The day everything changed...

Many people speculate as to what date in MTV history is the most significant. Some like to bring up the ever popular date when the fist music video was aired in 1981, namely the highly symbolic "Video killed the radio star" by The Buggles. Others point to when Thriller was released in 1983. The point is that there are a plethora of dates and events that comprise this thing we call "MTV", and it is hard to select one that is the most significant. For the sake of argument, lets say that the most significant date was August 1, 1981, the day MTV was founded. What does this date mean?

Since the 1960's, ideas for music-video were being conceived, from Richard Lester's early music videos of the Beatles and the UK's Top of the Pops, to Mason Williams' proposal to CBS to put music to slide shows of art and air the work (this idea was shot down). Then in 1981, a man named Gary Van Haas had the idea to have a channel of music videos in music stores as a form of advertising. Before long, this channel had expanded its audience to cable television, and thus MTV was launched.

This channel was filled to the brim with musical elements. The impact this must've had on music culture can't really be measured, especially after hip hip music was aired. Now music is no longer a story told in the back of a music store; it is an epic televised for the world to see every night at 8.

In light of this fact, one of the most important dates in MTV history is February 8, 2010, when the company dropped the subtitle "Music television" from its logo. From here on out, it would be a compilation of random shows that reflects a almost hedonistic culture, shows such as Jersey Shore, Catfish, Ridiculousness and more.

This is an important date because MTV was no longer about music, and thus no longer had any sort of impact on music culture. That mantle was taken up by VH1. That date is the day that ratings killed the video star.