This Country Music Legend Had The First Country Music Video Ever Played On MTV

At one point in time, when you got your music video on MTV, you had made it.

Sadly, in 2o25, music videos have become somewhat of a lost art. Back in the day, the music video was a quintessential part of releasing a song out into the world. Now, they’ve become more of an afterthought, or artists decide to skip out on doing them altogether. Thus, the days of turning on MTV and watching music video after music video are long gone.

But at one point, it was the place to go if you wanted to take in the newest music video. There was no YouTube where every music video that’s ever existed was at your fingertips. Instead, there was one channel that you’d be able to tune into to watch music videos around the clock… literally. Before MTV became a hotbed of garbage reality television, it served one sole purpose: Show the most popular music videos.

The channel launched on August 1, 1981 and continuously cycled through the best of the best. Artists and bands even made it a point to create music videos that could be deemed worthy of being aired on MTV, and many fans of music discovered their new favorites sitting in front of the TV and taking in music videos from a variety of genres.

That being said, the country music genre was a little underrepresented on MTV, at least in it’s early years. CMT launched in 1983, and Vh1 in 1985, so there were other options, but it wasn’t until 1986 (five years after MTV launched) that a country music song was selected to be played on the network dedicated to music videos.

Now, before we get to it, there is a bit of debate surrounding the first country song… some might argue that Juice Newton’s (sounds like the name of an NFL running back) 1981 hit “Angel of the Morning” was the first. Her version of the song was crossover megahit that topped a number of charts, landing at #22 on the country charts, but it was the 40th EVER music video played on MTV. So while some, including Newton’s own Wikipedia page, would argue that it was the first country music video, I’m gonna call it a pop song. It was nominated for a Grammy in the pop category, and while Newton has a ton of crossover success, she didn’t really go full country until 1985.

So, that being said… which artist in the ’80s was finally able to break through and represent the country genre on MTV?

If you guessed Dwight Yoakam, you’d be correct.

Simply put, the man has been at it for a long time. He’s still been putting out new songs in recent years, and even became close friends with Post Malone, well before Posty’s F1-Trillion album. But everyone’s gotta start somewhere, and Yoakam got started in 1986 with his debut album Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.. It also featured the single “Honky Tonk Man” – a cover of a song Johnny Horton released in 1956 (which is interestingly enough the year that Yoakam was born).

The corresponding music video, which cycled back and forth between black-and-white and full-color scenes, helped put Dwight Yoakam on the map. That’s because it had what it took to be recognized by MTV and included in their marathon of music videos. “Honky Tonk Man” peaked at number three on the U.S. Hot Country Songs chart, and had some crossover appeal. The success of the track was undoubtedly helped by the music video, which was directed by Sherman Halsey (who worked with a lot of country music artists).

So next time you are at trivia night and the question is, “Which country star had the first country music video on MTV?” you know the answer. Well… I suppose if they claim “Angel Of The Morning,” make sure you plead your case, because they’re wrong.

If the question is, “What was the first ever music video shown on MTV?” that’d be “Video Killed The Radio Star” by The Buggles. That’s pretty fitting if you ask me… though it seems like that song could use an update now that the video star isn’t as prevalent as they used to be. But in the heyday of MTV, there were certainly a handful of video stars, and the country music artist that became one of the first country video stars on the network was Dwight Yoakam.

“Honky Tonk Man”

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