From the moment The Buggles began to sing and the astronaut appeared on MTV, the music industry was changed forever.

The cable television network went on the air in August of 1981, and video jockeys or VJs played music videos 24 hours a days, 7 days a week.

Was the music better? Not according to any official ratings chart. It just had a much wider appeal, since we could see the artists dancing around singing their songs. Some did it in a realistic setting on a concert stage, some did it in a make-believe world in costumes, and others had their own ideas.

It didn't matter if it was Rod Stewart, Devo, Flock of Seagulls, Pat Benatar, Men Without Hats, whoever. We fell in love with music videos, and we wanted to see them as often as we could.

The pool of artists making videos was not very big in the early years, but as soon as the others saw how popular videos became and how much revenue they generated, videos became an accepted and necessary part of the workload just like concerts and albums.

Because of this, the musicians had to sharpen their acting skills. Many had to develop those skills from scratch to be able to get in front of the camera and shoot take after take of a scene to put in a music video.

If they wanted to go with the customary concert footage video, they needed to hire a video producer who could make the video interesting and exciting for viewers.

Artists who were willing to go the extra mile and develop plots, costumes, etc., for their videos were able to enhance their careers in the 1980s.

As popular as his songs were, it is safe to say the late Michael Jackson would not have achieved the level of fame he did without memorable videos such as Thriller, and Billie Jean in the '80s and others later in his career.

Music videos became so popular that MTV officials eventually developed a Video Music Awards show to honor the top performers, producers, videographers, etc., for their work. The shows were often memorable because of things that happened during the broadcast or because of spectacular performances.

As music videos grew in popularity in the early 1980s, the conversations among people listening to the radio changed because of them. It was hard to listen to a Top 40 hit without someone asking, Have you seen this video? That would undoubtedly lead to a discussion about the video, and the thought process of music fans was never the same.

A popular slogan that developed for viewers in the early days was I want my MTV. The network's popularity was reflected in one of the biggest hits of the 1980s, Money for Nothing by Dire Straits, when the song began with lead singer Mark Knopfler singing those exact words.

It was just one of the numerous impacts made on music by the MTV network. The songs of the day did not change because of the new music channel, but there is evidence to show that everything else in the music industry did.

Learn more about this author, Ryan Gray.
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