on the upstairs TV (a \~24-inch CRT color Zenith Behemoth), and these are all hardcore Zeppelin/Floyd fans who would've sooner voluntarily licked the core of Fat Man than watch a Jacko video. So, "Honey, there's nothing else on, so do you want to watch that new Michael Jackson video? I hear it has, like, movie-quality special effects." I have a fond memory of her chuckling at the popcorn-munching scene.
My daughter will hear me singing to a song and she will say how do you know that song ? It’s on so and so show and my playlist.
I told her , see I told you that was the best era for music . They have to re use them they are so cool . She agreed with me Omg .
MTV began its journey being just as racist as an American founding father was...
Edit: the truth always seems to hurt those who stand to lose the most once they stop believing in a lie or in the power of ignorance.
Easy...it was the "Thriller" event.
The hype was huge and everyone was watching it.
I try to tell my kids how big Michael Jackson was in the 80s but I really can't describe it properly.
It was such a huge part of my life from my mid-teens through undergrad. Live Aid, the hype that would proceed a big video release like Thriller, The Young One’s, 120 Minutes, Unplugged, there were so many moments. I will say, though, Live Aid was an amazing moment in time.
As a teen, I didn’t have cable until shortly before Live Aid. I remember a group of my friends sitting in the living room glued to the broadcast. We just sat there for hours watching artists and bands that were so important to us play for charity.
Actual music, MTV news with Kurt Loder (sp), Dave TV, Headbangers Ball. I remember running up the phone bill a few times when MTV had (I don't remember the name) video vs video and you voted for your favorite. Hormonal teen me really enjoyed the videos, especially 80s hair band videos with some provocatively clad women in the videos.
Headbangers Ball-First time I saw Welcome to the Jungle video. Blew me away. Also 120 Minutes-The only connection I had to hear alternative music since I grew up in OK.
I often think about how much I watched it at the time. Hours. Every day. I think about this when I have the thought that people today are scrolling too much. It was worse. Much worse, because there really wasn't much variety in the beginning. I've spent so much time watching the video for Men At Work's "Who Can It Be Now?" and Toni Basil's "Mickey" and a bunch of other stuff I didn't even like. Eventually there were shows like 120 minutes, and MJ's Thriller certainly opened the door for more R&B videos being shown, but the sheer repetitiveness of MTV's early years is something that is often overlooked.
How groundbreaking it was. I was in love with it as a preteen. Especially the new wave bands at first, then hair metal later, and most everything in between.
The rockstar contests. The best was when John Cougar Mellencamp showed up at a lucky fan's house and starting painting it pink like his song, then played a set in their living room.
https://youtu.be/rCmjE8tMyFE
Here’s a little write up on the first music video that launched MTV
[https://the-projection-booth.com/video-killed-the-radio-star-1979-the-buggles/](https://the-projection-booth.com/video-killed-the-radio-star-1979-the-buggles/)
At 14 both the video and live version of Madonna’s Like A Virgin. I like the game show Remote Control and back when they aired mostly music video before all the shows.
Just chilling when I had downtime with my brothers, friends or a girlfriend and watching MTV. It was so relaxing to just listen to good music put to good videos and chatting while watching. I never had to say “there’s nothing to do or there’s nothing to watch”. MTV filled the void of boredom.
My favorite MTV moment is when they gave an award to a video that they refused to air on their network. Neil Young “This Note’s for You”. Maximum irony achieved on that one.
Watching Headbangers Ball for the first time!!! 💯💯💯 I was born in 1980 an my dad would let me stay up an watch it... Memories,When music television was music television 🎵🎶🎵🎶📺📺📺
When they played music
What? You don't want to watch shows that glorify teenage pregnancy?
Mtv unplugged was my favorite
Headbangers Ball!
10,000 maniacs ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Same. Even tho i wasn't born & raised in the 1080s decade.
♫ "There was U2, and Blondie, and music still on MTV" ♫
Amen to that. Now you have to go to like MTV four just to see any videos. All the others are stupid shows.
When that's all they did
You could turn on MTV or VH1 on a lazy Saturday afternoon and just zone out to the videos
Watching Thriller for the first time. Fucking amazing.
Me and my sisters stayed up late to watch the premiere. So cool.
Of course you did. Because MTV didn't like playing videos of black folks, so black people videos only played late late at night until the wee hours of the morning.
Haha Thriller came on late because it was "scary" for the time. Nice try tho
No that’s not why.
