“Ladies and gentlemen, rock ‘n’ roll.”

Those were the first words said when MTV went live on August 1, 1981 at 12:01 a.m. On the screen was an image of an astronaut planting a MTV flag on the moon. The first video played was “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles.

MTV primarily has programming and doesn’t play music videos. Why did MTV stop playing videos? Basically, reality TV (remember the Real World) and other programming bring in more ad money than videos. Here’s an article from the New York Post that digs into the economics of why MTV stopped playing music videos.

Yet, music videos live on — mainly on YouTube. I spend hours a month watching music videos on YouTube. Below are a few Music Videos that you probably have never seen that are amazing:

Here’s Weapon of Choice by Fatboy Slim featuring Christopher Walken. This will knock your socks off:

Here’s an amazing video by Modest Mouse — it’s sort of a fish story:

If you haven’t seen this video involving a Rube Goldberg Machine by Ok Go, you’ve been missing out:

Beastie Boys — one of the all-time greats.

Here’s a super chill video from Tame Impala featuring surfers and a few bikini-clad girls for good measure: