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August 1, 1981 marks 40 years since MTV’s first broadcast! Check out UltimateClassicRock.com’s list of Top 40 Rock moments the network has brought. Taking the top spot is the actual debut of MTV, with the first look at the channel being an astronaut landing on the moon and saying the words, “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll.” Also on the list: KISS sharing themselves without the makeup for the first time, David Bowie’s criticism of MTV’s lack of diversity, the broadcast of 1985’s Live Aid, and the very first episode of ‘120 Minutes’, which was home to alternative rock videos.
MTV is celebrating 40 years on the air by relaunching its iconic “Moon Person.” During an event at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the channel shared a new design of its famous astronaut image. “This is our third generation that we’re reinventing for. Gen Z is by far one of the most interesting, incredibly creative and optimistic generations,” MTV CEO Chris McCarthy told Associated Press. The new version of the “Moon Person” was designed by Kehinde Wiley, the person behind the Barack Obama portrait done for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.
Do you think MTV will ever have the same kind of popularity it did when it started? What did you watch on MTV growing up?