Question of the Day: As MTV Turns 30, What's Your Favorite Moment?

The first-ever "all music all the time" cable channel celebrated 30 years this week.

According to Andy Greene of Rolling Stone, MTV launched on Aug. 1, 1981, at 12:01 a.m. The first images broadcast were the launch of Apollo 11, followed by a video for the Buggles song "Video Killed The Radio Star."

A Washington Post blogger reported that, to honor its sister network, VH1 Classic devoted all weekend to airing classic MTV programming, from old promos to classic episodes of “Remote Control” and “Yo! MTV Raps.”

I was 11 years old in 1981. Like many of my peers, I was wearing acid-washed jeans, playing Ms. Pac Man and listening to the year's top song—Hall and Oates' "Your Kiss is on My List." But my listening habits—and the world's listening habits—would never be the same after MTV came onto the scene.

I remember a lot of repeats in the early days. That's because the upstart cable channel only had 300 videos at first—lots of Rod Stewart, apparently. The videos that stick out for me, however, are Dire Straits’ "Money for Nothing," the Tubes’ "She's a Beauty" and Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," an anthem of high school girls everywhere later in the 1980s.

What do you remember most about the early days of MTV? Is it the videos? The debut of “The Real World”? Concerts like Live Aid? Or classic programming such as “Buzz Bin,” “Headbangers Ball,” “Closet Classics,” “Yo! MTV Raps!,” “MTV Unplugged” or “TRL”?

Please write your response in the comments.

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