The Very First Two Hours of the Newly Introduced MTV

Max Speedster shared an incredibly nostalgic video that encompasses the first two hours of the introduction of MTV to the world (or at least New Jersey) on Saturday, August 1, 1981, at 12:01 AM Eastern Time.

The video starts off with a Space Shuttle countdown, the iconic launch of Apollo 11, and the planting of the MTV flag, during which the famous phrase “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll” was uttered. The first music video to air was The Buggles song “Video Killed the Radio Star”. The new VJs then introduced themselves, and from there the world as we knew it was no more.

Your parents had to have let you stay up till midnight Friday/Saturday August 1, 1981 to have ever seen this. This probably all seems totally quaint and archaic now but this collectively blew us ALL away back in the day

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.