At 12:01 a.m. on August 1, 1981, the words “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll” were spoken over a montage of the first space shuttle launch. And with that, the cable network MTV was born. Originally accessible by a few thousand people on a northern New Jersey cable system, MTV is now in hundreds of millions of households across the globe.  Over the past 30 years, MTV has evolved from a small cable network that broadcasts broadcasts music videos into a true lifestyle brand that encompasses television, the Internet, the motion picture industry and even comic books.  Fittingly, the first video that aired on MTV in 1981 was Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles. The words were true. Almost overnight, the music video became one of the most important promotional and marketing vehicles for the music industry. Artists that best utilized the new format — Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince and Weird Al Yankovic — became not just stars, but icons. In short, video really did kill the radio star.  Thirty years later, is the music video still relevant? And what then, of MTV. We spoke to Shannon Connolly, VP of digital music strategy at MTV Networks, about the evolution of MTV and the impact that digital distribution and technologies — especially YouTube — have had on the music side of MTV.  “At a macro level, new technology has fundamentally changed how people experience music,” Connolly said. Before the rise of YouTube and near-instant access to everything, “people waited around to watch a video on television” or used the TV as a way to “discover new music and artists.” That was true as recently as five or seven years ago, but it isn’t true anymore.  “We’re stoked about this in a way because it’s forced us to evolve and figure out what is the new role MTV wants to play in the music landscape,” Connolly said.  “For us, this is a great opportunity to change our role and say, ‘You know, we’ve evolved beyond being a music video jukebox.’ We’re still one of them and we think music videos are a great and important art form, but that’s not our core competency. Now, it’s about curation.”  She added that the role of curation is even more important today than it was five or 10 years ago because “there is infinite music and infinite access.”  MTV says it knows that music has never mattered more to its audience, and it finds ways to interweave music curation and music discovery across its platforms and brands. It’s easy to make a joke that MTV no longer plays music videos, but that isn’t really true.  MTV Networks has a number of dedicated digital cable channels that exclusively play music videos, MTV Hits and MTV Jams, for example, and it still has blocks of programming dedicated to music television. Beyond that, however, Connolly says the music directors at the network use the original programming that MTV broadcasts as a way to introduce new and emerging artists to a broader audience.  When I asked Connolly to envision where MTV is headed in the next five years, she emphasized that MTV is all about creating multi-platform music experiences.  “Everything is multi-platform. Every app, every partnership, we think ‘How is this going to extend from the tablet to the mobile to the connected TV.’ ” MTV’s approach to music experiences is no longer just about the TV as the main screen but instead the Internet as the main screen.  We decided to put together a gallery of some of the first videos that aired on MTV on August 1, 1981. Check out these videos — Rod Stewart was in heavy rotation — and contrast them with some of the videos we premiere here in our Music Monday series to see just how much music and video as art forms have evolved over the last three decades.  In the comments, let us know your favorite music video from the past 30 years.
A look back at the first 30 years of MTV. What does the future hold for the network and for music video consumption in general?