It was forty years ago today when MTV first went live on the television waves and began entertaining the masses with music videos and commentary from their video disc jockeys or VJs as they became known as. Historically speaking, MTV launched with the video by The Buggles and their song “Video Killed The Radio Star” which I’ve embedded for your viewing pleasure down below. Though I’m a tried and true Metalhead, I’ve always had a soft spot for some of the New Wave classics and this song is one of my favorites to this very day. Enjoy.
PiercingMetal Thoughts: So as most of you know, MTV is a far cry from the entity that it was way back upon its launch. Living in NYC, I didn’t have it for many years since we didn’t have a cable hookup and while you might chuckle at that you should know that it wasn’t something that was as easy to participate in despite your family wanting to. I remember calling a few friends who had it to learn what videos were being shown and when we finally could access it I was glued to it when it came to Rock and Metal videos. These were the days when Poison, Motley Crue, Stryper, Bon Jovi, Twisted Sister, Def Leppard and Ratt were regularly rotating artists. There were more but this list has to end in order to get the post online. That being said I was still stoked to see the first ever Metallica video “One” being played on my television. This was history and oh yeahspeaking of history, the “Hottest Band In The World” KISS revealed their faces on the network to a shocked world. As the years moved on and Rock and Metal were less of a mainstay on the network the Rap scene took over and then the Grunge scene but then it was a reality show haven and its kind of been in that state more than it isn’t. I don’t watch any reality shows outside of “Survivor” because I just don’t care about any Jersey Shore Mob Housewives nonsense at this point in my life. I do keep tabs on their “MTV Movie Awards” and their famed “Video Music Awards” but those are usually run over on “The Chronicles” in terms of reports since so little of it amounts to the music and media we go for. Still, forty years of existence in a rapidly changing environment like this is amazing. Happy Birthday MTV. Maybe I will look for some of my old VHS tapes for those aforementioned videos. Or maybe I will just try to find them on YouTube which is a lot easier to do 🙂
Official: http://www.mtv.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mtv
The Heavy metal music half hour with Dee Snider hosting & headbangers ball were staples & classics. Definitely the place where I found out about new bands🤘 I was a fan of “Remote Control” also. I also remember watching 120 minutes on Sunday nights. It was all that was on. Shaped a generation!