by Lauren Edelstein Henry, Exton, PA

August 1, 1981. The day that changed music forever. For me, it was the summer between 8th and 9th grade. I was attending a teen trip-away camp with old and new friends. Our last hurrah as kids. We had heard about MTV and we were excited to see it live. Unfortunately, the cable system where we lived wasn’t planning on showing it, so we gathered up our sleeping bags and pj’s and headed over to another friends house for a musical slumber party. We piled our bedding across the floor of his very small den and draped ourselves over the furniture, eating pizza and popcorn.

11:50.

11:55.

FINALLY, 12:00am …

MTV comes on the air with the Buggles “Video Killed the Radio Star.” We were transfixed until almost 5am when the last of us fell asleep. We knew we were watching musical history in the making. We knew that music would never be the same again. I watched music videos until I got to college, then decided that, although they are an interesting art form, I rather let the images from music appear in my head instead of in front of my eyes.