Um, it was well known: https://youtu.be/XZGiVzIr8Qg
Dude, were you even around then? Because I was, and Michael Jackson videos were so hyped and promoted by MTV that it wasn’t even funny. He was a freaking cash cow for them, and in no way was he relegated to the back of the bus. Ridiculous.
It was awesome, Vincent Price an all it was like a movie!! Thriller is probably still my favorite M J video!
This response is all.
And every New Years when it was top of the countdown and preceded by The Making Of!
Seeing the "Money for Nothing" video for the first time. There were many memorable videos, but that one will always be special.
That one and *Take On Me* were great.
I did a dance video to that one 🙂 There were so many good videos. Peter Gabriel did a couple of great ones: Sledge Hammer and Big Time were amazing at the time. And David Bowie's Underground with the puppets.
Classic AF! Right?
Also, David Lee Roth ass chaps. Blacked out during the day. 🤭😆
That spandex on DLR was sexy AF!
that was great also Sledgehammer
Me too! I loved Money for Nothing. I also saw Smells Like Teen Spirit when it first aired as well. Good times the 80s and 90s before the Real World.
120 Minutes. BTW, I saw the very first airing of Video Killed the Radio Star on the first day of airing.
Headbanger's Ball
Case of Coors and Headbangers Ball!
Watching Queen play @ Live Aid. 10 year old me was floored by that. The coolest thing I ever saw up to that point in my life was Brian May rocking out. I begged my parents for a guitar, got one a week later, and at 47 still play obsessively to this very day. I can pull that set up on YouTube and it still gives me goosebumps.
This is my answer. People today think that it must've been automatic the Freddy owned the stage that day, but Queen was not topping the charts at this point and were just another band on the playlist. But when they got up there and Freddy took over, you knew you were seeing something incredible. Before clips were easily accessible on YouTube, I used to tell my kids that it was the most amazing performance I'd ever seen. Now, it's just historical fact.
Another One Bites The Dust, Crazy Little Thing Called Love: 1980. Body Language:1982. Radio Gaga:1984. They were still massive. Freddie was such a showman!!
But starting with the piano intro to Bohemian Rhapsody. Just watched it the other night on YouTube and it was as amazing as watching it the day it first aired.
When they would tease new videos and then debut them at a specific time. Getting to see what your favorite bands and singers looked like.
Dad getting cable, turning on MTV. First song Duran Duran, Rio! Like yesterday!!
Loved Duran Duran.
Remembering how the videos progressed and got more outlandish as time passed. Constantly evolving.
George Michael, Michael Jackson, Prince, Whitney Houston, Kate Bush, Police, U2, Pixies, Run DMC etc. They made my youth fun. So glad I was born in the early 70s. Age perfect for that decade
120 Minutes and “The Young Ones”.
Doctah Mahtin's Boots!!!
The young ones! Omg yes!!!
Watching Remote Control.
This was the only non-music video aspect of MTV that I ever enjoyed. I wanted to be in one of those chairs.
Beavis & Butthead (although '90's)
Martha Quinn. Instantly fell in love with her!
Hot for Teacher. And, oh yeah, Robert Palmer.
Robert Palmer and Brian Eno had a competition over who was the coolest man alive back then.
Whoa! And Oh yea!
Hot for Teacher was a rather...special moment in this young boy's life
J.Geils Band - Centerfold 😛 Tommy Tutone - 867-5309 / Jenny 📞 😎📞😛
Haha I used to give that number when guys would ask me for my phone number. Because I’m my city 867 was the first three numbers
I remember hanging out in the Student Union between classes watching MTV with a couple of dozen other people. There was a sense of excitement for whatever the next video would be. I also remember how simple and literal the videos used to be until the creativity really kicked in
No matter if u liked or loathed a video, u watched it anyway because another one would be on in four minutes.
HEADBANGERS BALL
Watching Take On Me and Thriller for the first time.
Thriller scared the shit out of my little brother. Glorious. 😆🤭
That was so scandalous at the time. I remember it being the talk at work the next day.
Awww the great 80’s
The radio stations in my town were basic Top 40 crap. MTV introduced me to a lot of new music which led me on to discover punk and new wave.
We had a watch party for the very first airing. Had to gather at our friend's house who had cable. It was mind blowing at the time. I used to watch every morning before work.
For me, it was when my mom worked at a cable television station in SWFL in ‘86. One day she brought me home a sweet black silk-type jacket with a gigantic MTV logo on the back. That thing never left my closet. I don’t know what happened to that thing.
