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Special Report
MTV at 30
Thirty years ago today, MTV launched the 1980s by playing “Video Killed the Radio Star.”
Thirty years ago today, MTV launched the 1980s by playing “Video Killed the Radio Star.”
If The Buggles’ clip portended a Jetsonsesque future, first-day fare by Leo Sayer, Andrew Gold, and Cliff Richard suggested that the cable upstart didn’t initially seek to revolutionize as much as fill airtime. Every hour or so, the network played a three-minute reminder of how much of a square Rod Stewart had become since leaving The Faces. And does anything say '70s louder than the 29th song aired, Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street”? But on the day the cable gods created Music Television, videos by The Pretenders, Nick Lowe, and Split Enz demonstrated a creature of the moment at least attempting to broadcast in its moment.
Early MTV exuded cool. The audacious expropriation of the lunar landing indicated that a network that reached just a few thousand cable subscribers in New Jersey envisioned itself as something out of this world. From a manic Pete Townshend shouting “I Want My MTV!” to a faux presidential run by Randee of the Redwoods, decade-one station promos made the perfunctory entertaining. In its forever morphing color scheme and polkadot-to-stripes-to-whatever patterns, the logo even broke the rules. It’s the small details that made MTV a big deal.
The channel served as the greatest promotional vehicle in the history of popular music. It made not just individual acts but whole genres. Crushes on synth-driven New Wave, power-ballad Hair Metal, anti-star Alternative, late-'90s Crunch Metal, and poppy Boy Bands ensured young America’s infatuation. It abruptly went from making bands to breaking the music industry. It is fitting that by the end of MTV’s music video run its heavy rotation consisted of Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, and other “artists” best appreciated on mute. The Music had been conquered by the Television. Hadn’t MTV signaled this fate in its first minutes on the air?
The inaugural video’s foreshadowing was hardly limited to the visual trumping the audio. The plastic clothing, robotic vocals, and synthetic keyboards of “Video Killed the Radio Star” suggested an artificial future.
MTV’s staged authenticity fooled a global audience when a student asked Bill Clinton, “Boxers or briefs?” after producers had planted the question to the president’s high-school interrogators. In The Real World, producer-instigated scenarios present a spectacle in which the vicarious living of the viewer occurs through the intermediary of a behind-the-scenes controller vicariously living through an onscreen twentysomething avatar. The Hills honestly tackled this dishonesty by brilliantly concluding its run with the camera panning back to stage hands removing a set behind the beautiful people in whose supposed real lives the viewers had engrossed themselves and then fading to an image of the “Hollywood” sign. At least the housewives hooked on old-school soap operas grasped that the drama was, well, drama.
So when MTV called itself Music Television long after it had killed the music the name’s surface-to-substance disconnect meshed perfectly with its what-you-see-isn’t-what-you-get programming. The “M” stands for manufactured.
Viacom announced in February 2010 that MTV no longer stood for Music Television, a redundancy on par with China conceding that it’s not actually a People’s Republic. Music Television was born on August 1, 1981. When it died is a point of debate. In the mid-1980s when it axed its original five VJs? In 1987 when Remote Control, its first foray away from music, aired? In 1992 when seven strangers met on The Real World? Later that decade when programmers ran sexual indoctrination films on a weekend loop as though viewers lived in a closed-circuit reeducation camp?
At each step away from the music, the complaints grew. So did the ratings. Fueled by trash-TV favorites Teen Mom and Jersey Shore, MTV springboarded into this summer off of six straight quarters of ratings growth. Crap sells.
It would be understandable if the house guests who let Snooki, the Dog Brothers, and Gary and Amber into your living room would never again be welcome. But MTV also introduced us to Courtney Cox, Carson Daly, and Mike Judge, and aired high caliber experimental fare such as The State, Liquid Television, The Tom Green Show, and True Life. Occasional excellence ensured that, even after the videos had disappeared, habituated early viewers reappeared for their fix only to find a let down. The MTV that had initially attracted our remotes had, like that forever-fluctuating logo, become another station entirely.
