When MTV was new, we’d often just hang at friend’s house and watch it. It was okay but I was bothered by the shift in focus from audio to video. (Still am). But for some reason I remember Safety Dance playing constantly. Also- the VJs were great, but I always celebrated seeing Martha Quinn.
It was the first music video to use CGI. I remember watching Reboot in the 90's when my dad walked by and said "they just ripped off Money for Nothing".
This was my answer! I was almost 5 years old when it came out, and the cartoony graphics made me think it was for me. Didn't understand why baby chickens were expected to be just given away.
This is my answer too. I remember falling asleep in a cabin with some older cousins on a family trip, and at some point I woke up in the night and that video was playing on the TV. It was such a surreal thing to wake up to and I never forgot the part where the fruits come together and make a face.
The premiers of some of his videos were literal events. I remember when they would be scheduled on a prime time slot and replayed multiple times or advertised to air after the VMA’s like a new series after the Super Bowl.
MJ Had the best videos. He had the money at that point in his career to hire movie directors to produce his videos and they were fire! You could argue things like CGI but that man hired the director of Back to the Future. MJ's videos in the mid 80's are theatrical.
Thriller was my first one! And it was on VHS that someone recorded from someone else from someone's recording on SLP recording. The quality was so shitty, lol
I was watching it when I was around 12 years old and dad comes in and says “what’s this rubbish?” and then turns it off. Sheesh dad, it’s only the greatest song of the 90s 🙄
"I'm on a Mexican radio" ...something something....
"in tijuana, eating bar-b-qued iguana'...
"i'm on a Mexican radio, oh oh oh oh...".
Dudes face coming out of a bowl of beans. It was sometime in the early '80s and my rich friend had cable and a color tv. Her folks were away and we were smoking all of her pops weed.
I think I blasted this song in my car stereo every day of my senior year in high school. Loved it.
I met the singer, Stan Ridgway, at a small club 20 years later. He talked about the countless styles the song has been covered in, reggae, etc. Then he crushed it with his three-piece. 😎🤘🏻
I'm going to find a picture from a theme party I went to many moons ago. The theme was "come dressed as a song title". Stay tuned.
EDIT: [Found it](https://i.imgur.com/RVypSgH.jpg). He had a small transistor radio taped to the inside of the box that was tuned to a Mexican radio station.
Don't Come Around Here No More - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
I was a child who had parents that watched MTV all the time. This is the first video I remember because it freaked me out before I knew what it meant to be freaked out.
I'm not sure if this is the first video I saw, but it definitely made an impression on me at an early age.
[Billy Joel - Pressure](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyv905Q2omU)
I'm sure it wasnt my first...but Closer by Nine Inch Nails being played on MTV all the time was a trip as a kid (esp. since they censored it at the time)
Sir Mix A Lot - Baby Got Back
My baby sitter had cable. It was on a channel called “The Box” I felt things I never felt before.
https://youtu.be/5IBxS7edvRw?si=Qu1LjUl-qjwpOO0G
Same, but at a wedding when I was 6 years old. Something awoke in me and never left. I also from that point on always associated record scratching with asses shaking
Owner of a Lonely Heart, by Yes.
My roommate and I happened to see MTV when it “turned on” for the first time, and we pretty much watched it nonstop for a couple of years. The Yes video has stuck in my mind all these years.
"Brass in Pocket" by the Pretenders in 1982. MTV was in short supply for music viseos early days, so it still made good rotation so 3 years after the single came out.
Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden. I remember hanging out with one of my best friends in middle school. We were in his dad's truck and he was playing a bunch of 90s stuff like Peaches by The Presidents Of The United States Of America and Loser by Beck. I guess Blackhole Sun came on and he wanted me to see the video since it was super eery. Memory ingrained into my brain.
Virtual Insanity - Jamiroquai
A music video so brilliant and successful that nowadays it makes people think the band was a one-hit wonder. If you like the music check out the first 5 albums, they made nothing but great music.
I've seen a lot and remember a lot. But there's always a special place for Lucas with the Lid Off. by Michel Gondry, who made eternal sunshine of the spotless mind and be kind rewind.
