BY: JOE PUGLISI
For those watching in 1981, the launch of MTV must have seemed as epic as the rocket-ship visual it used as an opener. For those who don't remember (or didn't exist yet), the iconic moonman's first appearance was juxtaposed with footage of Apollo 11 taking off in the channels first minutes. Although the implications were massive (an entire channel dedicated to music??) and the first video to ever air (our favorite Trivial Pursuit questions: "Video Killed The Radio Star") seemed an ambitious mission statement, MTV did nail something unmistakably cool with its initial aesthetics and promises of all-day, all-night stereo music. Cool story, MTV.
Although the nostalgia is overwhelming, it does make one wonder why a network so far off of its own proclaimed ideology is celebrating the birth of something it would later kill off. As web based spots like us and other internet serials attempt to fill the void MTV left in our video consumption (by trying to replace it with Snooki and Teen Mom), its both inspiring and disheartening to watch this first hour of Music Television. Inspiring because it's so damn cool, and disheartening that we know it eventually decided to drop the music from its branding. Couple all that with the fact that we're watching this videos on Youtube, and there is definitely something bigger to say about the way we watch now. And yet, it's already been said. JJ Jackson was right, we'll "never look at music the same way again".
Check out the first hour of broadcasting, including some delightfully retro commercials. Who wants to go see the movie event of our time? Who wants to guess what that was, supposedly?
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