For something like a hover effect, you'll need CSS. This is because you are stylizing your text, and that's what CSS is for.
The following style is what you'll need between your <style> and </style> in your document head.
<style>
/* Here's your original styling for your element (I saw it in your question comments) */
a {
text-decoration: none;
color: #808080;
}
/* Here's the hover effect. Everything you add in here is applied to the style on-hover. */
/* This is similar to a javascript onmouseover event except it only applies style. */
a:hover {
color: white;
}
</style>
Since you've moved your stylizing into CSS style code, you can simplify your HTML code:
<a href="youtube.com/watch?v=HhqWd3Axq9Y" target="_blank">LISTEN</a>