A lot of people think it was MJ, but wasn’t it Shalamar? I also heard it was Musical Youth who was played first. And did people notice right from the get go that black artists weren’t featured?

well i googled it and got this

During MTV's first few years on the air, very few black artists were included in rotation on the channel. Those who were in MTV's rotation included Eddy Grant, Tina Turner and Donna Summer. The very first non-white act played on MTV in the US was UK band The Specials, which featured an integrated line-up of white and black musicians and vocalists. The Specials' video "Rat Race" was played as the 58th video on the station's first day of broadcasting.[24]

MTV rejected other black artists' videos, such as Rick James' "Super Freak," because they didn't fit the channel's rock dominated format at the time. The exclusion enraged James; he publicly advocated the addition of more black artists' videos on the channel. Rock legend David Bowie also questioned MTV's lack of black artists during an on-air interview with VJ Mark Goodman in 1983.[25] MTV's original head of talent and acquisition, Carolyn B. Baker, who was black, had questioned why the definition of music had to be so narrow, as had a few others.

Before 1983, Michael Jackson also struggled to receive airtime on MTV.[26] To resolve the struggle and finally "break the color barrier", the president of CBS Records at the time, Walter Yetnikoff, denounced MTV in a strong, profane statement, threatening to take away MTV's ability to play any of the record label's music videos.[26][27] However, Les Garland, then acquisitions head, said he decided to air Jackson's "Billie Jean" video without pressure from CBS.[25] This was contradicted by CBS head of Business Affairs David Benjamin in Vanity Fair.[6] In any case, MTV began showing the "Billie Jean" video in regular rotation in 1983, forming a lengthy partnership with Jackson and helping other black music artists.[28]

According to The Austin Chronicle, Jackson's video for the song "Billie Jean" was "the video that broke the color barrier, even though the channel itself was responsible for erecting that barrier in the first place."[29] After airing Jackson's music videos, MTV, then a struggling cable channel, became very popular. Jackson's videos were credited for this success[30] and MTV's focus switched from rock to pop and R&B.[28] This move helped other black artists such as Prince, Whitney Houston and Janet Jackson break into heavy rotation on the channel. Jonathan Cohen of Billboard magazine commented Janet Jackson's "accessible sound and spectacularly choreographed videos were irresistible to MTV, and helped the channel evolve from rock programming to a broader, beat-driven musical mix

scriptgirl said:

I'm 90% sure it wasn't Michael Jackson and that is a myth that got mixed up since he was possibly the first black artist to be in heavy rotation (but the media is super lazy, so they'll never give us the straight answer and in fact created this myth)! Shalamar is a strong possibility but i wouldn't be surprised if it was Donna Summer (or at least that her videos were played before MJ, certainly).

Donna"s "The Wanderer" (the album with the video/single) came out in late 1980. It was the only video released from the set and the song was a top ten hit. If MTV was truly at a loss for videos early on (that was a claim and the reason why Rod Stewart got a ton of play, possibly with concert clips), that would be one that could have popped up in the first day or two, or least in the first week. Also, on top of that, "Donna Summer" (the album that precedded "Thriller" and was used as a template for that album as well as having a single that inspired MJ's "We Are the World") had two video singles (maybe three...did "The Woman In Me" have a video) before "Thriller".

And of course there is Prince. If MJ was the first, it would make more sense if it was for an "Off the Wall" single.

banks said:

Thanks for doing the homework! The 58th video (and a UK act at that).....holy crap! I think many confuse "heavy rotation" (and for that, it is a strong part of MJ's legacy) with "the very first". Nobody every talks about The Specials, though.

Prince was being played before MJ.... just check out MTV's 1982 year book

http://www.mtv.com/music/...Id=1535819

Artists like, Eddy Grant, MusicalYouth and Joan Armatrading were on before MJ. However, I do believe "Thriller", was the first long form video to be shown on MTV.