Targeting the same demographic paradoxically caused its programming to forever shift. As one generation outgrows MTV, another one — with different interests — takes its place. A graduate of the class of ‘81 creepily hangs out in the familiar teenage haunts. We grew up. MTV never did.
Amusements enjoyed at 17 — pool hopping, drinking in the football bleachers, random prank phone calls — get you arrested at 37. Watching MTV should be one such activity.
I want my MTV. I keep getting some younger kid’s MTV.
About the Author
Daniel J. Flynn, the author of The War on Football: Saving America’s Game, blogs at www.flynnfiles.com.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (36) | Leave a comment
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k962| 8.1.11 @ 7:28AM
Jersey Shore is just a bunch of supermarket bag boys and bimbos who couldn't locate the Mississippi
River on a map acting out their crude lifetyles. This makes for a TV show?
JimH| 8.1.11 @ 7:56AM
I don't know if MTVs move from playing videos is a chicken or egg thing. I really haven’t seen a good video since the eighties. Some favorites were Dire Strait’s ’Money For Nothing’, Aha’s ‘Take On Me’ and any done by the Cars.
Larry| 8.1.11 @ 7:58AM
MTV is a disgusting waste.
Michael Tomlinson| 8.1.11 @ 8:20AM
Waste of time. Since Obama wants to raise taxes we should have targeted tax increases for liberal businesses like MTV. Wouldn't you bet Obama would be mad?
albert constantine jr.| 8.1.11 @ 8:29AM
"My blood runs cold, my memories have just been sold..."
Early in 1982, when I first became exposed to MTV, I predicted that it wouldn't last. I posited that to fully enjoy music videos, you had to pay more attention to it than radio, which is often on in the background as people perform other activities. In the end, I was right about the videos, but wrong about MTV.
By the way, a local MTV trivia point with a contempoary national twist:
The man who first brought MTV parties to the University of Delaware/ Delaware area was Bill Stevenson, then-owner of the Stone Balloon night club. Bill Stevenson's ex-wife Jill is now known as Dr. Biden, wife of the VPOTUS (this marriage is usually not mentioned in Mrs. Biden's biography, as Mr. Stevenson did serve state and federal rison time for not doing his patriotic duty and evading taxes).
Bob Grant| 8.1.11 @ 9:17AM
So Mr. Stevenson didn't pay his taxes? He of the Soak The Rich crowd I'm sure.
Seek| 8.1.11 @ 11:49AM
Fascinating anecdote. Nightclub owners always have been a crude mix of the endearing and the slimy -- like the Sopranos' Silvio Dante. They do manage to get laid a lot.
Le Cracquere| 8.1.11 @ 8:52AM
An ever-so-minor correction/amplification: even though "Remote Control" was MTV's first ORIGINAL content not to be a music video, it was slightly predated by reruns of the anarchic British sitcom "The Young Ones" (kind of a live-action "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" with Brits). The "Narnia" episode alone was worth the price of admission. Rik Mayall's character remains one of the cruellest parodies ever of fatuous leftism. And who can forget the fierce battle of wills over who would vacate the couch to turn the channel back to "Bastard Squad"?
POST American| 8.1.11 @ 8:53AM
----Ahhhh for the days of Tavistock Institute
and Theo Adorno's 'spontaneous feel good culture' at the service of the Rockefeller/CFR/RIIA/ Milner Group demoralization op!
--BEYOND THAT?
-------'80's Show' Tavistock complacency and
DIS-traction ALERT!------
REALLY
TRULY
Mike Hawk| 8.1.11 @ 2:48PM
HMM, I see you got away from your handlers again. Don't worry, as soon as they catch up they will give you your meds and you will feel better.
JP| 8.1.11 @ 9:06AM
The greatest legacy of MTV was its series Beavis and Butthead. It's biting irony concerning latch key kids glued to endless hours of crap serves as a more effective critique of pop culture than any essay ever could.
Bob Grant| 8.1.11 @ 9:10AM
One word that comes to mind when looking back at the birth of MTV >>>>>>>>> Novelty.
Before it's time, it would be a rare treat for music fans to get a visual image (picture or moving) of their favorite artists. Album covers generally depicted artwork in lieu of photos of the artist(s). Your only chance of catching a picture of them performing were through periodicals such as Rolling Stone, Cream, or other music magazines. Rarer still were moving images; if you were lucky enough to catch them on Midnight Special, Saturday Night Live, or Don Kirshner's Rock Concert.
Heck, I had no idea what many of the members of my favorite bands looked like. Nor really cared for that matter. It made attending live concerts an even more special event because of the novelty of watching live performances of songs you listen to repeatedly on FM (which was cool in an of itself).
It was all about the audio.
Along came MTV, a compilation of cheesily produced music videos, promo videos previously dedicated only to music industry insiders, rare live concert performances, and endearingly goofy DJ's. A fun, innocent, way for young adults to kill a few hours. There didn't seem to be a hidden social agenda. It was what it was. Nothing more.
Now, not so much.
Matthew Quigley| 8.1.11 @ 9:49AM
I was a teenager when MTV debuted, and I always enjoyed the videos. I stopped enjoying MTV as the videos became scarcer and the crap became more prevalent. Beavis and Butthead was a good laugh, and did parody the video culture which had emerged by that time (I refer to the "commentary" B&B gave to the video breaks between trying to join Todd's gang or driving Buzzcut up the wall). Now all MTV is is the most revolting reality programming (and honestly, isn't ALL reality programming pretty revolting? WTH does Ax Men or Ice Road Truckers have to do with history???) and depictions of societal decay (the rap videos they DO show periodically) imagineable.
I miss the days when MTV was good...up until about 1984.
Doctor Right| 8.1.11 @ 10:30AM
MTV went downhill fast in the late 80's when the network buckled to pressure from the usual race-baiting suspects claiming that they didn't play enough music for "people of color", meaning not enough rap or hip-hop.
The correct response would have been to say "Well, Mr. Race-Baiter...that's nice of you to tell us, but frankly, we're doing well without that kind of "music", and that's not our audience, either. Our audience are basically middle-class and upper-middle class white kids who like rock, new wave, and punk music. MAYBE you could start your own video network?"
Like I said, that would have been the best answer. The worst answer would have been to cave-in to the pressure, and that's exactly what MTV did.
Most of us white, middle-class and upper-middle class white kids who'd been with them since the Buggles and "Video Killed the Radio Star" began to jump ship.
I haven't watched since.
Sure...MTV has been highly successful since then - and let's be honest, it was never high art - but in my humble opinion, if you serve up enough s*** sandwiches, you'll find enough people who think it's tasty.
Our culture has become so vulgar that they've found the viewers.
Bon apetit!
Bob Grant| 8.1.11 @ 12:54PM
Right,
Now that you mention it, the Jump the Shark Moment could have occurred when Run DMC collaborated with Aerosmith on the Walk This Way remake. What soon followed were artists like the Beastie Boys which, in effect, lost me as a loyal viewer and switched over to their sister channel VH1. You could be on to something.
You could also make a case, however, those gawd awful hairspray metal bands were their ruination. Any way you slice it, those two events ushered in high absurdity (hairspray metal bands) and attitude (Run DMC) culminating in the trash they call entertainment today.
Compare the Billboard top 40 list from 30 years ago to today. Case Closed!!!!
But what do I know, I'm just a middle-aged white guy with irrelevant musical tastes.
