MTV Puts "Vintage" Music Videos Online

If you are old enough to remember what MTV was like back in the 80's, then somewhere in the far recesses of your mind--sandwiched between memories of Pet Rocks and scrunchies--you once knew that when MTV first launched, "MTV" actually stood for "Music Television." With seemingly back-to-back reality shows and teen dramas now, you'd think that the folks over at MTV forgot all about the popular culture revolution they helped launch. Well, it turns out they haven't forgotten about their origins, they've just been busy digitizing those early music videos for inclusion on the newly launched, MTVMusic.com site.

"For all of you haters out there griping about how MTV doesn't play music videos anymore, here's something to calm the waters. Check out MTV's new website, MTVMusic.com -- our new online catalog that finally opens up MTV's massive music video archive.

While MTV.com has always been a source for the latest music videos, MTVMusic.com offers up a more in-depth library, including over 16,000 videos, 'Unplugged' performances and exclusive MTV concert footage. And if a video you’re looking for isn't there yet, check back regularly as more and more vids are added daily."

In addition to "vintage" videos, such as De La Soul's Me Myself And I and Duran Duran's Hungry Like The Wolf, more recent music videos can also be found on MTVMusic.com, such as Britney Spears' Womanizer and Beyonce's Flaws And All. The primary focus of the site, however, seems to be firmly planted back in the 80's as many users appear to be utilizing the site as their own personal pop culture wayback machine. Of all the genres listed for available videos, the largest portion of them are for Rock (5,256), and the fewest are for Latin (91). As of when this news post was written, the site claimed 27,756 videos.

In addition to letting users reminisce about the salad days of their youth, the site also includes a social networking aspect as well, integrating MTV Networks' own Flux Media platform. Users can post comments on the video pages, rate videos, and add links to their favorite video pages on a variety of social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.

As with other video sites, you can see how many times a video has been viewed. The current most-viewed video is the Dire Straits' Money For Nothing. Number five on the list is none other than Rick Asteley's Never Gonna Give You Up--which has inspired us to use MTVMusic.com as the latest means to Rickroll.