On August 1st of 1981, a new network premiered on cable called MTV, and "Music Television" soon exploded ... As the decades rolled on, music videos themselves turned into an art form, with ...

Music Videos That Shaped the 80s is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet ...

The concept was simple – non-stop music videos, 24 hours a day. But, as part of America’s cable television, MTV would rely upon advertising to survive, and many were convinced it would fail.

[The videos] were subversive ... it’s much more feasible for mainstream writers to make a living through TV music rather than in the mainstream music industry. “No one’s buying albums ...