What's the first music video you remember seeing? Or alternatively, the first one that made a huge impression on you?

The saxophone was so mysterious and exciting. And Sade was so beautiful I couldn't take my eyes off of her.

(I don't know how to embed)

Sade: Smooth Operator

[Edited 6/12/16 9:49am]

Don't remember exactly. It might be one of these:

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Juice Newton ~ Queen Of Hearts

Sheena Easton ~ Morning Train

The Jacksons ~ Can You Feel It

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If you count reruns of The Beatles cartoon or the music clips on Sesame Street, then those would be first.

Propably the videos the Midnight Special used to show.

I was four or five years old. Early 80s in Worms, Germany. Dude who was dressed in a shim-
mering metallic purple trench coat who looked like a chick. Two girls who looked like they were
finger fucking each other standing next to a keyboard. Dude who was dressed in a shimmering
metallic purple trench coat who looked like a chick. Drum sound that went "chukka-chukka-
chukka-chukchuk". Dude who was dressed in a shimmering metallic trench coat who looked

like a chick.

Sensory overload. Mind blown. Hooked ever since.

alphastreet said:

The ones that come to mind are videos from mj's otw and thriller, whams make it big, when doves cry, let's go dancing ooh la la, madonnas first 3, tears for fears, Sade, Thompson Twins and culture club

Since the Off The Wall album came out before any of the others you mentioned, wouldn't that be first unless you saw them as old videos first. I wasn't aware that there were music videos for Rock With You & Don't Stop until 1988 when Moonwalker came out. I found out about the She's Out Of My Life video in the 1990s. Let's Go Dancing, is that the Kool & The Gang song?

Jon1967 said:

99

Red Balloons / Luftballons?

[Edited 6/12/16 15:08pm]

gr8 question - cant rem the first one but it was definitely early eighties stuff - ones that left an early impression

- 'human league - dont you want me' in 1981 cos i think it was no.1 and it was on TOTP for ages

- same with 'Men At Work - Down Under' in 81,

- and with 'dexys midnight runners - come on eileen' in 82 it seemed to be no.1 for months

- and 'Musical Youth - Pass the Dutchie' left an impression cos i liked it

simple minds, duran duran, billy idol were also often on MTV around that time.

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later the MJ billie jean video seemed to be on MTV for years but it was probably just a long hot summer for me as a kid - 1999 and LRC got regular rotation too

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Considering I was a young tweener when music videos began proliferating, I probably saw a few of them on shows like The Midnight Special and Don Kirschner's Rock Concert, but since most videos of the pre-MTV era were basically performance videos, they didn't make much imprression on me. But I remember these videos:

I can't say I remember what was the first video I seen because thinking back on my childhood, there was a number of videos I remember, but they were all around the same few years, so being around the same time frame, and with me only being like 4, I don't know what came first and what didn't. It's all just a group of videos I remember from the same point in my life.

So with that being said, some of the videos I have earliest memories from would be like... Enter Sandman by Metallica. Jeremy by Pearl Jam. Estranged, November Rain, and Don't Cry all by Guns Roses. Ummm... I don't know these are some of the ones I remember most vividly. And I remember my favorite video was always Estranged by Guns N Roses. As a kid I absolutely fucking loved watching that video. My favorite video as a kid. And today still my favorite GNR song and music video of theirs.

MickyDolenz said:

The first I remember clearly was Michael Jackson's Earth Song around 2001/2. A neighbour was teaching me to use computers and was showing me that you could play DVDs on a computer and she must have had a copy of Video Greatest Hits – HIStory. I remember not liking it because I thought it was creepy when he was hanging on to the trees. I was 9/10 at that time so I must have watched other music videos before that but I just don't remember. My memory has always been terrible.

I could be wrong,but I think the first music video I ever saw was Rod Stewart's "Tonight's The Night" video in 1976.Yes,we had videos in the 70s but they were really cheesy

I think it was KISS - Tears Are Falling. Mid-80s.

I didn't even know what music videos were, because I was like, 5 or 6. I was totally into KISS back then though.

My family watched Video Hits, 5 O'Clock Rock, and had MuchMusic as soon as it launched.

I was certainly aware of music videos, but I can't name the first one I saw. That would be like asking what is the first TV show I saw or what's the first meal I remember eating.

I knew Thriller was scary, and probably best to avoid it, because even the wolf transformation and growling was too much (I was 3).

"Let's Go Crazy" seems to be a major one that I remember seeing early. I don't remember seeing Prince before then (not even "When Doves Cry" which was I think the preceding single).

There were occasional music clips on TV during the 70s, usually either live performances or lip-synch performances filmed in the TV studio. I remember staying up really late in early 1977 to watch KISS on some late-night show and being disappointed that it was filmed performances where they were lip-synching songs from Rock & Roll Over.

Actually now that I think about it, I remember seing a clip for the novelty hit "Hot Butter" in the movie theater around 1974 or 75. It was just films of people pouring butter on their popcorn.