People love to say "Remember when MTV used to play videos?" but there was a time when MTV would seemingly play ANY video. The first couple years of Music Television really was the wild west, where just about any band that had videos could get them played on the fledgling cable channel that made a big deal about being "The World's First 24-Hour Stereo Video Music Channel," even if in those early days you had to have satellite TV or be in an area that had a FM radio simulcast to get it in stereo. Those years, with original VJs Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, JJ Jackson, Martha Quinn, and Alan Hunter were loose, raw and fun.
One Internet Archive user has been uploading VHS recordings of MTV's early years and has amassed a pretty amazing collection, much of in complete with the network's promos and commercials. You can watch the first four hours of MTV from August 1, 1981, which famously began with The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star" (Pat Benatar and Rod Stewart were up next).