Music

On August 1, 1981, cable television introduced something that would change the music industry drastically. They introduced MTV. MTV defined pop culture and shaped the music industry in the 80’s. It provided viewers with music videos, music announcements, and video jockeys.

On the day that MTV was launched, John Lack, one of its creators, said the very first words introducing MTV. He said “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll.” The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” was the very first music video that aired on MTV. After that, MTV continued on to revolutionize pop culture and largely influenced the music industry. It also grew to become a world-wide viewed channel.

As MTV began to grow, record companies began investing more money into music videos and making them more elaborate. They used MTV as a way to promote artist’s songs, and because of that, music videos began to be put more effort into. MTV also played Madonna, Michael Jackson, Prince, and Guns n’ Roses repeatedly, as they were and still are famous music icons. The most popular music genres in the 80’s was new wave, pop, and rock. A lot of the music consisted of electronic and techno sounds, such as synthesizers, which also became popular in the 80’s. During this decade there were a lot of musical icons such as Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Cyndi Lauper.

Madonna was one of the most popular singers of the 80’s due to her creation of pop, electronic, and dance music. Her most famous song during the 80’s was “Like A Prayer”, which sparked a lot controversy due to its music video.

Michael Jackson was the King of Pop in the 80’s. He created many famous music videos and songs, and was well known to feature a sparkly glove on one of his hands in those videos.

Cyndi Lauper came out with many famous songs. However, her biggest hit was the song and music video “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”. She was also famous for her use of pop and new wave.