MTV is 30 years old today. What was your favorite early MTV video? - Page 2

Fearless Leader · #51 08-01-2011, 07:35 PM

Sledgehammer, hands down. It's the first video I ever remember seeing on MTV and it blew my little mind.

salinqmind · #52 08-01-2011, 07:42 PM

MEN WITHOUT HATS - The Safety Dance...I still LOVE it today.

Synchronicity II - The Police...in fact, anything by the Police, I had a massive, heartrending crush on Sting.

I saw a video of some woman singing a rather odd song, several times, didn't seem to fit in with the usual videos, and it both attracted and annoyed me, and finally the annoyance went away and I fell in love with The Man With The Child In His Eyes by Kate Bush.

Poison Arrow - by Berlin? So elegant in a Euro-trashy way, I suppose now.

Ant Music - Adam and the Ants. Everything by AatA, I just swooned.

Ashes to Ashes, Fashion, Let's Dance - David Bowie, of course.

Frankly, I liked every video right through the 80's. I have a lot of them taped on some VHS tapes. Such happy days, back in my prime.... Good times!

Arrendajo · #53 08-01-2011, 09:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Don Draper

Owner of a Lonely Heart - Yes

This one.

Number · #54 08-01-2011, 09:59 PM

Falco - Der Kommissar

You just don't see production values like that anymore.

BaneSidhe · #55 08-01-2011, 11:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiz

You're not the only one

Same here!

My fave early MTV video was "Hungry Like the Wolf" from Duran Duran. Old school Duranies represent!!

gaffa · #56 08-02-2011, 12:47 AM

I'm going to make a case for a few that haven't been mentioned:

"Brass in Pocket" -- The Pretenders
Chrissy actually did a reasonably decent acting job in this one, a rarity in the early video days.

"Surface Tension" -- Rupert Hines
This is obscure. The only copy on YouTube is the one I uploaded back in 2006.

Obscure fact? He's wearing the same outfit that Bowie later wore in Ashes to Ashes and Kate Bush wore in The Dreaming.

...but my favorite is definitely:

"Time Heals" -- Todd Rundgren

It doesn't look amazing compared to 30 years of technical advancement, but in the context of the other videos, it was amazing. Even more amazing is that Todd directed the thing in a video studio he built himself, spending $1,000,000 of his "Bat Out Of Hell" producer's fee.

NDP · #57 08-02-2011, 01:02 AM

I'm not going to name any videos but during the early years of MTV, the one rule I developed was that the best videos were often the ones that didn't take themselves seriously.

Bryan Ekers · #58 08-02-2011, 01:13 AM

I never watched MTV, but I recall the kerfuffle over the Justify My Love video. I didn't know what the big deal was; Paula Abdul's Cold Hearted (Snake) came out a year earlier and was a lot sexier.

Bryan Ekers · #59 08-02-2011, 01:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by salinqmind

MEN WITHOUT HATS - The Safety Dance...I still LOVE it today.

You know, that dance wasn't as safe as they said it was.

Koxinga · #60 08-02-2011, 01:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gaffa

Obscure fact? He's wearing the same outfit that Bowie later wore in Ashes to Ashes and Kate Bush wore in The Dreaming.

It's a Pierrot costume.

(Also, neither here nor there but I'd forgotten how much of a headache it gives me to watch Kate Bush.)

Agnostic Pagan · #61 08-02-2011, 02:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Don Draper

I remember there was a bit of a stir when this video came out. It was a minor hit in, I think '82 (it was later re-released after "Sweet Dreams" became a massive, era-defining hit and did much better.) But at the moment in the video when Annie Lennox rips off the blond wig to reveal her cropped hair, a lot of people thought that she was a man! (Remember that before Lennox, a woman in a crew-cut was almost unthinkable.)

I think I remember reading about that after the fact, part of learning just how ridiculous our country can be at times (most of the time?). I do remember a classmate of mine back in 8th grade when Sweet Dreams came out - she went completely punk and got a purple crewcut, Annie Lennox style, and remember how much flak she got for that also.

Quote:

On that track, here's a video that got played very early on - Like a Bad Girl Should by the Cramps. In its' very earliest days, MTV dis actually show some pretty risque stuff, but quickly toned it down to pretty much the standards of broadcast channels.

Yeah, I remember being slightly peeved about that - wasn't one of the main selling points of cable channels is that they did not have to abide by broadcast standards? That did not last long.

Quote:

Originally Posted by salinqmind

MEN WITHOUT HATS - The Safety Dance...I still LOVE it today.

