Yes thats it!

Probably something Wolfman Jack played on one of his shows. Maybe Three Dog Night. 

Can't remember the first on MTV, they weren't the first to air music videos in my area. TBS had a segment years before MTV came along with some of the first music videos ever produced. Most of them were lame with flower power animations over the music but the one that sticks out in my mind was the Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, it was like a short musical and was the topic of conversation for a while in high school. The ones who saw it were suddenly cool, there was no YouTube or anything similar to go back and see it if you missed it. The irony was that if you had no social life and were sitting at home on a Saturday night watching TV you saw something all the cool people missed, life is funny that way.

Either Dire Straights\'s money for nothing or Robert Palmer's simply irresistible, I don't really remember.  What a great time to be alive though.

Whip it, Devo

Not sure if this was the first one I watched, but it had to be pretty close.

Thriller

I'm still wanting the Sabotage movie 

Mid- or late-July 1983.  Friend's basement on a double date.  This one:



Followed by this one:



I was hooked.  My date did not appreciate the costumes of the women in the video, though. 

I must have watched this one a hundred times.

I can remember watching it at several friends houses within weeks of its debut, but I don't remember the first video I watched.  We didn't have cable so I only got to catch bits and pieces for awhile.  I can remember lots of Pat Benatar, Blondie, the Gogos, etc.  Awesome time to be young.

Probably not the first one I saw, but it's the first one I remember.

I don't remember the first video..I do remember Max Headroom though.

woops, my bad.  I said "simply irresistible and it was addicted to love.  The pale ladies all looking exactly alike.

The Reflex .... by Duran Duran

This.  Then the second video run on 1 Aug 1981 was Pat Benatar's "You Better Run".

Ah yeah!

The astronaut ever few minutes
Video Killed the Radio Star
Tommy Petty
Herbert K. Rockit
Love is a battlefield (seem to remember that)
DEVO Whip It

man those were the days

Joan Jett I love rock n roll

Angel in the centerfold

What was the one about the pretty girl at the fair?

This

I have no idea what the 1st I saw was, but loved watching it early on

I stopped when it changed

Wife is a few yrs younger, & her family didn't have cable. She never was able to watch it until yrs later.

I don't have the heart to tell her what she missed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Tj-Xo_eqI

The Nielsens killed MTV. The ratings only counted if you watched for a half hour. If you turned on the TV 15 till 10 to watch something on TV at 10pm you would watch for 15 minutes then go to Hill Street Blues. The network had the audience that advertisers wanted but the Nielsens didn't count till 1/2 hour.


Sigh........

Probably this one...  but there were so many I can't remember.

I got cable about 3 months after MTV came out. I really miss it. I was in my early 20s and MTV was on 24/7 unless HBO had a good movie on. Otherwise MTV was playing when I came home everyday.

Gawd I miss my MTV!

Never really watched MTV. But, the first music video I ever saw was "Who Can It Be Now?" by Men At Work. It was screened before some James Bond movie with a floating Lotus Esprit in it.

When it first started, MTV wasn't on 24 hours a day on the cable system where I lived.  It stopped at midnight and resumed sometime the following morning.

A few years ago VH1 aired the first few hours of MTV complete with the original commercials.  I happen to catch it and get them recording.  My daughter came in from work and she's always been interested in that era, so we watched these until two or three in the morning.  Though I didn't catch these live, it was fun sharing a few hours of TV I was familiar back then with my daughter.

I've always liked this video because unlike almost all videos you see on YouTube nowadays this recording is actually from the MTV broadcast, with the video info down in the corner.

For some reason I remember a show called Night Flight before MTV.... Had videos and cult movies.

For some reason I remember a show called Night Flight before MTV.... Had videos and cult movies.

Art of Noise.

Back in 1981, before MTV came online, there was what was called the "Blue Jean Network", a show that broadcast recordings of concerts on TV while they synced the sound with a local FM station.

They broadcast an April Wine concert and my brother and I recorded it on cassette off the radio while we watched it.  The sound was awful, and they had the TV commercial breaks in the radio broadcast, but I loved that tape.

Little did I know what was just around the corner.  The Reagan Era was truly a Wonderful Time in America. 

David bowie let's dance.

Martha Quinn and Nina Blackwood. nobody had anything like VJs.
I don't think the '80s could have happened without MTV!

This.  It was shown after video Killed the Radio Star.

The Pretenders - Brass in Pocket
The Rolling Stones - Waiting on a Friend

Red Rider - Lunatic Fringe.

Club Nueveou Lean on Me cover

Russ Ballard Voices

Fall of 1982.  I don't remember the "first" video I saw, but from that time, TP "You Got Lucky" was the most memorable.

I remember watching videos on HBO Video Jukebox before MTV.

Best of my recollection either Rolling Stones "Start Me Up" or Devo "Are We Not Men, We are Devo".

I just posted this in another thread, and I think it applies here as well:

"In my opinion, MTV was the Soundtrack of the Reagan Era.  It was cool, fun, and mostly optimistic, and it synced perfectly with the national
mood at the time."

Couldn't tell you but they all sucked until Midnight on Saturday night which I didn't find out about for a few months after I had cable.

We didn't have cable until after I moved out at 20 years old in 1997.  But I remember seeing this somewhere.  

since I saw Mtv when it first aired and can't use Video Killed the Radio Star, then I submit
You Better Run by Pat Benatar

It was Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles.


The first fifty music videos ever played on MTV
Back when they actually played music videos.
------------------------------ - ----------------
1."Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles
2."You Better Run" by Pat Benatar
3."She Won't Dance with Me" by Rod Stewart
4."You Better You Bet" by The Who
5."Little Suzi's on the Up" by Ph.D.
6."We Don't Talk Anymore" by Cliff Richard
7."Brass in Pocket" by The Pretenders
8."Time Heals" by Todd Rundgren
9."Take It on the Run" by REO Speedwagon (the video begins but ends after a few seconds due to technical difficulties.)
10."Rockin' the Paradise" by Styx
11."When Things Go Wrong" by Robin Lane and the Chartbusters
12."History Never Repeats" by Split Enz
13."Hold on Loosely" by 38 Special
14."Just Between You and Me" by April Wine "Just Between You and Me" was the first music video by a Canadian musical artist ever played on MTV.
15."Sailing" by Rod Stewart
16."Iron Maiden" by Iron Maiden
17."Keep on Loving You (Live)" by REO Speedwagon "Keep On Loving You" was the first Billboard Hot 100 number-one hit song to be played on MTV.
18."Bluer Than Blue" by Michael Johnson
19."Message of Love" by The Pretenders
20."Mr. Briefcase" by Lee Ritenour
21."Double Life" by The Cars
22."In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins
23."Looking for Clues" by Robert Palmer
24."Too Late" by Shoes
25."Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" by Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
26."Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" by Rod Stewart (screen is blank while the audio still plays, stops after 15 seconds.)
27."Surface Tension" by Rupert Hine
28."One Step Ahead" by Split Enz
29."Baker Street" by Gerry Rafferty
30."I'm Gonna Follow You" by Pat Benatar
31."Savannah Nights" by Tom Johnston
32."Lucille" by Rockestra
33."The Best of Times" by Styx
34."Vengeance" by Carly Simon
35."Wrathchild" by Iron Maiden
36."I Wanna Be a Lifeguard" by Blotto
37."Passion" by Rod Stewart
38."Oliver's Army" by Elvis Costello
39."Don't Let Him Go (Live)" by REO Speedwagon
40."Remote Control/Illegal" by The Silencers
41."Angel of the Morning" by Juice Newton
42."Little Sister" by Rockpile with Robert Plant
43."Hold On to the Night" by Bootcamp
44."Dreamin'" by Cliff Richard
45."Is It You" by Lee Ritenour
46."Tusk" by Fleetwood Mac
47."He Can't Love You" by Michael Stanley Band
48."Tough Guys" by REO Speedwagon
49."Rapture" by Blondie "Rapture" was the first rap music video ever played on MTV.
50."Don't Let Go the Coat" by The Who

Video Killed the Radio Star