Early MTV Promo Spots

[Redcourse]

Music was good, commercials sucked...

Ironic isn't it ?

[pakitovillanueva]

internet kill the music commercial

[pyrogyra72]

I want the idiots, who turned MTV into the crap that it is now, to resign! I want all those shows like Teen Mom and Jersey Shore off the air! I want the music videos and animation to return! (New Beavis and Butt-head, Good Vibe, you both can stay.)

[RetroJenny]

I want my mtv BACK!

[hypnosrises]

I gave up mtv decades ago. It was good once, in the 80's. But now its just a continual soundbyte, a cheap commercial 24 hours a day. I'll stick to new music by word of mouth from now on.

[JourneyRocks81]

mtv sucks balls today. so does today's music also.

[Sheldon66]

Love the promo at 2:00 min mark....watch the ticker at the top of the screen..."not available in Saskatchewan".....as a Canadian we always thought that was totally cool!! That big old MTV from the USA would recognize Saskatchewan. Anyway, this was real MTV!!!!

[mollykate777]

MTV sold out!!! It used to be about the music.... now its really lame... idk who watches it... All the reality TV is worthless... i mean really... i would much rather watch music.. idk how they stay in buisness either

[boyrick84]

THE 1982 TO 1989 WAS THE BEST TIMES FOR M . T. V. REAL MUSIC REAL ARTIST WORTH WATCHING!!!!!!

[CHHSE1986]

@boyrick84 I disagree.... MTV started sucking big time by 1988 with Paula Abdul and all that dance bullshit..... just my opinion

[boyrick84]

@boyrick84 m t.v. is not music chanel anymore.!!! its stupid stuff.

[duececaboose]

as a general rule i don't like to be nostalgic, but seeing this really makes me miss the "original" mtv.

and it also makes me feel really old.

[simwrangler]

Today it's "You can keep your MTV, it's shitty now"

MTV is just a bunch of stupid reality shows.

Why the hell do they still call it MTV?

[HeyImSiim]

Me: I WANT MY MTV!

Mtv: Here's Justin Bieber!:

[wingnutter69]

These were the days! I am now 40 and remember the times when parents didn't have to worry about where their kids were because they were sitting in the living room watching MTV! That is what I did before and after school back then.

[TheDenzeel]

YOU KNOW WHAY THE M TV, IS SHIT 2DAY BECOS THEY DIDDEN LISTEN 2 US ....THATS WHAY

[WarpxD]

Now i doesn't want anymore

[emdeeee28]

aww:(

why did I get the crappy MTV era.

[shreikback]

Nice montage. Ah the good old days.

[snowmfi9229]

You know at one time Mtv was the bomb, of Music Teleivisison, what I would like to see is some of he older (circa 1987) "People really do win on Mtv commercials, especially since I'm in one of them with Ronnie James Dio. It was filmed in ElPaso, TX at the time during his Sacred Heart Tour. Anyone know where I could find some of these old promo videos?

[glueforall]

This is so cool...good memories...this little bit shows how the ads went from just using the same artists (Cougar, Townshend, Benatar, Hall & Oates, Idol, etc) saying "I WANT MY MTV!" to the more creative artsy ads....such as the 'production line' MTV and the MTV Club sandwich ones, etc....cool

[nikkicsonka88]

Wonderful years!!

[spindlebrooche]

Its all real worlds fault.

[chrisjoneschrisjones]

@spindlebrooche yes real world started the rot

[bigmaxy07]

What great days these were. There's no fucking "M" in it any more.

[SamWaterstonFanatic]

*SIGH* This is the MTV that I miss.... :(

[jkcrystal2]

David bowie ROCK!! YA!

i wish they came back to the 80 and the 90 stuff :( i missit :(

[HGbunny]

This, more so than probably any other vid I've ever seen on the Tube, makes me feel my mortality.

Sniffle.

[ZidaneDaMan10]

man, i always wanted to spend my teen years in the 80s. it looked like so much fun....

[HGbunny]

It was. Really.

[IWP2]

@ZidaneDaMan10

You're definently not the only one. I'd sure as hell take new wave, synthpop, and glam rock over all this shitty screamo and rap music ANYTIME, and I'm only 20.

[StormsongK]

@IWP2 I'm 39 and I grew up with this stuff. I always knew I was in the middle of something fantastic. I never realized it wouldn't last. Thank you for appreciating true art and real music.

[obamaisapieceofshit]

MTV is pretty much shit these days, but then again so is music in general.

[AppleOfGlasgow]

MTV Two is as close as it gets to good old MTV that had original programming and not retard draw like The fucking Hills.

[X7393]

MTV?..Its all reality crap where is the 24 hour Music Network?..It died in 2000... =(

[drfulmore07]

Well. I hate to be the party pooper but MTV really died in 1986 when the original VJs left and Viacom aka the Shitheads took over the channel and gave us all the shitty game shows,reality shows and musical masturbation.

