Happy 30th, MTV -- Your early MTV memories??? archived

This...



...and this...



... made me get cable and MTV... and this is the first video I saw...

You can thank MTV for reality television. They launched The Real World in the early 90's....Years before Survivor and everything else that followed.

I watched the beginning of MTV at a bar in Columbus, OH. There was a crowd gathered around to view this new genre, the music video. We were all mesmerized and feeling like we were at an important event. I remember thinking that it was interesting and romantically artistic, but that it as just starting out and would evolve into something significant later. But It's been 30+ years now and I'm still waiting.

boomie said:

He aged nicely.

Could not agree more! He looks great. And my memory of MTV was being bitterly pissed off that we did not have cable where I lived. I had to visit my friends on Long Island who had cablevision (and those crazy boxes where you had to push down the buttons for the channels). Did not get to watch it regularly until the mid 80s when I went to college.

So, you don't think MTV was anything significant? It changed music completely. Introduced reality tv and more. You may not like it ( I certainly don't watch anymore) but I would have a hard time making an argument that it wasn't significant.

conandrob240 said:

So, you don't think MTV was anything significant? It changed music completely. Introduced reality tv and more. You may not like it ( I certainly don't watch anymore) but I would have a hard time making an argument that it wasn't significant.

You are very right. MTV was revolutionary and had a huge impact on television and the music industry. There is no way to argue that.

I Want My MTV!

Ok, maybe significant was not the word I was looking for. I was thinking it was going to be a really high art form (although I long ago stopped distinguishing between high and low art). I thought it was going to be really good, like great movie good. It's not bad, and sometimes entertaining or beautiful, but I thought it was going to be so much more. Despite the introduction of reality TV (which started with the Loud Family documentary, BTW--MTV did not invent the genre), it still seems somewhat static. Music videos now, except for changes in clothing/hair style, are about the same as they were back then. Lots of deep thinking singers juxtaposed with babes. Am I missing something?--I hardly ever watch, so perhaps.

Really high art form? Really? What videos could you have been watching that would give you that impression?

Some were great, weren't they? Thriller comes to mind. And one of my faves of all time was " Take on Me" which I think was "art". Sometimes they made you think, sometimes they made you cry, sometimes they were just plain fun. Isn't that all you can ask of art?

Agree on the evolution andstatic part- not much has been added or improved over past 15 years or so.

Another of my all-time faves...

But . . . it's pop music. Disposability and recycling are the point!

Did anyone watch U68 in NYC around the same time? That was a COOL channel. UHF and all new videos. And don't forget WLIR...awesome radio. I miss radio...

Ahhh, MTV. I was in first grade and didn't watch much for the first couple of years but I do remember my babysitters being GLUED to it for hours. Then when I started babysitting, I was then at the edge of the bed watching Headbangers Ball or some other late night show.

The first video I remember seeing is "allentown" by Billy Joel. I seem to recall there were scantily clad male union workers in that vid. Am I making that up? I know I can find it, but I don't want to ruin my memory if I'm wrong!

Thats a great tune.

hoops beat me to it! That's my primary memory. I think I first saw it in the same bar nan did, in Columbus OH. Didn't Elvis die that summer?

Couldn't stand Martha Quinn. Downtown Julie Brown was pretty cool

cynicalgirl said:

Couldn't stand Martha Quinn. Downtown Julie Brown was pretty cool

Martha Quinn was a dopey wannabe with no cred at all. Appeared to be on downers most of the time.

Any sightings of Nina Blackwood? I still have a small pin when MTV celebrated its first birthday. Guy behind me in my college bio class's brother worked for them.

Now SHE was a real rocker.

No that was later than Elvis's demise by a few years. What bar was that, BTW? The one I was in was rumored to have a dirt floor, but I think it was just dirty. it did have a nice porch.

Nina Blackwood!!!! Yay!

Couldn't have been Larry's. I think it was on Indianola. Not the Blue 'Dube...

But Elvis died when I was in Ohio, and I was only there 1976-1979...my memory is going.

It was on a side street. I think it was white. Not Larry's, which attracted graduate students and other people who valued brains. But, I was must have just missed you, arriving in 1980.

Didn't MTV help Bill Clinton get elected? That's significant.

It's sad that I can still name all 5 of the original Video Jockeys (without resorting to Google) but I can't even remember my kids' teachers' names sometimes. I guess my 13-year-old brain committed some MTV facts to Permanent Memory.

Back then there was no such thing as stereo TV. For a while they had a free simulcast on some radio station so you could get better sound. I thought that was really cool.

now MTV sucks.
sorry.