Happy 25th Birthday MTV (well for yesterday)

So MTV is now 25. Ouch. They celebrated last night by repeating the first ever hour of MTV. It was amusing in parts, the constant reminders that they had changed TV forever during their first hour. What was stunning was that first hour of music. Bear in mind this was 1981:

• Buggles – Video Killed the Radio Star
• Pat Benatar – You Better Run
• REO Speedwagon – Take it on the Run
• Rod Stewart – She won’t dance
• The Who – You Better You Bet
• The Pretenders – Brass in Pocket
• Todd Rundgren – Time Heals
• Styx – Rocking The Paradise
• Split Enz – History Never Repeats
• .38 Special – Hold on Looser
• Cliff Richard – We Don’t Talk Anymore

It is easy to forget that 80s music wasn’t all New Romantics. In fact I can remember having MTV explained to me in the mid 80s (before we really got it in Britain) and being surprised that it was, almost completely, white rock music. Well it has changed, it did get into rap before it became a TV channel rather than a music channel. Now we don’t need it. I can get virtually any video I want by searching for it on Youtube. Still, it was interesting to see what was played at the start. Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while…

EDIT Have now added in all the links to the youtube versions of the videos where I could find them