All day today VH1 Classic is showing MTV's first day of programming. Minus the VJ segments unfortunately, but they are showing all the videos. We've watched a couple of hours, time shifted on the DVR so we can skip the bad videos. Of which there are many. It's quite a mixed bag. Along with the commonplace videos there were some really good, unusual things like the Specials and Split Enz. (Which reminds me, I remember reading that Michael Jackson was the first black artist played on MTV, but there are black members of the Specials. I guess they meant bands where the lead singer was black.) And also some really bad unusual videos. Lots of repetition too. I guess due to the relative newness of videos, they had to work with what they had. (It begs the question, why did videos exist before MTV?) It comes off like the "Rod Stewart and REO Speedwagon Channel" at times. Thank god for the DVR and fast forward.
Right now we're watching "Message of Love" by the Pretenders. For the second time today. I'm surprised by how much I like this song. Also, Chrissy Hynde was working quite the mod look. The shape of her hair is more of an early 80's shag, but the long thick bangs, heavy eyes and pale lips are totally mod. I had been thinking that I couldn't do a heavy mod eye because my eyes are too small. But her eyes are fairly small and she made it work. Maybe I should dig out those false eyelashes.
6 Comments
The first two videos I saw on MTV (mid-82, probably) were "Night Boat to Cairo" by Madness and "Once in a Lifetime" (the original one, of course) by Talking Heads. I think that a Missing Persons video may have come after those two.
In '83-'84 I wasted nearly 25% of my junior year watching MTV in my dorm lounge. The converter broke senior year and nobody bothered fixing it, so things were better. And I had two awesome girlfriends, so it all worked out.
Still, MTV still had its influence that year. In calculus class we learned about the "Mean Value Theorem" (aka you can't get there from here without going through somewhere in between) and I wanted to make a big print in the style of MTV's logo saying "MVT -- Mean Value Theorem. All Day. All Night. In Stereo."
I'm still friends with one of those girlfriends. Wishing I was still friends with the other one. She was frickin' awesome.
How could she bear those bangs right in her eyes? That would have driven me crazy. Although I had one long side-bang in high school that covered my eye completely. But not both!
I did a lot of FF past REO Speedwagon and Rod Stewart videos myself, yesterday :-)
The first video I ever saw was "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" by Kenny Rodgers in his psychedelic days. There were a few TV stations that would occasionally play a video as a part of whatever else they were doing, on the variety shows. It may have even appeared on the old Smothers Brothers show, can't recall. I remember it as a very 60's video in stylings. This was pre-MTV, so I was thinking, "Awesome, there oughtta be more of these!" Now, I think, uh. 'Been there, done that, passed on the t-shirt.'
Because Chrissy Hynde can do anything, that's how.
Oh and Martha Quinn. Sigh...
This website is freakin' boring. whats the freakin point
I think this comment is hilarious. The site is freakin' boring because I'm freakin' boring! That's the point! It's all about me me, freakin' boring me!