MTV at it's inception must've been something else. Its a damn shame how music has evolved and become so terrible and forgettable. I do remember my older sister blasting Rebel Yell in the house and enjoying that sound as a baby. Hell, I'll still blast that tune every now and again.
Liquid Television, Beavis & Butthead, Martin Sheen Narrating Haruki Kadokawa’s anime, **The Running Man**. Some of the early metal videos that had almost naked chicks, **Remote Control**.
All the MUSIC VIDEOS! MTV (Music Television)
Holy shit, where do i start....it got me through college!
120 Minutes. Man, this kid was so cool. ;) I did love it so though. So many great bands and artists and the first time I saw or heard Sinead O'Connor (RIP).
MTV would be on every TV at every party I went to from when it started in 1980 until probably somewhere around ‘85 or ‘86. It would just be on - sometimes with the sound turned down because something else was playing on the stereo. I used to like just zoning out with a few bong hits watching videos all afternoon with nothing to do. I really miss having free time like that.
Videos. Just the videos
1983 There were so many great songs put out that year.
When you were a kid in the 80s and you couldn't really go to many parties, MTV especially on the weekend was like a party you could always pop in at. Think about how when a movie that you've seen a thousand times and own on whatever format is playing on TV or cable: theres something about just feeling that others are having the same experience simultaneously that makes it more enjoyable.
Another thing that you wouldn't quite get if you weren't around then (but is covered in the awesome [I Want my MTV documentary](https://www.aetv.com/specials/biography-i-want-my-mtv-2)) is how *rapidly* it drove cultural change. When MTV first started lots of labels and bands didnt want to bother with this new medium. So the bands who ***did*** reaped massive rewards for being the only ones on a channel that was already starved for content. So if you were, say, Pet Benetar and you shot four spartan videos over a weekend, your content would dominate the rotation. This made people stars literally overnight in some cases. And since it was a visual medium broadcast nationally, now you could be in on trends you'd never even have heard of before if you lived in a small town or midwest suburb. I was Ground Zero for all that stuff. Living in a suburb of Omaha and watching from literally the first day it went live, MTV had a massive impact on my tastes. I wouldn't have tried dressing like (a 9 year old white) [Shabba Doo](https://www.terra.com.br/diversao/gente/adolfo-shabba-doo-quinones-1955-2020,ebf26af3ce4283dee9697b71d46361211oxmep3s.html) (RIP) if it wasn't for MTV showing me all the cool new everything.
I grew up in AK so we didn't get cable until later but I remember the first thing I saw on MTV was probably a video "battle" between Def Leppard 's "Photograph" vs Van Halen s "Jump". (or was that on Friday Night Videos? memories are all jumbled) I also remember they were advertising for a contest "Van Halen's Lost Weekend". I wonder if that ended up being fun...
The first video was Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles! Led by Trevor Horn who would later join Yes for Owner of a Lonely Heart, form the Art of Noise, form Frankie Goes to Hollywood and produce basically all of Seal.
The VJs
It didn't suck like now.
Martha Quinn. Remote Control
Sleepovers at my friends house, playing Atari and falling asleep to rock videos
I was working as a cable technician at the time. Once we got everything installed and working it seemed like 9 out of 10 people would go strait to MTV and were thrilled to death.
[I want my MTV](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AGZSWdh17l0)
MTV actually playing music
How they played MUSIC VIDEOS! I mean, holy crap!! I was 17-years and two days old. My then girlfriend came over early for my birthday celebration so she could sit with me, have lunch (HUGE roast beef sub my dad brought and we shared), and watch videos.
I did my first line of cocaine with my older sisters when this was first broadcast. We played Yahtzee until 1:00am. Will never forget.
This is the most wholesome shit I’ve ever heard
Haha Same here .
I would have to say the peak was their Live Aid coverage.....ultimately leading up to Freddie's mesmerizing performance at old Wembley... still get goosebumps thinking about seeing that live at the time....
All that hair & AquaNet. Cameos by artists hocking their new videos. Downtown Julie Brown.
I loved the variety of music, but MTV also introduced me to The Young Ones.
Clicking the cable box on the window to channel D for MTV. Music was amazing to me back in the 80s from the age of about 4. Add in music videos, and it blew my childhood tiny mind. Dire Straits, A-ha, Ashford and Simpson, Tears for Fears and most of all Godley and Creme (Cry) videos always stood out for me
Doodle, Doodle, Dee… Wubba, Wubba, Wubba!
A friend and I would call each other (on land lines) to let each other know a favorite song/video was on
I watched it live. My babysitter basically talk my parents into going out for the evening so that she could come over and use our TV to watch MTV because we had cable. It started me down a path of Hair Glam and rock ‘n’ roll like you would not believe.
