August 1, 1981 is a day to many that will forever live in infamy. It is the day music television history was rewritten as we know it today. On August 1, 1981 MTV (Music Television) channel was founded and aired its first music video which happened to be Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles. This was no coincidence of a song choice as it symbolized the change in society from radio entertainment to that of video. This started a revolution with the way people viewed music and music videos. It became something that everyone would sit around and watch.
The anticipation of watching a music video with your friends was something that became a tradition. Over the years, MTV changed the layout and the way it operates its programming. Currently, MTV as we know it has died off instead choosing to focus on reality TV since the 1990s bringing shows to air such as The Challenge, The Real World, and Teen Mom. In the 90s MTV also came up with Total Request Live – TRL which was a countdown of the top 10 videos that had special guests from top artists. Though the channel is completely different now than when launched in the 80s one thing remained the same: MTV changed the landscape of music and television forever.
