MTV Memories

[garrow]

Jon Stewart hosted a fun show in which members of the State (who later had their own MTV show) and Toby Huss acted out scenarios sent in by viewers.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

I lived in places that had MTV on cable and also places that didn’t. Night Tracks on TBS was a player then. Saw a bunch of new videos right before they became hits, including “Take On Me.”

 

[bumpy mcgee]

Adam Sandler will always be Stud Boy to me.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

My goodness, this may be the most me-specific thread of all-time! I'll try to limit myself to two videos per post.

The first video I ever saw was "Thriller," which we've all seen so I won't waste one of my videos here. My sister was changing channels, found it and yelled to me we had MTV. I ran into the room and my life was never the same.

I'll spend my two videos on this post commenting on a-ha...while I enjoy "Take On Me" and recognize it as one of the most iconic videos of all-time, it's not even the first or best animated video. I LOVED "Don't Answer Me" by The Alan Parsons Project from 1984. A perfect pop song with a great storyline and super sweet ending.



And a-ha's best song is "The Sun Always Shines On TV," the video for which opens after "Take On Me." This is such a cool Europop song--a little edgier but also retaining the synth sheen of "Take on Me"-- and I can't believe they were a one-album wonder here.

 

[sgreenwell]

One of the best oral histories I've read is "I Want My MTV," which has an excerpt available here on NPR. It gets into the business side of things, as well as the politics of not playing Black artists and wild stories about the bands on the channel.

"WEIRD AL" YANKOVIC, artist: I was living in a $300-a-month apartment in Hollywood with a Murphy bed and a tiny TV, but man, I wanted my MTV. It was a luxury for me to get cable TV. I would watch all day long. At the time, MTV felt like a local, low-budget station. The VJs would make glaring errors, or forget to turn off their mics. I mean, it was horribly produced and great. I felt like, This is television for me.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Is that the book where they got Billy Squier PRANCE MOTHER****ER @Cosmo (Junkie apparently deleted himself, come back Junkie!) to talk about the career-ruining Rock Me Tonite video? If so, yup that's the best oral history ever.

 

[Slacker]

Phil Collins' fabled run at immortality might have begun around the time of this video in 1983. It was an instant MTV hit, so naturally it aired every 12 minutes, or so it seemed.

 

[sgreenwell]

Is that the book where they got Billy Squier PRANCE MOTHER****ER @Cosmo (Junkie apparently deleted himself, come back Junkie!) to talk about the career-ruining Rock Me Tonite video? If so, yup that's the best oral history ever.

Mhm! There is also a chapter devoted to the fan that won a contest to hang out with Van Halen for a weekend. They didn't know he had a plate in his head and took anti-seizure medication, and he apparently went semi-crazy on booze as a result.

 

[Slacker]

This video, shot in December 1979 during the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea, was the 42nd video aired on MTV's first day: August 1, 1981. ... What took so long!?!



More about that first day, from Wikipedia: The first video to air on MTV was one emblematic of MTV's concept, the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star", which was then immediately followed by a brief message about music and television coming together and then "You Better Run" by Pat Benatar. One hundred sixteen unique videos were played, spanning 209 spins over the first 24 hours; from the beginning, MTV used the rotation system and repeated popular videos throughout the day. "You Better You Bet" by the Who, which was also the first video to be repeated, "Just Between You and Me" by April Wine, and "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins were each played five times. Rod Stewart made the most total appearances that day with 16, with 11 of his videos being played.

 

[DanOregon]

The videos I remember most were the ones that were more interesting than the song. I'm never going to play this song, but the video is so watchable. I remember thinking, who IS this guy? I realize he is now married to the lovely Kathleen Beller, but this is such a quintessential MTV video: British/Euro, Overcastish skies, some kind of plot you tried to decipher, a woman you couldn't figure out if she was "hot" or not, and some random, wacky guy. Not really a shock that the video was conceived before the song was written.

 

[MisterCreosote]

The first videos I remember seeing were Michael’s ones from Thriller and Weird Al’s “Eat It.” I think I was 8 or so. My brother and I used to record all of the videos we liked onto VHS. We had multiple 6-hour cassettes full of hundreds of videos each.

Poison’s Fallen Angel made an impression only because the girl was so hot:



One thing I don’t miss are the made-for-MTV money-grab attempts to be the new “craze.” Walk The Dinosaur is a prime example:

 

[Cosmo]

Is that the book where they got Billy Squier PRANCE MOTHER****ER @Cosmo (Junkie apparently deleted himself, come back Junkie!) to talk about the career-ruining Rock Me Tonite video? If so, yup that's the best oral history ever.

I 100 percent think of the Prancing Billy Series any time I hear The Stroke in the wild.

 

[TigerVols]

First video that mattered, New Wave aisle.

 

[DanielSimpsonDay]

Riki Rachtman LOVED Sepultura (who just released an EP)

 

[Huggy]

Is that the book where they got Billy Squier PRANCE MOTHER****ER @Cosmo (Junkie apparently deleted himself, come back Junkie!) to talk about the career-ruining Rock Me Tonite video? If so, yup that's the best oral history ever.

Pretty sure that was the one that revealed that Ric Ocasek wore a wig

 

[Huggy]

This video, shot in December 1979 during the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea, was the 42nd video aired on MTV's first day: August 1, 1981. ... What took so long!?!



More about that first day, from Wikipedia: The first video to air on MTV was one emblematic of MTV's concept, the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star", which was then immediately followed by a brief message about music and television coming together and then "You Better Run" by Pat Benatar. One hundred sixteen unique videos were played, spanning 209 spins over the first 24 hours; from the beginning, MTV used the rotation system and repeated popular videos throughout the day. "You Better You Bet" by the Who, which was also the first video to be repeated, "Just Between You and Me" by April Wine, and "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins were each played five times. Rod Stewart made the most total appearances that day with 16, with 11 of his videos being played.

Rockpile would be the second greatest band Plant worked with, just a fantastic group on their own or backing whomever.

 

[Slacker]

Pretty sure that was the one that revealed that Ric Ocasek wore a wig

I'd always thought Ocasek was a stand-up guy.
Not quite, apparently, after I Googled the wig thing and found this ...

Under the Hood of ‘80s Rock Legends: 13 of the
Biggest Reveals in the New Book About the Cars

 

[Huggy]

I'd always thought Ocasek was a stand-up guy.
Not quite, apparently, after I Googled the wig thing and found this ...

Under the Hood of ‘80s Rock Legends: 13 of the
Biggest Reveals in the New Book About the Cars

Whoa, definitely the dangerous type to have in a band (or elsewhere). And Ben Orr was a such a great talent, fantastic singer.

 

[Here me roar]

Everyone raced to the TV in the dorm lounge when this came on.

 

[Slacker]

Whoa, definitely the dangerous type to have in a band (or elsewhere). And Ben Orr was a such a great talent, fantastic singer.

Agreed on Orr, and his voice was so cool. Died way too young.
I also read that Elliot Easton wore a wig, too.

"Candy-O" was a great song for Orr's baritone voice.