“I want my MTV,” intones the distinctive voice of Sting at first of Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing.” Europe lastly received its MTV on August 1, 1987, when the music channel started broadcasting to the complete continent from Amsterdam, Holland.
As if by magic, the primary video to be proven on the brand new channel was after all that Dire Straits clip, directed by Steve Barron. He was the person who was additionally behind such landmarks of the format as a-ha’s “Take On Me” and Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.”
By 1987, Mark Knopfler’s often-misunderstood track was not solely a longtime smash, with three weeks at No.1 to its title in America in 1985. The promo movie had additionally gained Video of the Yr on the third MTV Video Music Awards, held in Los Angeles and New York the earlier September. Right here it’s, with its well-known Quantel Paintbox results and revolutionary mix of stay motion and animation.
The European launch of the community got here six years to the day after MTV had begun broadcasting in the USA, the place the station launched at 12.01 EST on August 1, 1981 with the phrases “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll.” They had been spoken by John Lack, and had been heard over footage of the primary House Shuttle launch countdown of Columbia, from earlier within the yr. With prescient humor, the primary video to be performed on the US MTV channel was Buggles’ era-defining 1979 hit “Video Killed the Radio Star.”
And the remainder, after all, is historical past. MTV continued to dominate and outline the video period in international pop, and its Video Music Awards have taken their place on the music calendar each summer season. The August 2022 occasion was the thirty ninth within the historical past of the ceremony, with Nicki Minaj offered with the Video Vanguard Award and Purple Sizzling Chili Peppers taking the World Icon Award.
Take heed to uDiscover Music’s Dire Straits Greatest Of playlist.
