Last night at midnight, MTV and VH1 commemorated the launch of the music video channel, exactly thirty years ago at the same hour. Starting with the ten minute countdown of the first space shuttle launch, Music Television then aired its first music video, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles, an ironic start to a station that would change the way people consumed and thought about music in the early 80's.

The re-airing brought back a huge chunk of nostalgia for those of us who remember the 1980's and, specifically, MTV's contribution to pop culture during that time. Before and after, VH1 showed lots of commercials advertising "30 years of groundbreaking television", but that's not quite true. Yes, MTV during its heyday - 1981 through 1992 - had an enormous impact on the music industry, as music videos became a huge component of the commercial music business. A new sales vector had been born, selling VHS tapes and later DVDs of albums of videos, as well as concert shoots.

MTV lost focus of their mission when they began producing non-music shows. The first example of this was Remote Control, a game show hosted by Ken Ober that debuted in 1987. I had thought it was a clever show, mixing pop culture questions with theatrics. Remote Control went on for five seasons, and spawned lots of other shows on the music channel, which eventually overshadowed music videos.

It may not have mattered much, as the quality of music videos, which had gone up in the late eighties and early nineties, took a decline, mostly depicting parties with half-naked girls and people singing and rapping in the background. Sure, not all the videos which came before were always great, but there was a lot of creativity in select videos in the 80's (remember Michael Jackson's "Thriller"?), and much of that got lost when MTV shifted its vision to becoming a reality TV channel, beginning with The Real World, which put seven strangers in a house together "just to see what would happen". Now MTV's schedule is filled with this kind of trashy reality drama that isn't even very interesting.

VH1 is still showing clips of different things that MTV did in its early days, including 120 Minutes (two hour blocks of alternarock videos), Headbanger's Ball (midnight weekend showings of heavy metal videos), and Yo! MTV Raps (which chronicled the videos of the burgenoning reign of hip hop). These were the days when MTV had so much to offer impressionable music fans. MTV News gave the channel some credibility, lending a sense of grownup sensibility and seriousness to the landscape. (Everyone around then remembers Kurt Loder's solemn breaking news report of Kurt Cobain's death.)

Today, MTV has nothing to offer. It's a shame; so much of the early life of my music fandom is tied in with iconic channel, guided by the help of those amazing VJs of the day, Adam Curry, Martha Quinn, and Mark Goodman. No longer, and maybe for the better, but I certainly miss My Favorite Music, All Day, All Night, and In Stereo.