Source link : https://las-vegas-news.com/if-you-grew-up-in-the-80s-these-11-music-videos-ruled-mtv/
There was something genuinely strange and exciting about flipping to MTV in the early ’80s. Music had always lived in your ears, but suddenly it was demanding your eyes too. The artists who figured out how to work that combination – drama, choreography, spectacle, or even just the right leather jacket – became the decade’s defining cultural exports.
Some of these videos were technically revolutionary. Others were pure theater. A few of them broke barriers that needed breaking. All of them lived rent-free in the heads of anyone who spent serious time in front of a television between 1981 and 1989. Here are the 11 that truly owned the channel.
1. Michael Jackson – “Thriller” (1983)
On December 2, 1983, MTV aired what would become the most influential music video of all time, featuring a big budget and a lengthy runtime that introduced the world to the cinematic potential of the format. Director John Landis and Jackson conceived a short film shot on 35mm with the production values of a feature film, at a budget of around $500,000 – roughly ten times the cost of the average music video at the time.
When the 14-minute video aired, MTV ran it twice an hour to meet demand. It marked a dramatic increase in scale for music videos and has since been routinely named the best music video ever made, credited with transforming music videos into a serious art form and breaking down racial…
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Author : Matthias Binder
Publish date : 2026-05-14 11:45:00
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