Three Original MTV VJs Look Back at Some of the Biggest Music Videos From the 1980s

In honor of the 40th anniversary of MTV, the folks at AARP (previously) caught up with three of the channel’s original VJs Martha Quinn, Mark Goodman, and Alan Hunter, and asked them to look back at some of the most popular videos during their tenure. First up was “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles. The video from this song was the first ever played on MTV. The date was August 1, 1981.

Original MTV VJs Martha Quinn, Alan Hunter, and Mark Goodman take a trip down memory lane to relive the best ’80s music videos and share behind-the-set secrets only the coolest insiders would know. MTV started on Aug. 1, 1981, forever changing music history.

The other songs they looked at were “Take On Me” by the Norwegian band a-ha, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” by Cyndi Lauper (it was a cover!), “Jump” by Van Halen, “1999” by Prince, “Hungry Like the Wolf” by Duran Duran, “How Will I Know” by Whitney Houston, and Michael Jackson‘s iconic song “Thriller”, and others.

The channel launched a slew of iconic music videos, from the first bars of “Video Killed the Radio Star” to Cyndi Lauper’s “unusual” debut in “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and the MTV world premiere video of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” The original ’80s MTV VJs were there every step of the way.

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips