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"I want my MTv!" I still remember when that phrase meant something.

Back in 1981 the concept of music videos was still new. Music was still the primary focus of any band's endeavors and the closest thing we had to a reality show that showcased talent was "The Gong Show". These were days when you could hear song after song from a band and never know what they looked like.

Then, August 1st, 1981 everything changed when a song called "Video Killed the Radio Star" would set the stage for a network that would forever change the worlds of music, entertainment, and even politics. The network was called Music Television, but would forevermore be referred to as MTv.

In the beginning it was simple: They would how videos and nothing more. The videos would play forever interrupted only by the occasional commercial and intros by the network's "Video Jockies" (or VJ's). It was a nice simple time.

Over the course of the next five years artists would start making music that had marginal talent, but looked quite nice on Tv. One of these artists was a young lady from Brooklyn that went by simply, Madonna. She didn't have that great of a singing voice at the time, but because she was beautiful she would get tons of airplay.

Another mainstay would be Michael Jackson. At the time everyone knew who he was from his work with his brothers (The Jackson 5) and his previous solo album, "Off the Wall". In 1983 he would get together with Hollywood director, John Landis to create an amazing music video for the title track from his latest album, "Thriller". The video was over twenty minutes long featuring full choreography, makeup effects from master artist, Rick Baker, and the rap" from the king of horror, Vincent Price. The video was hailed as revolutionary and beautifully grotesque as first you got to see Michael Jackson transform into a werewolf, and later into a zombie (of course, we're still not sure what he's transforming into these days). It set the tone for future music videos: they were no longer just musical interpretations for songs, but were full productions.

To help glorify these productions, MTv began having an award show for strictly music videos. It started out innocent enough as pop culture stars helped to make musicians feel better about themselves.

But, still the music played.

In the late 80s MTv branched away from their usual music schedule to start showing game shows like "Remote Control" (which would start the careers of Collin Quinn, Kari Werrer, and Adam Sandler), and re-runs

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