I do, and thought they were the answer to my prayers. But what’s happened to them over the last 10 years? All those stupid shows. Where’s the music? They play only about 1/20 of the videos that they played in 1982. WHY???
I never quite understood what changed with MTV–I guess it was a change with the times… Bah.
I watched MTV every Sunday night, taping * 120 Minutes* because it made me feel soooo alternative. Besides, I loved the Cure and Depeche Mode–and this was the only time that MTV didn’t show the big hair bands. I still have some of the tapes from back then, and watch them now and again to get a major flashback to my junior year in high school.
Yeah, pkbites, I’ve been wondering the same thing. Even for the few videos they do show, it seems like they don’t show them in their entirety. Or, they just show rap videos.
Hey, mmmmmawwwwan, remember the 80’s!?
–Tim
I wish I could get M2, where they play just videos. And not only do they play just videos, but they often select some very culty, fringey stuff. You’d think there’d be room on the cable dial for M2, but it’s satellite-only.
“Video killed the radio star”. Ya, I remember it very well.
They were soo cool when they opened shop, and I don’t like what they turned in to, but I’m sure they found 'mo money in their current format.
If it’s any consolation, ‘Celebrity Deathmatch’ can be pretty damn funny at times…
By the time 120 Minutes was introduced MTV had already started to go downhill. That was when they consigned new wave or new music or whatever the hell it was called back then into a weekly timeslot and stopped mixing it in with their regular programming. Prior to that you could put on MTV any time during the day and have a good chance of seeing lots of obscure bands’ videos.
IRS’s Cutting Edge, remember that show? Now that was brilliant.
<Aside>
I happened to catch the latest Madonna video yesterday - she’s wearing more slap than Joan Collins with a hangover, BTW - and it starred Ali G.
Does this mean that Ali G has officially hit the States ?
Yeah, I remember it.
I knew i was getting older whe nI found myself relating more to VH1.
And they play more videos too.
Yes. I thought it was a bad idea at the time. Now I think it’s a horrible idea.
I was watching MTV just one month after it first went “on the air”. Brings back memories. I remember when they didn’t have enough videos or something, and they would play those weird films of stock footage, set to techno music as an “intermission” occasionally.
I think the first video I ever saw on it was a Van Halen concert video of “You Really Got Me”. Either that, or it was the Go-Go’s “Our Lips are Sealed”. sigh.
[QUOTE
I watched MTV every Sunday night, taping * 120 Minutes* because it made me feel soooo alternative. Besides, I loved the Cure and Depeche Mode–and this was the only time that MTV didn’t show the big hair bands. I still have some of the tapes from back then, and watch them now and again to get a major flashback to my junior year in high school.
**[/QUOTE]
Me too, except for the taping bit I was too lazy.
I remember watching 120 Minutes every week in high school too. Wasn’t Dave Kendall great?
Of course, I was growing up in a musically backward part of Pennsylvania where even the college stations played classic rock. I probably wouldn’t have thought too much of it if I’d lived within receiving distance of a half-decent station. Therefore MTV’s saving grace: Corporate, increasingly one-dimensional and vapid though it may have been, it brought a few good tunes to a cultural wasteland.
In response to the O.P.:
If I remember my advertising courses correctly, the main problem facing MTV is a transitory audience. A bad song comes on and ‘click’. Advertisers don’t like that. They want a group that is glued in for a set amount of time. MTV was losing money big time only a few years after its inception.
MTV had to come up with ideas to ‘hook’ viewers in for a specific amount, or block, of time. They started coming up with shows that did just that. Head-bangers ball, Remote Control, 120 Minutes and so on. It worked. It had to work or they couldn’t remain profitable. All the shows were aimed at a different demographic. The shows that didn’t create revenue were dropped. The money makers stayed. What you’re seeing is the higher rated shows. Ads run the networks kiddo.
The same thing happened over at MTV’s spin-off VH-1 (All are owned by media giant VIACOM). The point of VH-1 was to bring a higher brow viewer to the screen that MTV was missing. All videos made money at first, but soon lagged. Therefore, they created programs that fit their older audience- Behind the Music, Fashion File, etc… It worked. Ratings went up.
All music just can’t cut it in todays market. MTV2 will probably do the same sometime soon, filing a niche that MTV and VH-1 are currently missing now. That is, YOU. It’s simply a matter of economics.
Yep. About August 1 1980. Sat there for days goin’ “Jeez, this is so cool. Pass the spleef.” Back then they played videos all the time. Very little talk. Only four ‘VJ’s’. Mark Goodman, Nina Backwell, Some blonde guy with the last name of Hunter (I think), and some perky brunette.
Jeez I’m old.
I remember it! I saw during very first video they aired too. “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles
I don’t even necessarily remember the 80s; even a few years ago (when I first got MTV) they had long periods of time with only music. And they sure ruined that first impression later.
When was that, 1982? I may have been 9, but I was extremely excited about an all music video channel. I remember watching when it first came on, before the first video (I think), when Adam or some other puffy-haired male VJ was saying something to the effect of, “Welcome to MTV, and entirely new type of television channel that is all music, blah blah blah.”
I also remember taping “Video Jukebox” on HBO. Anyone remember that? I honestly think I still have some of the tapes–with “Like a Virgin,” “Keeping the Faith,” “Sad Songs Say So Much,” “Against All Odds,” and that Culture Club song…what was it? Not “Karma Chameleon;” something about truth and a bunch of guys on a big game board. BG had bright red hair in that one, IIRC.
I didn’t know that it was brand new, but while on vacation in South Dakota I ran across MTV on the motel TV. Even my friends with cable hadn’t talked about this yet. It blew my mind. I had never heard Flock of Seagulls before. It changed my life. 
That would be Ian Hunter and Martha Quinn