Music and entertainment network MTV is slated to celebrate its thirtieth birthday this weekend, reports Rolling Stone.
The now-international network launched on August 1, 1981, at 12:01 a.m. with images of the Apollo 11 followed by The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star.”
Since its founding, MTV has undergone countless make-overs but will always be revered for its impact on the music industry. Legendary bands like Duran Duran got their start on MTV, and the new media platform gave a major boost to the record industry.
“We sort of propped it up when there was kind of an indulgence in the industry,” original MTV VJ Mark Goodman told Rolling Stone. “We were coming off ‘Saturday Night Fever’ in 1979 and the industry had this gigantic bubble and then things got awful quiet. We came along just in time and revitalized things, or at least opened people up to more music.”
As far as Goodman knows, MTV isn’t planning a celebration, but fellow music network VH1 Classics is set to commemorate the network with a three-day marathon of footage from the 1980’s which will include a re-broadcast of the MTV’s first hour in existence. The tribute will begin Saturday at 6 a.m.
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