30 Years Ago, Madonna Rolled Around On The Floor At MTV's Video Music Awards
Last month, MTV broadcast its annual Video Music Awards -- an event that this year was marked by Beyonce's triumphant (and lengthy) night-ending performance. Thirty years ago, however, on September 14, 1984, MTV broadcast its very first VMAs -- an event that became historic for another female performer's on-stage antics. Madonna -- who had only released her debut album a year before -- performed a brand new little ditty called "Like A Virgin."
While her manager congratulated her on ruining her career that night, history would prove that Madonna's memorable performance at the inaugural VMAs would go down in the books as a career-launcher and an instant classic.
In a conversation with Soundcheck host John Schaefer, Rob Tannenbaum -- author of I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution -- looks back at other memorable moments from the station's first awards ceremony, and at some of the biggest music videos celebrated that year.
Herbie Hancock's robot-centric video for "Rockit" won five awards that night, beating out Michael Jackson's "Thriller."
The Cars won Video of the Year for “You Might Think” – a video that was one of the first to ever use computer graphics, costing a whopping $80,000 to make.
