The 1980s didn’t just change music — they changed how we experienced it. Before MTV launched in 1981, music videos were afterthoughts, low-budget promotional clips that occasionally appeared on ...

We can’t talk about ’80s MTV without mentioning Michael Jackson‘s “Thriller.” It’s perhaps an obvious choice, but it wouldn’t feel right to leave it out. “Thriller” epitomized the music video ...

MTV flipped a switch on August 1, 1981, and gave music a face. Labels started treating videos like serious investments, and artists began competing for airtime. As viewers kept the channel on, ...

MTV is known for debuting quite a few stellar music videos for high-charting songs in pop, rock, and hip-hop. Country songs didn’t make it to MTV often in the early days of music-videos-only ...

In 1981, asking someone if they wanted to watch a music video would likely get a confused reaction. The concept hadn’t ...

The unofficial website MTV Rewind has recreated the channel’s classic era, pulling in thousands of clips. Its developer says it’s an antidote to the algorithms. By David Browne Like many who’d grown ...

Few decades transformed popular music as dramatically as the 1980s. New recording technology, the rise of MTV and the commercial breakthrough of hip-hop reshaped how artists reached audiences around ...