MTV at 25

It’s been ages since I gave a hoot about MTV - thank you very much TRL, Jackass, Real World et al ad nauseam – but it’s noteworthy that the network has reached a quarter century. A look back at 25 milestones in MTV history:

1. THE DEBUT: August 1, 1981. The first video? The slyly prophetic "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles. Only a few thousand people on a single cable system in northern New Jersey could see it. Sometimes the screen would go black when someone at MTV inserted a tape into a VCR. Within a few years, millions of kids demanded their parents buy cable so they could see MTV. Along with CNN, it led TV's transition out of the three-channel world. "This was the fuse that lit the cable explosion," said Robert Thompson, professor of popular culture at Syracuse University.

2. "BEAT IT": March 31, 1983. MTV had ignored black artists from its introduction, despite the spectacular contemporary success of Michael Jackson's 1982 "Thriller" album and its early singles, "Billie Jean" and "Beat It." By the time MTV got in the habit of showing Jackson -- and others -- "Thriller" had been No. 1 for months and was on its way to becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time. ("Beat It" cemented Jackson's broad-based popularity, partly thanks to Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo and the gang-meeting video.) The segregation was MTV's early shame, ironic considering its later role in popularizing rap. And the early snub wasn't forgotten: "You don't have all of music television when you are leaving things out," says Los Lonely Boys singer Henry Garza.

3. "THRILLER": December 2, 1983. Less a video than a 14-minute mini-movie with Vincent Price, ghouls and goblins, the premiere of Jackson's "Thriller" was an event. MTV gave it a set time on the schedule -- several, even. It was the apotheosis of the idea of music videos as an art form. With director John Landis involved, it also was proof that Hollywood's finest weren't looking down upon what are essentially promo clips.

Continue reading MTV won't say how old it is (but it's 25).