MTV Classic launches Aug. 1

It's been a cliched question for almost two decades: "When will MTV actually play music again?"

The answer, apparently, is Monday - on the cable channel now known as VH1 Classic.

A 30-second promo on VH1 Classic's Twitter feed tells us the newly rebranded MTV Classic will launch Aug. 1, 35 years to the day after MTV announced its presence with The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star."

MTV itself has so far been mum on specifics. The MTV Classic promo promises, first and foremost, music - Michael Jackson, Nirvana, Missy Elliot, The Cure and Britney Spears are all shown in iconic videos. We also get glimpses of classic clips from "The Real World" with fan favorites like rude, crude Puck Rainey and barrier-breaking AIDS patient Pedro Zamora. Animated hits such as "Daria," "Liquid Television" and, of course, "Beavis and Butt-head" also make an appearance.

Might we also get to see a young, pre-Nerdist Chris Hardwick co-hosting the dating show "Singled Out" with Jenny McCarthy? Or vintage episodes of the TV trivia show "Remote Control," complete with comedy bits by some young goofball named Adam Sandler? (Please, though, spare us a rerun of the disastrous 1996 Video Music Awards where inexplicable host Dennis Miller tried to have an interstellar conversation on stage with cosmonauts aboard the MIR.)

In any case, a walk down MTV's memory lane will be embraced by any of us who grew up in the '80s and '90s and eagerly waited to hear Adam Curry announce our favorite artist atop the weekly Top 20 Video Countdown, or see what Kurt Loder and Tabitha Soren had cooking in the MTV Newsroom. I can't remember the last time I watched MTV, but I'm glad I'll once again have a reason to check it out.

• Sean Stangland is a Daily Herald multiplatform editor. You can follow him on Twitter at @SeanStanglandDH. His favorite music video is either a-ha's "Take On Me" or Bjork's "Bachelorette." Or maybe it's Metallica's "Enter Sandman." Or maybe ...