Thread by @AmandaAnnKlein

40 years ago today, #MTV premiered. In celebration, I’m going to provide a thread about the iconic channel’s creation. Join me, won’t you, for a stroll down memory lane?

.@MarthaQuinn , 1 of the OG VJs, recalls the first time she ever heard about the channel, in July 1981: “I was at [my internship at WNBC] one afternoon when a guy in the office said, ‘You should be a V.J.’ I said, ‘What’s a V.J.?’

And he said, ‘It’s just like being on the radio, but it’s on television.’ To which I replied, ‘What do you do during the records?’ He said, ‘It’s videos, fool.’ I couldn’t imagine what he was talking about” (qtd. in archive.vanityfair.com/article/2000/1…).

Prior to the launch of MTV in 1981, television stations rarely aired music videos*, bc their short, discrete formats didn’t fit into the established model of thirty-minute and 60-min programming blocks.

*One quick detour:
Video-music clips can be traced all the way back to the 40s & the brief vogue for short film clips of musical performances known as “soundies.” Soundies were screened in nightclubs and restaurants on 7-ft-tall film jukeboxes called Panorams.

*See also: the Scopitone, a coin-operated jukebox using 16-mm film, developed in France. 50s/60s/70s pop music programs like the American Bandstand, Shindig!, Hullabaloo, & Soul Train, which featured youth dancing to hits, are also antecedents to the modern music video.

Let’s return to the birth of #MTV, shall we?
In the 1970s record companies began filming artists’ performances & airing them in music stores, clubs, or on TV as a cheap alternative to concert tours. But these videos were not standalone entertainment in their own right

So when did things change?
In 1979, Warner Communications Inc's Steve Ross & American Express’s James Robinson III formed Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment Company (WASEC). Warner was invested in the growing technology of cable TV & Ross & Robinson needed cheap content.
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1 option came from Elektra Records’ founder Jac Holzman, who brought a selection of music videos to WASEC’s chief operating officer, John Lack. Using these free clips meant that MTV’s primary content—music videos—had 0 cost!!!!

Lack was intrigued by the pitch b/c the content was free, but also bc it offered a diff. vision of music consumption. At Billboard’s first ever Video Music Conference in 1979, Lack described WASEC’s plans for a 24-hour music video channel as “video radio” (qtd. in Marks 2017).

On August 21, 1981, MTV aired its 1st broadcast, opening w/ a close-up of space shuttle Columbia . Former #MTV CEO Tom Freston describes the channel’s iconic moon man image: “We thought that was sort of a rock ’n’ roll attitude:
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Freston continues, "‘Let’s take man’s greatest moment technologically and rip it off’” (qtd. in Anson).
The 1st music video to air is “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles.

Released in 1979, “Video Killed the Radio Star” was an international hit but barely cracked the US Top 40 charts. The video was selected to go 1st bc of the timeliness of its themes about changing technologies & nostalgia for the past.
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Also notable about this first video is the use of the lower-third graphics that offer the following information about the song: artist name, song title, album title, and record company. The music video was simultaneously revenue-generating entertainment & an ad

“Video Killed the Radio Star” was followed immediately by Pat Benatar’s “You Better Run,” making that the second video to air on #MTV.

We then meet our 1st VJ @goodymade who tells us:
“This is it. Welcome to MTV. Music Television. The world’s first twenty-four-hour stereo video-music channel. Just moments ago, all of the VJs and crew here at MTV collectively hit our executive producer, Sue Steinberg...

...over the head with a bottle of champagne and behold! A new concept is born: the best of TV combined with the best of radio. Starting right now, you’ll never look at music the same way again.”
We also meet @NinaBlackwood @AlanHunterMTV @MarthaQuinn & JJ Jackson.

Exec producer Steinberg wanted to make sure the VJ felt like a part of the audience; early MTV broadcasting constructed a casual aesthetic: poorly lit, cluttered sets resembling the bedroom of an American teenager.