I still love them also, (Pop Goes the World is my personal favorite of theirs) but they pissed me off as a teenager. Every time they came to Seattle, they always seemed to play only 21 and older venues - which never made sense to me. I could understand why The Cramps might do so, but not Men Without Hats. I don't know who their booking agent was, but someone was dropping the ball big time.

JpnDude · #62 08-02-2011, 02:44 AM

My all-time favorite pop song, The Reflex by Duran Duran.

gaffa · #63 08-02-2011, 02:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koxinga

It's a Pierrot costume.

Wrong. Watch all three videos. Bowie has a dozen different costumes in that video, and the point I linked to, 2 minutes and 22 seconds in, he's wearing something that looks like a still-suit from Dune. It has tubes all over it.

Quote:

(Also, neither here nor there but I'd forgotten how much of a headache it gives me to watch Kate Bush.)

Your loss.

Bearflag70 · #64 08-02-2011, 03:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by salinqmind

Poison Arrow - by Berlin?

ABC

Koxinga · #65 08-02-2011, 03:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gaffa

Wrong. Watch all three videos. Bowie has a dozen different costumes in that video, and the point I linked to, 2 minutes and 22 seconds in, he's wearing something that looks like a still-suit from Dune. It has tubes all over it.

Your loss.

Whatever, dude.

Icerigger · #66 08-02-2011, 05:13 AM

Rio Duran-Duran

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3W6yf6c-FA

CaptMurdock · #67 08-02-2011, 06:54 AM

R.E.M. - Stand.

corkboard · #68 08-02-2011, 07:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dinahmoe

"On the Loose" by Saga. We did that as a drum solo in marching band my sophomore year of high school.

Yeah, that's it. Saga. Huh.

A couple more: Tom Petty's post-apocalyptic world view in You Got Lucky. Africa, by Toto.

Dung Beetle · #69 08-02-2011, 07:58 AM

One of the all-time greats, Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. When I hear this song, my head automatically tilts side to side at the part where she does it in the video.

Now, this one is my favorite video ever made. Tom Petty’s Don’t Come Around Here No More. If I were Tom, I’d never take that costume off. Alice cake FTW!

Koxinga · #70 08-02-2011, 09:16 AM

Corey Hart, Sunglasses at Night

Uncle Jocko · #71 08-02-2011, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Don Draper

Owner of a Lonely Heart - Yes

Thanks for posting the long version of this video. I remember the first time I saw it .. it starts like any old performance video in some studio, and got all the way to the chorus, but then .. WTF? Band members turning into animals? The entire song starting over? Some dark movie-like thing set in a fascistic society? Very cool. Of course, soon they started playing the shortened/combined version which wasn't nearly as cool.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NDP

I'm not going to name any videos but during the early years of MTV, the one rule I developed was that the best videos were often the ones that didn't take themselves seriously.

Weird Al! I love his stuff ... Ricky, I Lost On Jeopardy, Eat It, Fat ... remember when he'd "take over" the network and call it AlTV? "Fish heads, fish heads, roly poly fish heads ..."

JohnT · #72 08-02-2011, 10:55 AM

Michael Jackson's Billie Jean which was, iirc, the first video ever put in regular rotation by MTV which featured an African-American artist.

On March, 2nd, 1983, nearly two years after the network debuted.

SeldomSeen · #73 08-02-2011, 11:28 AM

I didn't pay MTV much mind at first....until my girlfriend at the time told me about this really neat video she'd fallen in love with. It was Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart. So, watching it with her, this was my introduction to the music video as a separate art format. I always kind of liked Bonnie Tyler, so it was a good choice for an intro.

Interesting aside - I looked up some background info on Bonnie Tyler prior to writing this. I never knew, until now, that she was originally from Wales. Had always just assumed she was an American artist. Ignorance fought!
SS

Infovore · #74 08-02-2011, 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeldomSeen

I didn't pay MTV much mind at first....until my girlfriend at the time told me about this really neat video she'd fallen in love with. It was Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart. So, watching it with her, this was my introduction to the music video as a separate art format. I always kind of liked Bonnie Tyler, so it was a good choice for an intro.

Interesting aside - I looked up some background info on Bonnie Tyler prior to writing this. I never knew, until now, that she was originally from Wales. Had always just assumed she was an American artist. Ignorance fought!
SS

You *have* seen the literal version of this, right? If not, go there now! You won't be disappointed

(sorry if this was posted before and I missed it--I didn't read through every response).

My favorite early video is The Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This). I'm straight, but to this day I have a mad girl-crush on Annie Lennox from that video, with her orange hair and her suit and her riding crop.