[Gerkinstock]

Yeah, but you probably would have said the same thing 30 years ago if you were the age you are now. Youth culture always looks like crap to 40 year olds.

[stereomann83]

they should make a new channel on cable called classic mtv and it can be just like the old one.

they had a good channel called vh1 classic but now it's all dumb shows and movies they don't even play music on there anymore

[veelalynne]

I was about the same age as the girl in the buggles video when my parents let me stay up late to watch the premier of MTV...back when people had those little boxes on their TV. It's weird to think that the Buggles girl would be in her thirties now!!

[r34tide]

mtv today is not wroth watching

[strikecommando01]

whats the song at 0:21

[crowamonghens]

"Rock the Casbah" by The Clash.

[MitziDeMarco]

MTV is just shit right now but I was around back when it debuted August 1st, 1981 at 12:01am. It was on channel 8 for us Comcast customers. This was back when everything was cheap, even the cable bill. My family and I grew up on MTV and I was quite disappointed when Viacom bought them out in '86 and ruied MTV with those dumbass tv shows like Remote Control and Club MTV. The worst was Yo! MTV Craps. I hated that fucking show. To me, MTV died when Viacom killed them in 1986!

[CerebralContusion]

In my opinion, THAT'S WHY TODAY'S YOUNGER GENERATION ARE SO DIMWITTED ABOUT MUSIC'S PAST.

[MitziDeMarco]

I know that's right. :-)

[Yakantheterek]

I totally agree. I was 16 and a jr in high school when MTV first appeared and I remember so many high school parties when we used to have MTV on all night long. I hardly ever watch it anymore but when I do, it makes me so sad to see what it has become now. But watching those old videos now on YouTube makes me miss those days and all the fun I had and MTV was a big part of all that. Those were the best of times!

[Paulosoy]

Imagine having this video as a dream all night long....worst nightmare ever! Cyndi Lauper appearing every 30 seconds blowing that whistle, and Pat Benatar on the phone..jajaja!!

[innamorata40]

Imagine your sleeping, but your not and your really dead! jajaja!!

[IWP2]

@Paulosoy

Imagine Cyndi Lauper appearing every 30 seconds blowing my you know what. Best dream ever! jajaja!!

[glueforall]

@IWP2 ...in my dreams she's Betty Boop though...sounds like her!

[melumzsum1]

aww!!!:((

MTV BACK THEN WAS THE BEST!!!!

too bad i wasnt born!!!!

i dont like MTV today!!!it sux!!!way different than 80's

i wish i was born earlier so i can watch that kind of MTV and so that i could see boy george in person!!!;;)

[ringbolt9]

excellent! remember in school it was all about " hey did you see the video for ....?" and then you'd sit by the tv for hours hoping to see it. and when thriller came out ? the would tease it like " we will be showing thriller sometime this hour" ah the days.

[katydid26]

I was so addicted to MTV back then! It was one great video after another.... with songs you rarely heard on the radio. Why, oh why, did they change their format? Today, it's HORRIBLE, and has been for a number of years.

[herbsrme23]

love this, it reminds me of being in my early teens, babysitting and watching my mtv --

[pazzensutra]

I don't know anybody who says ANYTHING good about MTV today. I wonder how they stay in business.

[Khultan]

@pazzensutra Really LOL

[pyrogyra72]

@pazzensutra Commercial sponsors, that's how. Back in the late 70s and early 80s, commercial radio stations quit playing cool rock artists, and focused more on adult contemporary artists, (Like Christopher Cross, Kenny Loggins, Debby Boone, Carlie Simon, etc.) Why? because some "expert" told them that if they dropped the cool music and play more adult contemporary, they will get more advertisers. Then MTV came along and blew them away. Now look what's happened to MTV.

[MTVOldies]

MTV was fun in the 80s but now it's not.

[LouiePlaysDrums]

This was back when MTV was really MTV. Now, it's just crap-TV.

[scrootum]

MTV is a big pile of crap now. It just needs to go off the air. Nothing worse than watching a bunch of horny 20 somethings on a bunch of shit shows. This is when MTV was about music.

[msully74]

proper mtv links to music shows. Ray coakes & Pat sharpe run ronnie run anyone?????

[phillygrl69]

This is when MTV was MTV.....the best was then....now? Well.....it sux...but I for one am so happy to have been part of the MTV generation!

[valorik]

I remember being 8 and 9 years old spending Saturday afternoons watching MTV.

Oh happy days!

[daryl060761]

I absolutely love this stuff. Thanks for posting. Back then, it was a big deal to have cable TV, and in Canada you couldn't get MTV at first! Unless you had satellite. But certain bars would get the funky big screen TVs they had back then (if you got close enough you could actually see the pixelated green, red and blue dots!), and the satellite connection to bring you MTV. And they just left it on! Grab a picture of draft and some wings...as Billy Idol would say "owroyt!!"

[johneddy5]

Those were great MTV years. It's changed so much. You're right, it was music television back then. Thanks for sharing!