1. This is a list of the first music videos broadcast on MTV's first day, August 1, 1981. MTV's first day on
the air was uploaded onto YouTube in 2010 (although only the first four hours were authentic; the rest
were edited VH1 rebroadcasts).
First music videos aired on MTV
Number Song Artist Notes
"Video Killed the Radio The
1
Star" Buggles
2 "You Better Run" Pat Benatar
"She Won't Dance with Rod (Phil Chen was the first non-white musician to appear on MTV), Stewart was the artist with the most
3
Me" Stewart videos played that day.
"You Better You Bet" was both the 4th and 54th video to be aired on MTV, making it the first video to be
4 "You Better You Bet" the Who
shown more than once.