A major chapter in the history of rock began on 1 August 1981, when Music Television, better known as MTV, first started broadcasting. Aimed at __________ (21) aged between twelve and thirty-five, its appearance coincided with the ___________ (22) of what was then a relatively new art form: the rock video.
Filmed sequences of rock music were, of course, ___________ (23) new. Since the 1960s major bands such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones had made short movies to promote their _________ (24) singles. What really helped MTV take ___________ (25), though, was its clever idea of asking the record companies to let it use videos free of charge, arguing that videos were promotional materials and that by showing them the new __________ (26) would be giving both companies and musicians free advertising. In the end all the main record _________ (27) agreed.
The only problem was that in those early years, before videos became as essential as they are now for any band or singer with serious _________ (28) of success, the playlist tended to be dominated by big bands that were already ____________ (29) with sophisticated videos. But this did not seem to do much harm. In fact, within two years of its launch MTV was being shown by nearly two thousand cable television companies in the United States and would soon also be broadcasting from UK in the _________ (30) of MTV Europe.