MTV’s First Day: 20 Videos and 5 VJs Who Changed Music

MTV launched on August 1, 1981, forever changing how we experienced music. I remember the moment—sitting in front of the TV, VCR rolling, cassette deck recording the audio because I didn’t have cable in stereo. The first 20 videos ranged from The Buggles to REO Speedwagon, and the original five VJs—Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, J.J. Jackson, and Martha Quinn—might just deserve a place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Here's why.

On August 1, 1981, a flickering image of an astronaut planting an MTV flag on the moon opened the door to a new world. At 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time, a voice announced:
"Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll."

That static-laced moment was the birth of Music Television, or MTV. It began broadcasting in parts of New Jersey—a fledgling experiment that would soon grip the cultural imagination of an entire generation. I was one of them.

Back then, my setup was a stack of Sears electronics with tangled RCA cables and a VCR that chewed tapes like popcorn. I recorded the audio of MTV’s early videos straight onto a cassette deck because that’s all I had—and I wore those tapes out.

You didn’t just watch MTV. You soaked it in. You quoted the VJs. You memorized the videos. And if you were lucky, you taped them and made mixtapes to trade with friends.

Here’s the sacred list. The first 20 videos aired on MTV weren’t all iconic at the time—but most became legends because of that launch:

MTV’s original Video Jockeys were more than hosts—they were your guides to this brave new world of music television. They were stylish, slightly chaotic, and impossibly cool:

They didn’t just announce videos. They interviewed legends, broke bands like Duran Duran and The Police in the U.S., and shaped how an entire generation discovered music. If you were a Gen X or early Millennial kid, you probably remember who your favorite VJ was.

Let’s break it down:

The Hall has inducted DJs (like Alan Freed), record execs, journalists, and even behind-the-scenes producers. So why not the VJs who literally brought rock and roll into our living rooms?

Their contributions go beyond fan service. Without MTV—and the VJs that gave it life—would artists like Madonna, Prince, or even Bruce Springsteen have skyrocketed the way they did? Would we have the same pop-culture lexicon of visual moments burned into our memory: A-ha’s sketchpad, Peter Gabriel’s claymation, or David Lee Roth’s spinning kicks?

You could argue that Martha, Mark, Nina, Alan, and J.J. were just reading cue cards. But you’d be wrong. They were part of the revolution.

We didn’t know it at the time, but we were watching the future unfold. I didn’t have surround sound or HD. I had a half-buzzed TV signal, a VCR, and a Maxell cassette with the record button held down. And it was magic.

So today—on MTV’s anniversary—pull up “Video Killed the Radio Star,” crank it, and pour one out for the five voices that introduced us to a visual soundtrack of our youth.

And Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?
You know what to do.