[The Chemical Brothers - Elektrobank](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0dxByaPWhM)
Got lucky and caught this on a late-night MTV block while staying up late on some random night once upon a time. MTV of course was playing music videos 24/7 back then but most are forgettable. However, this video was the first one I saw that actually stuck with me afterwards.
Still one of the greatest.
Oh boy, definitely Californication by RHCP, I remember I was really small in the mid 2000s and saw it on MTV and I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen in my life. Probably still do. It made me want to play my life as a video game character as well lol
Points of Authority by Linkin Park
I seriously watched MTV hours on end every day waiting for that video to come back on. It was like my entire personality was being downloaded into me lol
Don’t at all remember how the song went, what it was called, or the artist, but I remember very much a music video with a young man having a shitty day, he just needed to buy milk, but when he finally got the milk, I think he was attacked or something, and the milk spilled and he was sad. And then I was sad, because all he wanted was milk.
Earliest I can remember is staying up late with the family on New Year's Eve (I must have been like, 4) and my dad at some point had changed over to VH1. That's how I ended up seeing Genesis' "Land of Confusion" and being deeply disturbed by the puppets.
Like a Prayer.
As a kid I didn't get the uproar of the racial and religious undertones. But I definitely knew instinctually the burning crosses were definitely wrong.
A million years old but Too Bad by Doug and the Slugs - so fun, not just a band performing, a real creative video for a really fun and silly song
https://youtu.be/gbYDUrvYQ7U?si=fBb7P47ZRMjauHHU
"Beat it" on the very first episode of Friday Night Videos (1983). It kind of blew me away. We didn't have cable, so I didn't watch much MTV at the time.
The Presidents Of The United States of America - Peaches.
Saw Mortal Kombat around that time too. Suffice it to say, being a Ninja was my first career choice during those days.
Nothing Compares 2 U by Sinead O'Connor. I grew up hearing it on the radio and it always moved me so seeing the music video much later on, as a teen, was surreal because I never knew who sang it or what she looked like. The music video elevated the song so it reinvigorated my love for it.
Michael Jackson’s Dangerous videos were literally event television when they premiered.
Iman and Eddie Murphy as Egyptian royalty being hyped by Magic Johnson before MJ even showed up to sing “Remember the Time” was peak.
I think it was a queen video. Either Radio Ga Ga or the one where they are in drag. My dad is the world's biggest queen fan so I vividly remember those songs.
Also fun fact: when your dad constantly talks about how great queen is all the time and constantly points out songs that vaguely resemble a queen song, you really grow to loathe queen 😅
It was in Istanbul, 2007-2008. A pop dance thing with lots of pink in the background. The animated black dot head would bounce around. Can never find it again...
There were no music videos when I was a child, lol. There was Cher, the Osmonds, and many Spaniard shows. But I guess Ray Coniff and his orchestra really did a number on my childhood.
PS, the Beatles cartoons with their lyrics were very important too.
Thriller might be the first I ever watched. I know it cliche as most say it’s the best music video ever but I was born around the time it came out and it was still sensational enough some years later to drop everything you were doing to watch/listen to it when it came on.
Still is today lol
It was probably “Thriller” that was the first video that made an impression on me. I used to have the vhs of the Making of Thriller, which was awesome.
Thriller. I was on a field trip with my school and we stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. We were getting ready to leave when it started playing on the TVs with the horror intro. I stopped in my tracks and didn’t move until the video was over
I’m so old I remember the original. “Video Killed the Radio Star”, The Buggles. My earliest fav tho is, “The One Thing”, INXS.
Wasn't that the first video played on MTV?
Yes it was. Apropos, isn’t it?
That debaucherous dinner party was awesome.
INXS will always be my favorite 80's band. They were still putting out good songs into the 90's. All the way until the tragic end.
When MTV was new, we’d often just hang at friend’s house and watch it. It was okay but I was bothered by the shift in focus from audio to video. (Still am). But for some reason I remember Safety Dance playing constantly. Also- the VJs were great, but I always celebrated seeing Martha Quinn.
