I want my MTV

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The First Four Hours: 12am Saturday August 1st 1981 from fredseibert on Vimeo.

MTV launched to the world on August 1, 1981. It’s not any kind of Official Anniversary (43 years is not a round number) but I watched some of this the other day and it was strange and weird and delightful how many memories came flooding back, and what it was like at the very beginning (not later, this is not about the cool things that happened later) as the culture shifted for avid music consumers around the existence of this new thing. 

You knew who your friends were by who would call you when something you needed to see was on; there were so many times that my best friend at the time and I would pick up the phone to call each other and the other person would be on the line already, some kind of weird quirk where they’d dialed the number and you’d picked it up before it had a chance to ring. It felt like magic when there’s definitely some kind of other scientific explanation for it, but it was always one of those moments where your friendship was indelibly affirmed. Like, “they’re showing this video of the Byrds from Beat Club” (omg thank god for Beat Club. They somehow saved their tapes while other television outlets just threw them out and recorded over them, we would all learn) or “THEY ARE SHOWING ‘YOU CAN’T GET THERE FROM HERE’ AND IT’S NOT EVEN 120 MINUTES.” Love is a ring/the telephone.

I’d chase people out of the room when 120 Minutes was on. Roommates, significant others, people who thought that they could just come in and yammer like what was being shown wasn’t important or vital. It was the only chance we had to see some of these bands, period, especially the British bands or definitely BANDS FROM AUSTRALIA. Or New Zealand! But also, a chance to see these bands on television were not exactly thick on the ground. Let’s remember that at the time, your options for music on broadcast television were: Saturday Night Live and their paltry two songs (which would always sound like shit), you had to have major label support to even get the chance; the occasional rogue late night program (anyone remember Fridays?) that was forgettable except that they let the band have more songs than SNL and they sounded better; Friday Night Videos, Night Flight, and other random video programs you might find out about through the grapevine.