What was the first music video played on MTV?

At 12:01 am on August 1, 1981, history was made when MTV, the first 24-hour video music channel, launched onto our television sets and literally changed our lives with the birth of the music video.

The first video ever played on the network was quite ironic — “Video Killed The Radio Star” by The Buggles.

Though virtually unknown in the States, The Buggles would be reborn and become one of the biggest one-hit wonders of all time thanks in large part to the “Video Killed The Radio Star” music video airing on MTV.

“It was very much an afterthought,” Downes told Business Insider via e-mail when asked if he watched the video launch MTV. “It was kind of cool to hear about, but it didn’t really seem groundbreaking at the time. How wrong we were?”

The music video was shot in one day and before airing on MTV had only played on BBC’s "Top of the Pops" when the single came out in 1979.