Prince, Tina, The Bus Boys, Musical Youth and some others were on MTV because their music fit the "rock" format MTV was going for. MJ and Rick and 'em couldn't get on it because they were "R&B" (or "too black" for their channel). I think it's true that CBS did threaten to take their CBS-based pop/rock acts off the channel if MJ wasn't played. Even if he wasn't the first-ever artist on MTV, he indeed was the FIRST black artist to gain HEAVY ROTATION on the channel and that's when MTV suddenly became a huge success. Remember MTV was actually still fledgling when "Billie Jean" aired. I think Rick & David were angry that MORE black acts weren't played. I think Marvin's "Sexual Healing" got some plays on MTV before MJ but I'm not too sure.

shorttrini said:

Long form short form, doesn't matter. "Thriller" was the first real long form video anyway, so no matter who played it, it would have been the first.

i think it was the 'electric avenue' dude, prince was on there to, but these artists wasnt getting alot of play on black radio,they fit the rock genre

VinnyM27 said:

Let's also remember that MTV launched in August 1981. Thriller wasn't even released until November 1982, with all of it's videos and singles released in 1983/1984 ("Billie Jean" being the first in January 1983). So by that time, well over a year after MTV's launch, of course they're going to have had black artists on the channel by that time. It would have been, as proven by history, impossible to keep them off forever.

lowkey said:

Nope, but Eddy sure was on there a LOT back then. And "Electric Avenue" really was more of a rock song than not. Same with "Little Red Corvette", which was all over white radio.

I live 1 block from Electric Avenue, btw.

Eddie Grant sang electric Avenue?

scriptgirl said:

Yes.

My $ on on Eddie Grant.

scriptgirl said:

No, but Eddy Grant did.

He also has this song which so few people remember. "Romancing The Stone", which was supposed to be the theme to the movie of the same name, but the producers didn't like it enough. It is IN the movie though, but not the theme song. I love that song.

Graycap23 said:

Sounds like a safe bet, but based on banks homework, it seems it wasn't.

You know what's so odd when we have these "first black artist on MTV" discussions, we forget how MTV wasn't even a "phenomenon" prior to Michael Jackson's arrival.

Hell MTV's FIRST video is not known today as people think. And MTV could've been nicknamed the "Rod Stewart Channel" because about 15 of its first videos were from ROD STEWART!

MTV was actually struggling in 1981 and 1982 even when black acts were playing on the channel by then.

MTV's success had to do indirectly with the commercial appeal of one Michael Jackson, if one color really MATTERED to MTV, it was the color green.

ernestsewell said:

I can't tell from reading that partial list what was the first one. Can u?

The list Banks had doesn't show ALL the videos played on any of these years (maybe the top ten IDK).

It would be interesting to see what was played on their playlists in 1981, 1982 and prior to March 1983 and afterwards.

Graycap23 said:

The very first non-white act played on MTV in the US was UK band The Specials, which featured an integrated line-up of white and black musicians and vocalists. The Specials' video "Rat Race" was played as the 58th video on the station's first day of broadcasting

This subject has come up before and I also remember names like Eddy Grant or Musical Youth being in the running as actually being the first to get played before MJ.

But, the myth continues.
And even if proven wrong, the "question" then gets twisted to perpetuate it further.



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theAudience said:

Yeah and the more the myth is being told, the more it is taken as reality.

ernestsewell said:

VinnyM27 said:

Shalamar didn't make it onto MTV until the summer of 1983,with their New Wave-styled hit "Dead Giveaway".Around this time,MTV also started airing Donna Summer's "She Works Hard For The Money" video.This was months after Michael's videos for "Billie Jean" and "Beat It" were added to their playlist.

Wasn't it Run DMC in 1983?

trueiopian said:

Hell no... I know I saw Eddy Grant before Run DMC

banks said:

Oh, okay.

trueiopian said:

Run DMC didn't hit MTV until 1984.

SoulAlive said:

Well we know for sure Tina Turner was among the first to be on MTV. I think MTV played her version of "Ball of Confusion" a lot and they also played "Let's Stay Together" if briefly. It's funny that they give Whitney Houston credit for being the VERY first black female act on MTV but that's a lie too. You could say like Michael, she helped to bring attention to black female acts on MTV, then again they probably played Patti LaBelle's "New Attitude" before then.

eddy grant and prince are the 2 i remember seeing when turning past mtv, i didnt watch it and nobody i knew watched it, we was still watching new york hot tracks.mtv didnt play any urban/r&b music back then, so in that respect mj did sorta open the door. prince didnt click big with black radio until purple rain so i dont think there would have been many black artists getting on mtv based on their rotation of prince and eddy grant.the fact that mtv rejected mj's videos at first tells you they wasnt interested in non rock oriented black artists.