I don't know if you remember this but MTV had very little variety with music videos, at least in those early years. I cannot tell you the number of times I saw "Little Red Corvette"[1] and "Jeopardy"[2] at a friend's house while he insisted on having MTV on for hours. Those songs are etched in my brain for life now.

IMO MTV did a really good job of expanding beyond music videos, though I didn't personally watch it past Liquid Television.

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0KpfrJE4zw [2] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAJNwPWVmNc