MTV still exists. At least, it still exists in the United States, or in certain of that country’s markets, for the time being. A flurry of premature obituaries recently blew through the internet after the announcement that the network had shut down in other parts of the world, Europe included. But even there, some expressed the sentiment that MTV had already died long before. And indeed, in the U.S., where it originally launched, asking who remembers when MTV actually used to play music videos has been a common lament for decades, aired even by generations too young to remember those days themselves. But members of any generation can now relive them — or live them for the first time — through a new site called MTV Rewind.
The first music video that greets the visitor is The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star,” and appropriately so, since it inaugurated MTV itself when it went live on August 1st, 1981. What follows are all the rest of the videos played on that first day, like Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight,” Blondie’s “Rapture,” David Bowie’s “Boys Keep Swinging,” and Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights.”
(Other, less widely remembered entries include no fewer than three songs by Cliff Richard, which speaks to the then-incomplete formation of the kind of pop-musical culture we still associate with MTV.) The site’s other playlists recreate other eras and genre-specific programs, from 120 Minutes to Total Request Live, Headbanger’s Ball to Yo! MTV Raps.
Currently, MTV Rewind’s music video count comes to about 40,000, enough to ensure any former addict of the network a stream of nostalgia hits. But the site’s creator (a 43-year-old American resident in Albania, according to the New York Times, known pseudonymously as “Flex”) has also incorporated vintage station IDs and commercials, many of them liable to trigger downright Proustian sensations in the right viewer. What may feel refreshing even to curious younger visitors is that, whichever channel they choose, the next video that plays is determined not by an algorithm attempting to predict their personal tastes. Rather, each playlist is shaped by the popular culture of a particular era, with enough left-field selections to keep it interesting: just the sort of thing in hopes of which we used to flip over to MTV, back when the idea of streaming video on our computers still sounded like sheerest fantasy. Enter MTV Rewind here.
Related Content:
Watch the First 2+ Hours of MTV’s Inaugural Broadcast (August 1, 1981)
All the Music Played on MTV’s 120 Minutes: A 2,500-Video Youtube Playlist
The Internet Archive Rescues MTV News’ Web Site, Making 460,000+ of Its Pages Searchable Again
The 50 Greatest Music Videos of All Time, Ranked by AV Club
Revisit Pop-Up Video: The VH1 Series That Reinvented Music Videos & Pop Culture
Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. He’s the author of the newsletter Books on Cities as well as the books 한국 요약 금지 (No Summarizing Korea) and Korean Newtro. Follow him on the social network formerly known as Twitter at @colinmarshall.
