A major chapter in the history of rock began on 1 August 1981, when Music TV , better known as MTV, first started broadcasting.Aimed at …(1)… aged between twelve and thirty-five, its appearance coincided with the rise of what was then a relatively new art form : the rock video.

Filmed sequences of rock music were , of course, nothing new.Since the 1960s major bands such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones had made short movies to promote their ...(2)… singles.What really helped MTV take off, though, was its clever idea of asking the record companies to let it use videos free of charge , arguing that videos were promotional materials and that by showing them the new channel would be giving both companies and musicians free advertising. …(3)..the end all the main record labels agreed.
The only problem was that in those early years, before videos became as essential as they are now for any band or singer with serious hopes of success, the playlist tended to be dominated by big bands that were already experimenting with sophisticated videos.But this did not seem to …(4)… much harm.In fact, within two years of its launch MTV was being shown by nearly two thousand cable television …(5)… in the United States and would soon also be broadcasting from the UK in the form of MTV Europe.