As the popularity of the channel rose, and record companies recognized the potential of the medium as a tool to gain recognition and publicity, they began to create increasingly elaborate clips specifically for the channel. The early music videos that made up the bulk of MTV's programming in the 1980s were often crude promotional or concert clips from whatever sources could be found. In stereo.' Although the concept of playing music videos 24/7 has long been abandoned, MTV still promotes and plays a limited selection of music videos on its TV channel and web site. The original taglines of the channel were 'You'll never look at music the same way again,' and 'On cable. The original purpose of MTV was to be 'Music Television,' playing music videos 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, guided by on-air personalities known as VJs, or video jockeys.

Sporadically, the screen would go black when an employee at MTV inserted a tape into a VCR. The second video shown was Pat Benatar's 'You Better Run'. Those words were immediately followed by the original MTV theme songĪppropriately, the first music video shown on MTV was the ironic 'Video Killed the Radio Star' by The Buggles. On August 1, 1981, at 12:01 a.m., MTV: Music Television launched with the words 'Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll,' spoken by John Lack. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs. MTV (Music Television) is a cable television network based in New York City and launched on August 1, 1981.

Fabolous breathe video clip