35 years ago, MTV debuted and video killed the radio star

Aug. 1, 1981, might not immediately come to mind as an important date in history, but to a generation of music fans, it was monumental. On that day, 35 years ago, a cable TV channel that played music videos around the clock made its debut.

It's funny to think about now, but there was a time — for about the first decade of the channel's existence, really — when the M in MTV actually mattered. Sure, plenty scoffed at the concept of a radio station on TV — built on a new art form, the music video. But to young GenXers, it quickly became after-school appointment viewing.

Part of MTV's impact — for better or worse — was that it transformed music into a multi-sensory medium. It wasn't enough to sound good; suddenly bands had to be hypersensitive to their visual image — whether that meant shooting videos in Sri Lanka, a la Duran Duran, or playing up their oddball looks, such as ZZ Top.

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But of greater importance to musicophiles was that MTV suddenly provided an important outlet for new music. Radio at the time was largely programmed by Baby Boomers, but MTV broke new and more cutting-edge bands. That's because few music videos even existed at launch. The form had already taken hold in Britain, so much of MTV's initial inventory consisted of new wave bands from across the Atlantic — the Buggles' Video Killed the Radio Star was the first video shown; others in early rotation included Squeeze, Roxy Music, ABC, Culture Club and plenty of other acts who otherwise wouldn't have found much of an audience on U.S. soil.

MTV later went on to develop non-music programming, and the Internet eventually became the outlet of choice for music videos. But thanks to the Internet, we can all relive the music of Aug. 1, 1981. Yes, someone has put together a Spotify playlist called "MTV: First 24 Hours." Bless you, Sarah Jayne Gipson, whoever you are.