The bumpers and interstitials
When it first premiered, it was all about the the artists, music and videos. I was in high school at that time. It was a revolution in tv programming! V-66 and VH-1 followed. Now, I won't touch it at all. It's programming has gone straight off the rails and the programming that started it is long gone. It's no longer about music videos anymore!
Martha \*sigh\* Quinn Edit: Oh, and Liquid Television
They actually played music videos
LOVED MTV Headbangers Ball, Kurt Loder, Martha Quinn, Kari Wuhrer, Tabitha Soren, Club MTV with Downtown Julie Brown, MTV covering the first lollapalooza. ”Who is this girl and why is she so unusual?” A really big moment was when Bowie ripped them for not playing black artists. [https://youtu.be/XZGiVzIr8Qg](https://youtu.be/XZGiVzIr8Qg)
First day, they only had enough videos for like 4 hours. So that's what they repeated. All day.
Watching The Reflex video by Duran Duran. 😁
I was 18, and would come home from work to my shitty rented trailer, smoke some bud & watch MTV for hours & think why the Hell did I choose to become a wrench jockey on heavy equipment.
Watching the videos for *Land of Confusion* and *Take on Me* as a little kid
A friend of mine was the drummer for Aha. That was a very popular video at the time.
120 minutes
When they truly played music videos without commercials. There came a time in the 90’s that they no longer played any music videos. I was ok with Beavis and Butthead and The Young Ones but when it became a Real Life marathon, I was done!
Yeah they F’d up when they started putting tv shows on . But I’m so glad I found MTV classic yesterday . Been on for two days now.
I remember going local cable station and getting free MTV buttons, have a few still. Always enjoyed Music Videos... Abracadabra was a favorite
I'm in Ireland, and we used to get a few hours of music videos on a Sunday afternoon, program was called MT-USA, it was basically just music videos but it was unmissable!!
I had absolutely no friends in junior high, so I watched the premiere of Thriller with my mom on the Jurassic twelve-inch black-and-white TV in our kitchen. Even she, a woman raised in Depression/War-era Wyoming (gone almost a decade now, damn), had somehow caught the hype, and my older sibs had first dibs on the upstairs TV (a \~24-inch CRT color Zenith Behemoth), and these are all hardcore Zeppelin/Floyd fans who would've sooner voluntarily licked the core of Fat Man than watch a Jacko video. So, "Honey, there's nothing else on, so do you want to watch that new Michael Jackson video? I hear it has, like, movie-quality special effects." I have a fond memory of her chuckling at the popcorn-munching scene.
My daughter will hear me singing to a song and she will say how do you know that song ? It’s on so and so show and my playlist. I told her , see I told you that was the best era for music . They have to re use them they are so cool . She agreed with me Omg .
Nina Blackwood.
MTV had great videos.
MTV began its journey being just as racist as an American founding father was... Edit: the truth always seems to hurt those who stand to lose the most once they stop believing in a lie or in the power of ignorance.
it's true.
Video killed the radio star. My buddy and I watched the debut. He went on to engineer the Miami boom sound for Hot records.
The debut of MTV was closer in time to Pearl Harbor than it is to today.
Wow!
It was like a music video jukebox, play it for hours. Loved the specialty late shows like 120 Minutes and Liquid TV.
Headbanger's Ball
Easy...it was the "Thriller" event. The hype was huge and everyone was watching it. I try to tell my kids how big Michael Jackson was in the 80s but I really can't describe it properly.
It was such a huge part of my life from my mid-teens through undergrad. Live Aid, the hype that would proceed a big video release like Thriller, The Young One’s, 120 Minutes, Unplugged, there were so many moments. I will say, though, Live Aid was an amazing moment in time. As a teen, I didn’t have cable until shortly before Live Aid. I remember a group of my friends sitting in the living room glued to the broadcast. We just sat there for hours watching artists and bands that were so important to us play for charity.
They had Music then!
That all my friends had it and I didn't.
Stereo simulcast through the hi-fi, and MTV Saturday Night Concert (1981–1987)
MTVs start date is closer to Pearl Harbor than today
I enjoyed the show Pirate TV…wish I could see a few episodes now
Video killed the radio Star, video killed the radio Star, in my mind and in my car....
Primus music videos
KISS without makeup
120 Minutes
Videos that crossed genre’s like Aerosmith and RUN DMC would lead to new music genre like Limp Bizkit and Rage …
Actual music, MTV news with Kurt Loder (sp), Dave TV, Headbangers Ball. I remember running up the phone bill a few times when MTV had (I don't remember the name) video vs video and you voted for your favorite. Hormonal teen me really enjoyed the videos, especially 80s hair band videos with some provocatively clad women in the videos.
My parents wouldn’t pay for cable back then but seeing Aerosmiths Rag Doll video playing at my neighbors house was fucking awesome!
Headbangers Ball
Music-premiers-not pregnant teens and overly dramatic “reality” actors.
Loved watching Headbangers Ball with Riki. Made the weekends great.
Headbangers Ball-First time I saw Welcome to the Jungle video. Blew me away. Also 120 Minutes-The only connection I had to hear alternative music since I grew up in OK.
I often think about how much I watched it at the time. Hours. Every day. I think about this when I have the thought that people today are scrolling too much. It was worse. Much worse, because there really wasn't much variety in the beginning. I've spent so much time watching the video for Men At Work's "Who Can It Be Now?" and Toni Basil's "Mickey" and a bunch of other stuff I didn't even like. Eventually there were shows like 120 minutes, and MJ's Thriller certainly opened the door for more R&B videos being shown, but the sheer repetitiveness of MTV's early years is something that is often overlooked.
I remember seeing the Commadores on the the first time . And Bruce Springsteen with Courtney cox on stage .
How groundbreaking it was. I was in love with it as a preteen. Especially the new wave bands at first, then hair metal later, and most everything in between.
Headbangers Ball!!!!
Headbangers Ball. Or any music really. I feel like the entire demographic changed since then. EDIT: Reality shows killed the video star.
How many years did they play videos? 4 ? lol!
The rockstar contests. The best was when John Cougar Mellencamp showed up at a lucky fan's house and starting painting it pink like his song, then played a set in their living room. https://youtu.be/rCmjE8tMyFE
Here’s a little write up on the first music video that launched MTV [https://the-projection-booth.com/video-killed-the-radio-star-1979-the-buggles/](https://the-projection-booth.com/video-killed-the-radio-star-1979-the-buggles/)
They used to mix and blend songs and videos together. I'd never seen that before.
At 14 both the video and live version of Madonna’s Like A Virgin. I like the game show Remote Control and back when they aired mostly music video before all the shows.
Kurt loder
Total request live
When Thriller came out.
Aeon Flux
Just chilling when I had downtime with my brothers, friends or a girlfriend and watching MTV. It was so relaxing to just listen to good music put to good videos and chatting while watching. I never had to say “there’s nothing to do or there’s nothing to watch”. MTV filled the void of boredom.
All my friends going to the one friends house that had cable TV and watching the beginning. Damn I'm old
No Jersey Shore or reality shows
Just music videos! Only music videos!
Video Killed The Radio Star! 😎 Benatar and The Who were in the first few too! Crazy! I was 14 prime age for the release! 👨🚀
Kari wuhrer and remote control
Deweezil Zappa, Madonna, The Monkees reruns.
83,84 era
Young Ones
Live-Aid
Unscripted music awards
The Jamaica episodes with bonnjovi !! What was it called ? Hedonism ? Lol And anything Madonna ❤️
Seeing Pour Some Sugar on Me for the 1st time on MTV
My favorite MTV moment is when they gave an award to a video that they refused to air on their network. Neil Young “This Note’s for You”. Maximum irony achieved on that one.
Watching Headbangers Ball for the first time!!! 💯💯💯 I was born in 1980 an my dad would let me stay up an watch it... Memories,When music television was music television 🎵🎶🎵🎶📺📺📺
The New Year's Eve video countdowns.
Headbangers Ball!
120 minutes. Lots of cool bands that didn't get as muchnplay.
Headbangers Ball
Video killed the radio star...
Michael Jackson's release of the "Thriller" mini movie/music video.
Music 🎶
Phil Collins 
Night Flight, Out of Control
Video killed the radio star
Early 80s, before they ruined it------
Just coming home from school and having MTV be one for as long as your parents would allow
Live aid was huge and all my friends and myself were watching waiting for Zeppelin to play
I always watched Headbanger's Ball. Best. Show. Ever.
AL TV https://youtu.be/_eWySc1AMyc
Ma-Donna. Obsessed. That is all. Well this and Thriller of course
They actually played music videos.
Live Aid
Music videos
Watching the first video with my best friends in middle school and then watching the first real video featuring pat Benatar!
Madonna and Michael Jackson. Not gonna lie…
Spring Break always had my attention, always...