What were the first 10 music videos shown on MTV?
“Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll” – those were the first fabled words ever uttered on MTV as John Lack led the inaugural broadcast on August 1st, 1981.
Almost instantly thereafter, the station fronted a cultural revolution. But now, it’s days seem numbered. In the final days of 2025, the one-time social giant shut down its UK and European broadcasts. As Bob Dylan once said, the times, they are a-changing. As the media analyst Carla Evans proclaimed, “Music TV has become background noise in the streaming world. People do not wait for premieres anymore, but they scroll to them.”
In the internet age, when ‘For You’ pages and social media feeds run at a million miles per hour, the art and appeal of music videos have depleted. Audiences aren’t interested in watching videos that run past three minutes when most TikToks last under 60 seconds, and they certainly aren’t interested in sitting around in front of the television and watching ten music videos in a row. But it wasn’t always this way; there was once a time when MTV was a huge force in the music industry.
In the early 1980s, MTV arrived and provided audiences with a new way to interact with music, airing accompanying videos that shot stars even further into fame. The likes of Madonna, Whitney Houston and George Michael created iconic music videos that served as additional promotional material for their work, some of them becoming almost as famous as the songs themselves.
But the heyday of MTV had to start somewhere and, quite aptly, it began with ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ by the Buggles, which had been released a couple of years earlier. When the television channel first launched in the summer of 1981, they chose the perfect song to kick off their reign over music, ushering in the age of video. Most people know that the Buggles were the first band to air a video on MTV, but which songs followed that first iconic playthrough?
The end of the Buggles tune was swiftly followed by the music video for ‘You Better Run’ by Pat Benatar. The 1966 track was over a decade old at the time, so it was an interesting choice to follow up with. The video saw Benatar performing the track with her band, donning a black and white striped shirt and looking into the camera daringly. It wasn’t necessarily an innovative video, but it’s a rocker nonetheless.
A more recent track from Rod Stewart, ‘She Won’t Dance With Me’, followed Benatar’s video before the channel devoted some time to a group of rockers from across the Atlantic, The Who. ‘You Better You Bet’ was the fourth music video played by MTV, a track that had been released just a few months prior to the launch of MTV.
From there, the channel continued to play music videos by some of the biggest names of the era, from Cliff Richard’s ‘We Don’t Talk Anymore’ to The Pretenders’ ‘Brass in Pocket’. Ph.D, Todd Rundgren, REO Speedwagon and Styx also managed to find their way into the first ten music videos played by MTV, each becoming a part of music video history.
After that initial launch, MTV shot to success, enticing audiences with a new, visual way to interact with their favourite musicians. It became a dependable source of marketing for artists, as well as adding to their visual artistry and a dependable source of entertainment for audiences. Surely it could never go out of style?
Of course, with the introduction of social media and short-form video content, music videos have since lost the interest of audiences and artists. Attention spans have shortened – why watch one three-minute video when you could skip through ten TikToks simultaneously? But even though interest in the medium has fallen off, music videos still remain a worthwhile endeavour, a way to enhance your artistry and capture a visual moment as well as sonic.
In the wake of MTVs recent closures, there has been a sense of nostalgia regarding the glory days of the station, and the tens songs below represent a seismic moment not just in music TV history, but for society at large. Whether the tracks have been forgotten or they continue to transcend, this first golden clutch represents a monumental moment in our increasingly strange history. Which do you remember?
The first 10 music videos played on MTV:
- The Buggles – ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’
- Pat Benatar – ‘You Better Run’
- Rod Stewart – ‘She Won’t Dance With Me’
- The Who – ‘You Better You Bet’
- Ph.D – ‘Little Susie’s On Top’
- Cliff Richard – ‘We Don’t Talk Anymore’
- The Pretenders – ‘Brass in Pocket’
- Todd Rundgren – ‘Time Heals’
- REO Speedwagon – ‘Take It on the Run’
- Styx – ‘Rockin’ the Paradise’