After introductions, MTV played the following videos

Rod Stewart’s “She Won’t Dance with Me,” the Who’s “You Better You Bet,” PhD’s “Little Suzi’s on the Up,” Cliff Richard’s “We Don’t Talk Anymore,” and the Pretenders’ “Brass in Pocket,” among others. That was MTV’s first hour on television.
That was 40 years ago today!
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The creation and premiere of #MTV had a profound impact on popular culture. But in celebrating its history, it’s impt to remember some of the less flattering aspects of its past: namely, race.
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After securing financial backing for MTV, WASEC conducted audience research that revealed, unsurprisingly, that “the average prospective viewer of MTV would be a suburban, white male w/ a commitment to rock music & an equally strong aversion to contemporary soul” (qtd. in Banks).

For its first 18 months MTV played only videos by white artists. Bob Pittman later explained that he made the decision to have MTV focus on (white) rock ’n’ roll over (black) R&B b/c

Pittman explained “the audience was larger. . . . The mostly white rock audience was more excited about rock than the largely black audience was about contemporary rhythm and blues” (qtd. in Ed Levine). The channel’s white focus became a defining feature of MTV, unfortunately

There was also a racial divide due to limited availability of music videos. MTV initially had just 125 clips to choose from & most came from British New Wave acts like Duran Duran, Culture Club, and the Eurythmics.

MTV found itself in a position of (somewhat unintentionally) introducing new artists to American teens. This was the beginning of MTV’s role as the arbiter of the cool and new, but only for a highly select audience of white, middle-to-upper-class youth audiences.

WASEC’s focus on white, middle-class, primarily male youth meant MTV’s playlist was rock This debate over what kind of music MTV would play came to a head w/ the fame of Michael Jackson and the channel’s refusal to play his videos.

CBS Records' Walter Yetnikoff threatened to boycott the channel and pull all CBS videos w/in 24 hours if MTV continued to block Black artists. SO, in 1983 MTV aired videos from Jackson’s album Thriller (1982), starting with the hit “Billie Jean.”
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Jackson’s “Thriller” video (1983), a thirteen-minute homage to horror movies, went on to become one of the channel’s biggest hits and a cultural phenomenon in its own right (see the great interviews about this in @tannenbaumr's work)
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Similar to the reaction to Michael Jackson’s music at first, MTV was reluctant to embrace rap music, fearing it would “alienate” white, suburban, middle-class audiences. MTV’s decision to launch Yo! MTV Raps in 1988 was a (late) recognition of the power of hip hop

The buzz around hip hop (including rap music, breakdancing, and graffiti art) had already convinced American movie studios to exploit this subculture with a cycle of films. #MTV was just following the trend

Hosted by Fab 5 Freddy, and later w/ Ed Lover and Doctor Dre, Yo! MTV Raps featured rap music videos, interviews, ad libbing, & live performances by contemporary artists in the hip hop community. The opening credits in the pilot episode featured clips from contemporary rappers+

...eventho there were few available at the time: including Run-DMC and the Fresh Prince (aka Will Smith), but the majority of the footage was made up of clips from “It Takes Two” (1988) by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock, one of the greatest songs of the 1980s:

After the opening credits roll, the pilot opens with Run-DMC, wearing their signature black T-shirts and gold rope chains, live onstage. Run-DMC was the first of the new school rap artists to get a gold record and to receive a Grammy nomination (both in 1984).
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Like MTV’s use of “It Takes Two” for the series’ main theme, Run-DMC was selected to launch Yo! MTV Raps because the group had mainstream (i.e., white) success and yet was still enjoyed and embraced by Black audiences, which is MTV’s "sweet spot."

Yo! MTV Raps' 1st video was “Follow the Leader” (1988) by Eric B. and Rakim, feat the duo in tuxes, smoking cigars. As with the choice of “Video Killed the Radio Star,” the selection of “Follow the Leader” was a self-reflexive commentary on MTV itself

"Now stop & turn around and look
As u stare in the darkness, ur knowledge is took
So keep staring, soon you suddenly see a star
You better follow it, cause it’s the R
This is a lesson if ur guessing and if ur borrowing
Hurry hurry step right up and keep following the leader"

Soon, artists and groups like JJ Fad, LL Cool J, and Kool Moe Dee joined MTV’s rotations with the likes of other, more established black artists like Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie. And then MTV never had problems with appealing to or representing Black audiences again:

If you found any of this interesting and you'd like to read more, check out my book, MILLENNIALS KILLED THE VIDEO STAR: MTV's Transition to Reality Programming
dukeupress.edu/millennials-ki…
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