🎶 Here are 20 music videos that were among the hottest and most heavily played during the year 1981 on MTV!
As many people know, August 1st 1981 was the day that MTV launched in North America for the very first time. Music videos were still in their early days, and as such the channel had very few videos to play and choose from. While many of the videos here were released in 1981, some of them actually date back before then, due to MTV having to fill up 24 hours a day with videos and having only a few hundred or so to pick from. This video counts down some of those videos that were frequently played and became huge hits, due in part to the combination of radio airplay, BILLBOARD chart success and being seen every day on MTV!
You’ll find great artists from HALL AND OATES to TOM PETTY, PAT BENATAR to DEVO, DAVID BOWIE to REO SPEEDWAGON and many more artists that were staples of early Eighties rock & pop radio!
While this video features so many hits from that time period, needless to say there are still many other great ones that didn’t make the list here. Do you remember these songs? Which one is your favorite? Which videos from 1981 do you think should’ve been included in their top 20? Comment below!
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View MTV’s top 80’s Hottest Music videos, latest-breaking just 80’s music videos, hottest 80’s video songs of all time… served up fresh to you by SloppBoxx.
PLEASE READ BEFORE COMMENTING: To answer some of the questions I usually get on these videos……
1. We aren’t listing our personal favorites here, this is based on MTV’s broadcasts as well as Billboard and other publication’s lists and articles detailing what videos received the most airplay and success during 1981.
2. As noted in the voice-over intro, some of these songs came out before 1981. This video isn’t indicating that these songs are 1981 releases, but highlighting what was being played on MTV during 1981. Because it was a new channel and videos weren’t plentiful yet, they played a lot of songs that were from previous years.
3. This is not an AI generated channel, we’re a couple of Gen-X’ers who grew up with this music, listening to Casey Kasem on America’s Top 40 back in the day and just want to reminisce about the music that we loved (and still do!) We try to make these videos as accurate as possible and for all of us to enjoy and remember the good times!
Did you watch MTV when it premiered in 1981? Do you remember these videos from back in the day? Which is your favorites? Let us know!
Gen-X 72 here giving a shout out to fellow Gen-Xers. I was 9 years old when MTV debuted. Video Killed The Radio Star is one of them. Naturally, being the video that launched it all. I like them all. We were the generation who saw the birth of MTV and HBO back in the day. Those were the days.
I was 12. Last song was the first video on Mtv. Mtv was always right after getting home from school.
I remember watching it , but it was hit or miss for me.
Sometimes I would watch a show called MV 60 that aired music videos for an hour every day.
@BuddyJaysteni remember seeing a story explaining how mtv wasn’t available nationwide in its early years
Yay Gen X ❤
Only 2 videos in there is worth watching is Pat Benatar “You better run” and the Pretenders. The rest suck.
Reo speedwagen
MTV didnt want to play black artists in those days😏😐
My sister and brother were both older than me and I remember them watching MTV every weekend.
The only one that sucked was Devo 🤦🏼♀️
Anything with Tom Petty gives me chills.
Ahh when MTV played music. Rock music I believe.
Pat Benatar. Enough said.
Class of ’82 had REO Speedwagon Keep On Loving You as our class song❤🎉😂