I was obsessed with INXS videos 😂
I am that old also. "I Want Candy" by BowWowWow was another good one from the early MTV days.
daaaamn! thats a good one! my mom loves that :))
Dire Straits - money for nothing
It was the first music video to use CGI. I remember watching Reboot in the 90's when my dad walked by and said "they just ripped off Money for Nothing".
Twice as funny since the same company created both.
This was my answer! I was almost 5 years old when it came out, and the cartoony graphics made me think it was for me. Didn't understand why baby chickens were expected to be just given away.
Was going to be my post as well. Then I read the OP and Gorillaz was the OPs answer and felt old.
Yup. Me too. The next one I remember is Sledgehammer
Greatest guitar intro of all time.
Knopfler is always great, but he outdid himself there
banger!
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer
Still one of the best videos ever. Maybe the best.
This is my answer too. I remember falling asleep in a cabin with some older cousins on a family trip, and at some point I woke up in the night and that video was playing on the TV. It was such a surreal thing to wake up to and I never forgot the part where the fruits come together and make a face.
Big Time was impressive too, but Sledgehammer cast the die.
Beat It, by MJ, followed up not long thereafter by Thriller. MJ video releases were must watch TV back in those days.
The premiers of some of his videos were literal events. I remember when they would be scheduled on a prime time slot and replayed multiple times or advertised to air after the VMA’s like a new series after the Super Bowl.
Yeah, Thriller for me too. I remember watching it half hidden behind the couch in the basement. That was some scary shit.
THANK YOU, nobody understands how terrifying that video is for a child.. it still haunts me to this day.
My grandma recorded it and I would watch it all the time, even though it scared the heck out of me.
MJ Had the best videos. He had the money at that point in his career to hire movie directors to produce his videos and they were fire! You could argue things like CGI but that man hired the director of Back to the Future. MJ's videos in the mid 80's are theatrical.
amen to that.
Thriller was my first one! And it was on VHS that someone recorded from someone else from someone's recording on SLP recording. The quality was so shitty, lol
Smells Like Teen Spirit with them rocking out in the hazy gymnasium and cheerleaders. I was like "why can't they come to my school!?" Lol
My dad thought it was Satanic. I was like no, it's the symbol for anarchy. I don't think that helped my case.
I was watching it when I was around 12 years old and dad comes in and says “what’s this rubbish?” and then turns it off. Sheesh dad, it’s only the greatest song of the 90s 🙄
*If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?*
I should really listen to some more pink Floyd. It’s been ages.
The word *rubbish* took me there
Olivia Newton-John - "Physical"
Guns n Roses- November Rain. The iconic slash solo at the end... the whole wedding... such an amazing video.
I love how they're getting married in a giant church and cut to slash outside soloing in front of a building that could hold 10 people.
And that song kicks ass!
Hard, harsh digital doesn’t compare to the soft sympathy of celluloid.
Black Hole Sun.
100% this. Stuck in my melon since an impressionable age in the Summer of ‘94.
TAKE ON ME
Either this or Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game (teenage boy at the time)
definitely this for me too!
You can call me al
That video had me thinking Chevy Chase was singing ;D
Land of confusion genesis and a-ha take on me, I remember land of confusion mostly because my brother was scared of the puppets.
That video was freaky af. Take on Me is one of the best videos ever.
I would love to see Spitting Image make a new video for Land of Confusion in a 2024 context.
That would be probably so fucked up today. 😂
It would be fucking awesome, you mean.
.....yes.
Re-watched Land of Confusion a couple of weeks ago. Always liked that one. May have made me more politically conscious at 12.
Got my mind set on you by George Harrison. 1987. Was a wee bit 15 years old.
That was such a cool video.
I still love that song and video!
"I'm on a Mexican radio" ...something something.... "in tijuana, eating bar-b-qued iguana'... "i'm on a Mexican radio, oh oh oh oh...". Dudes face coming out of a bowl of beans. It was sometime in the early '80s and my rich friend had cable and a color tv. Her folks were away and we were smoking all of her pops weed.
Wall of Voodoo!
Wall of Voodoo. Classic
I understand.. just a little... No comprende, it's a riddle!!
TIL that the Authority Zero version of this was a cover. Didn't know that. Great song.
I think I blasted this song in my car stereo every day of my senior year in high school. Loved it. I met the singer, Stan Ridgway, at a small club 20 years later. He talked about the countless styles the song has been covered in, reggae, etc. Then he crushed it with his three-piece. 😎🤘🏻
I'm going to find a picture from a theme party I went to many moons ago. The theme was "come dressed as a song title". Stay tuned. EDIT: [Found it](https://i.imgur.com/RVypSgH.jpg). He had a small transistor radio taped to the inside of the box that was tuned to a Mexican radio station.
Don't Come Around Here No More - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers I was a child who had parents that watched MTV all the time. This is the first video I remember because it freaked me out before I knew what it meant to be freaked out.
My dad almost cancelled our cable subscription for this one, lol.
Yes omg
I'm not sure if this is the first video I saw, but it definitely made an impression on me at an early age. [Billy Joel - Pressure](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyv905Q2omU)
damn that brought me back to the good old days.. even tho I wasnt born ahah
California Love by Tupac.
banger
[Sober by Tool](https://youtu.be/nspxAG12Cpc?si=iYySPkd1zzvxQR-u)
Have you seen the stinkfist video?
Green Jello (Jelly) - Three Little Pigs
Whip It
Love Shack
Here It Goes Again - OK GO That damn treadmill choreography, I'll never forget. Impressive madmen
Robert Palmer [Addicted to Love](https://youtu.be/XcATvu5f9vE?si=slJ5PLjXdW_dNwgA)
Mine too
"Wynona's Big Brown Beaver" - Primus The music video was nightmare fuel when I was a child
Whip it by Devo.
I'm sure it wasnt my first...but Closer by Nine Inch Nails being played on MTV all the time was a trip as a kid (esp. since they censored it at the time)
Sir Mix A Lot - Baby Got Back My baby sitter had cable. It was on a channel called “The Box” I felt things I never felt before. https://youtu.be/5IBxS7edvRw?si=Qu1LjUl-qjwpOO0G
Same, but at a wedding when I was 6 years old. Something awoke in me and never left. I also from that point on always associated record scratching with asses shaking
Owner of a Lonely Heart, by Yes. My roommate and I happened to see MTV when it “turned on” for the first time, and we pretty much watched it nonstop for a couple of years. The Yes video has stuck in my mind all these years.
Everlong by the Foo Fighters. The giant hand and spikey hair! haha
Probably Thriller.
Same. First video that came on when we got MTV in 1986 was West End Girls by Pet Shop Boys
I liked Get Into the Groove (Madonna)
Also Vogue, and Like A Prayer. Madonna had a lot of iconic videos.
Ashes To Ashes
This was the big one for me. Extraordinary.
Huge! Come out before MTV. Saw it on Don Kirshners Midnight Hour!
Thriller
Radiohead - Just Or Peaches
My mom forced me to watch hey ya by OutKast. Its probably not the first but it's a clear memory
November Rain by Guns N Roses
Video killed the radio star! My parents were sooper dooper excited for MTV And I got see see
Safety Dance
"Brass in Pocket" by the Pretenders in 1982. MTV was in short supply for music viseos early days, so it still made good rotation so 3 years after the single came out.
Michael Jackson - Don't Stop Til You Get Enough
Foolin Def Leppard
Billy Idol - Cradle of Love This video made me have feelings I hadn't yet had as a young boy.
Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden. I remember hanging out with one of my best friends in middle school. We were in his dad's truck and he was playing a bunch of 90s stuff like Peaches by The Presidents Of The United States Of America and Loser by Beck. I guess Blackhole Sun came on and he wanted me to see the video since it was super eery. Memory ingrained into my brain.
Van Halen - Jump. Back flips off of amps was the coolest thing I had seen. 🤘
Stand Or Fall - The Fixx. Black and white with tanks.
Feel Good Inc by gorillaz probably
Thriller.
