MTV Turns 45: How Michael Jackson, Madonna and ‘The Real World’ Made TV History

Puffy shoulders and big hair. Synth music and glam looks. Yuppie materialism. Early, boxy home computers. The 1980s were known for many things, and we got to see them all in videos on the channel that was first known as Music Television. Back then in the nascent cable TV days, we yearned for something musical and new, a visual link back to the eras of American Bandstand and The Midnight Special that would fit the “greed is good” decade and somehow have more breadth than the same dull radio station formats. And we got a channel with both style and substance that aired 24 hours every day.

MTV memorably debuted over footage of NASA space launches with the words “Ladies and gentlemen, rock ‘n’ roll,” followed by VJ Alan Hunter and the first ever video to play, the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” (also directed by Mulcahy). Back then it had 2.5 million subscribers; by March 1983, the national cry of “I Want My MTV!” had been heard and obeyed — TV Guide Magazine reported the network was then available in 1,300 cable systems around the U.S., watched by 9.5 million subs. By 1992, MTV reached 112 million homes around the world through both the mother-ship channel and a slew of sister networks.