Ron| 8.1.11 @ 12:49PM
"1985"
by Bowling For Soup
Woohoohoo
Woohoohoo
Debbie just hit the wall
She never had it all
One Prozac a day
Husband's a CPA
Her dreams went out the door
When she turned twenty four
Only been with one man
What happened to her plan?
She was gonna be an actress
She was gonna be a star
She was gonna shake her ass
On the hood of Whitesnake’s car
Her yellow SUV is now the enemy
Looks at her average life
And nothing has been alright since
Bruce Springsteen, Madonna
Way before Nirvana
There was U2 and Blondie
And music still on MTV
Her two kids in high school
They tell her that she’s uncool
Cause she's still preoccupied
With 19, 19, 1985
Woohoohoo
(1985)
Woohoohoo
She’s seen all the classics
She knows every line
Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink
Even Saint Elmo’s Fire
She rocked out to Wham
Not a big Limp Bizkit fan
Thought she’d get a hand
On a member of Duran Duran
Where’s the mini-skirt made of snake skin
And who’s the other guy that's singing in Van Halen
When did reality become T.V.
Whatever happened to sitcoms, game shows
(on the radio was)
Springsteen, Madonna
Way before Nirvana
There was U2 and Blondie
And music still on MTV
Her two kids in high school
They tell her that she’s uncool
Cause she's still preoccupied
With 19, 19, 1985
Woohoohoo
She hates time make it stop
When did Motley Crue become classic rock?
And when did Ozzy become an actor?
Please make this stop
Stop!
And bring back
Springsteen, Madonna
Way before Nirvana
There was U2 and Blondie
And music still on MTV
Her two kids in high school
They tell her that she’s uncool
Cause she's still preoccupied
With 1985
Woohoohoo
Bruce Springsteen, Madonna
Way before Nirvana
There was U2 and Blondie
And music still on MTV (woohoohoo)
Her two kids in high school
They tell her that she’s uncool
Cause she's still preoccupied
With 19, 19, 1985
Sugar Ray| 8.1.11 @ 7:08PM
The music's over;
There's no time on MTV.
The music's over,
Unless it's by 'N Sync or me...
The video-o-o-os
Had to go...
Sorry, bro;
They had to go.
All the songs that they used to play;
Research says they got in the way.
The MTV that you used to know
Was tossed out the window.
Now they bring you the Tom Green Show,
Nineteen commercials in a row,
Kiddie porn with the Undressed cast,
Followed by Jackass.
And did you know?
The channel's run by rich old white guys.
Yes, it's true:
They'd strangle kittens if you'd watch it. (Sounds like fun.)
And did you know, know, know, know?
The CEO
Of MTV
Is a hundred and three.
All the songs that they used to play;
Research says they got in the way.
The MTV that you used to know
Was tossed out the window.
Grab a friend and sit down and watch
Behind The Scenes with Britanny's crotch.
The MTV that you used to know
Was tossed out the window.
Mike Hawk| 8.1.11 @ 2:50PM
MTV. Never have viewed it and don't want to. Call me an ol'fart if you want to. I have no use for mind numbing drivel.
Mike Hawk| 8.1.11 @ 2:50PM
MTV. Never have viewed it and don't want to. Call me an ol'fart if you want to. I have no use for mind numbing drivel.
Mike Hawk| 8.1.11 @ 2:50PM
MTV. Never have viewed it and don't want to. Call me an ol'fart if you want to. I have no use for mind numbing drivel.
Seek| 10.29.12 @ 5:15PM
So how do you know it's "mind-numbing drivel" if you've never watched it? Surely, empiricism counts for something.
mames| 8.1.11 @ 3:25PM
The best "music video" comes in the context of a movie scored by the genius composers working in that fields in collaboration with the editor. (Goldsmith, WIlliams, Knofler, Jarre, ....) The music actually fits the story and has reason and purpose and the combination can leave life long sound tracked images in your head.
Bob Grant| 8.1.11 @ 3:29PM
Like the theme music to the Police Academy movies? ...I can't seem to shake loose those ditties from my noggin.
doramin| 10.30.12 @ 4:47AM
Amen brutha!