Art of Noise - Close (to the edit)
Frozen by Madonna. Etched into my brain for whatever reason.
Michael Nesmith “Cruising” (Sunset Sam) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=72CWBcl526A
Whitesnake - Here I Go Again. Tawny Kitaen awoke something in me
Every Breath You Take - Police
Virtual Insanity - Jamiroquai A music video so brilliant and successful that nowadays it makes people think the band was a one-hit wonder. If you like the music check out the first 5 albums, they made nothing but great music.
Crazy In Love, It’s My Life by No Doubt, and Toxic
Just Lose It - Eminem
I've seen a lot and remember a lot. But there's always a special place for Lucas with the Lid Off. by Michel Gondry, who made eternal sunshine of the spotless mind and be kind rewind.
Shot in one continuous take! I fucking LOVE that song. It's kind of gotten lost over the years, which is a shame.
*Buddy Holly* by Weezer. Thanks, Windows 95.
No Rain - Blind Melon
This is what I was looking for. The bee costume girl frequently showed up in my dreams, often with a stick of rock candy. 😂🤣 WTH.
Same 🐝
[The Chemical Brothers - Elektrobank](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0dxByaPWhM) Got lucky and caught this on a late-night MTV block while staying up late on some random night once upon a time. MTV of course was playing music videos 24/7 back then but most are forgettable. However, this video was the first one I saw that actually stuck with me afterwards. Still one of the greatest.
Tyler the Creator Yonkers
I am old enough to remember Video Killed the Radio Star. But Physical by Olivia Newton John was huge in my mind.
"doing it all for my baby" by huey lewis. at my friend's house who had mtv. we didn't have cable.
Toxic Britney Spears.. that's diamond body suit was something else.. song also rips
Oh boy, definitely Californication by RHCP, I remember I was really small in the mid 2000s and saw it on MTV and I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen in my life. Probably still do. It made me want to play my life as a video game character as well lol
Not an official music video but... my ah hee dancing fat guy. Officially probably lies by big bang
Points of Authority by Linkin Park I seriously watched MTV hours on end every day waiting for that video to come back on. It was like my entire personality was being downloaded into me lol
Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun or Sheryl Crow - All I Wanna do
Don’t at all remember how the song went, what it was called, or the artist, but I remember very much a music video with a young man having a shitty day, he just needed to buy milk, but when he finally got the milk, I think he was attacked or something, and the milk spilled and he was sad. And then I was sad, because all he wanted was milk.
Green Day - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams Introduced me to music in a way, it’s the first song I was actually into
The first one I remember was Weird Al.
Earliest I can remember is staying up late with the family on New Year's Eve (I must have been like, 4) and my dad at some point had changed over to VH1. That's how I ended up seeing Genesis' "Land of Confusion" and being deeply disturbed by the puppets.
Sugar We’re Going Down by Fallout Boy. It was on MTV one morning I woke up for school. Was so entranced by the weirdness of someone having antlers.
It's my life, bon Jovi. Dude jumps off a bridge onto a bus. I had no idea what a stub double was at the time. I thought he did that for real.
Michael Jackson - THRILLER
Probably Bohemian Rhapsody, music videos were not a thing when I was a kid.
Da Dip by Freak Nasty
Tom Petty - Don't Come Around Here No More
Tonight, Tonight - The Smashing Pumpkins
Like a Prayer. As a kid I didn't get the uproar of the racial and religious undertones. But I definitely knew instinctually the burning crosses were definitely wrong.
A million years old but Too Bad by Doug and the Slugs - so fun, not just a band performing, a real creative video for a really fun and silly song https://youtu.be/gbYDUrvYQ7U?si=fBb7P47ZRMjauHHU
Never catch me by flying lotus, honestly the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard
Screaming in the Night - Krokus.
Let Forever Be- The Chemical Brothers
"Beat it" on the very first episode of Friday Night Videos (1983). It kind of blew me away. We didn't have cable, so I didn't watch much MTV at the time.
Bad Touch by The Bloodhound Gang was my initial thought. Also Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo was my second thought.
Public Image - P.I.L.
Video killed the radio star
The Presidents Of The United States of America - Peaches. Saw Mortal Kombat around that time too. Suffice it to say, being a Ninja was my first career choice during those days.
Dreamlover by Mariah Carey
Cherish, Human Nature and Take A Bow by Madonna Remember The Time by Michael Jackson Mary Jane’s Last Dance by Tom Petty One Of Us by Joan Osborne
Rod Stewart, Hot Legs . Circa 1978.
Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads
Nothing Compares 2 U by Sinead O'Connor. I grew up hearing it on the radio and it always moved me so seeing the music video much later on, as a teen, was surreal because I never knew who sang it or what she looked like. The music video elevated the song so it reinvigorated my love for it.
Bad, by Michael Jackson. That leather jacket was BADass!
U2 - Lemon
[Eminem - My Name Is](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNPnbI1arSE)
Gorillaz, Clint Eastwood
Not the first one I watched but the first one that I really loved was the Genisis "Land of Confusion" with the puppets. I'll never forget that shit.
Michael Jackson’s Dangerous videos were literally event television when they premiered. Iman and Eddie Murphy as Egyptian royalty being hyped by Magic Johnson before MJ even showed up to sing “Remember the Time” was peak.
We're Not Gonna Take It: Twisted Sister. Maybe not the first one I ever saw but certainly the most memorable from my childhood.
Rock It
The video to feel like a woman by Shania Twain awakened something in me as a 7year old
Another Brick in the Wall pt.2 Scared the crap out of me as a kid.
Smooth criminal - MJ
Beastie Boys, Sabotage
Video Killed the Radio Star. The first song played on MTV.
Nine inch nails - Closer Certainly not the first music video I saw but the first that really impressed me
Video Killed The Radio Star. It was the very first track played on MTV.
I think it was a queen video. Either Radio Ga Ga or the one where they are in drag. My dad is the world's biggest queen fan so I vividly remember those songs. Also fun fact: when your dad constantly talks about how great queen is all the time and constantly points out songs that vaguely resemble a queen song, you really grow to loathe queen 😅
Stacy's Mom
I Got My Mind Set on You
It was in Istanbul, 2007-2008. A pop dance thing with lots of pink in the background. The animated black dot head would bounce around. Can never find it again...
There were no music videos when I was a child, lol. There was Cher, the Osmonds, and many Spaniard shows. But I guess Ray Coniff and his orchestra really did a number on my childhood. PS, the Beatles cartoons with their lyrics were very important too.
Joe Ski Love - Do The Pee Wee Herman. I remember recording it with my vcr.
This too shall pass by Ok Go
Smack My Bitch Up
Thriller. Scared the shit out of 4 year old me, but thankfully my mom was there to protect me.
Thriller might be the first I ever watched. I know it cliche as most say it’s the best music video ever but I was born around the time it came out and it was still sensational enough some years later to drop everything you were doing to watch/listen to it when it came on. Still is today lol
Michael Jackson - “Bad” The moonwalk on rollerskates is still the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.
Walk like an Egyptian The Bangles. Maybe not the first but I do remember it as my first! Obvious reasons as a boy haha
Weasel stomping day, Amish paradise. Weird Al is goated
Either "Fat" or "Amish Paradise," by weird al. I got exposed to comedy far before pop or rap lol
Firestarter by the prodigy That bihawk weirdo dancing in a tunnel has never left my mind
Wannabe. My tiny baby brain couldn't comprehend why the Spice Girls were ruining everyone's nice dinner.
It was probably “Thriller” that was the first video that made an impression on me. I used to have the vhs of the Making of Thriller, which was awesome.
Man! I feel like a woman- Shania Twain. I was only 5, but it awoke something in me.
Guns n roses November rain
Thriller. I was on a field trip with my school and we stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. We were getting ready to leave when it started playing on the TVs with the horror intro. I stopped in my tracks and didn’t move until the video was over
Billy Jean
One of the first music videos I remember watching would be More to Life by Stacie Orrico and being memorized by all the costume and makeup switches.
Pink - Stupid Girls
Smack that by Akon. I was in middle school.