For about the last hundred years or so, all the real composers have done their work in the movies.
It's really that simple.
Shane| 8.1.11 @ 3:46PM
There were some good music videos out there before MTV hit the airwaves. MTV gave them a venue for mass appeal. Plus, the VJ's were cool and gave some insights. I was living in Australia in 1979 and they had a good music video show hosted by Molly Meldrum, I believe. I think the states was used to more live music stuff from Dick Clark, Soul Train, Midnight Special, Don Kirschner, Saturday Night Live. MTV for me was like the moon landing-as an event. I enjoyed VH1 when MTV abdicated their video duty. I miss looking at music videos sometimes, especially when somebody else is playing them, and hearing trivia about bands-and what's up now.
PCP Smoker| 8.1.11 @ 8:39PM
Is that crap still around? Let's experiment with Sharia in NYC and shut this crap down. Let's stone those libs too.
mike| 8.2.11 @ 11:29PM
if my choice is gay marriage and teen moms on MTV or sharia law, this conservative votes for sharia law.
don't mention stoning, they will misunderstand and get a goofy look on their faces.
Seek| 10.29.12 @ 5:16PM
I have an easier solution to your problem: Move to Iran. And stay there.
scorfield| 8.1.11 @ 10:40PM
Wouldn't you bet Obama would be mad?
http://www.summer-products.com
http://www.ainibag.com
sama| 8.1.11 @ 10:41PM
What soon followed were artists like the Beastie Boys which, in effect, lost me as a loyal viewer and switched over to their sister channel VH1. You could be on to something.
http://www.summer-products.com
POST American| 8.2.11 @ 12:02AM
--------------------BOTTOM LINE----------------------
MTV = MORE Tell---A---Vision
All scripted, funded, engineered, directed
by establishment Freemasonry and the usual
deviants behind the curtains.
"Understand, the culture is put there,
from the top down, to standardize, humiliate
and finally degrade you. It's ALLLLLL
at the service of the EUGENICS of a
psychopathic, inbred dominant minority.
You can NEVER pull something good and
normal out of what's psycho-pathic and
AB-normal. ---IMPOSSIBLE,"
-ALAN WATT
He was there. He was in it and part of it.
HE KNOWS.
DO get beyond these Rockefeller/CFR fronts
and START the DEE-program.
REALLY
TRULY
The Bruce| 8.2.11 @ 1:22AM
I remember several years ago that MTV, realizing they weren't music television any longer, created a spinoff called "M2" that actually played videos.
Does that thing still exist?
Lord Karth| 8.2.11 @ 3:34PM
I was a freshman in college when MTV made its debut, Mr. Flynn. I never saw it, never had any great desire to see it, and have not seen any of its programming in any of its manifestations.
The problem was that I was too busy getting ready to make, and then making, a living. I seriously doubt I missed much.
Do yourself a favor, sirrah. Put the remote down, turn the television set off, and pick up a book. You'll not only feel better, you'll thank yourself in the morning.
Your servant,
Lord Karth
mike| 8.2.11 @ 11:26PM
Just had my 30th high school reunion. Who were those middle aged people crashing the party?
Had an interview for med school in 1985, asked what I thought of MTV. Said it was a waste of time.
Some answers are eternally true, except for early 90's grunge.
Here we are now, entertain us.
guess MTV took that one to heart
POST American| 8.3.11 @ 12:16AM
Understand, the non-stop loop of engineered
'POP" music culture is there to end, to 'POP'
culture as world standardization and EUGENICS
are wheeled in.
Recorded culture, electronically looped,
over time amounts to not just vapid degradation
of the TRUE cultural spirit in men ---but,
in fact, NECROMANCY.
What you're listening to is pre-recorded ---is OVER, has been
OVER, and thereby FINISHING YOU OFF.