DKRC was on back-to-back with Night Flight back in the day. That’s where I first heard The Residents, Frank Zappa, Prince and Minutemen. I’m pretty sure it’s where I first learned about “Bob” Dobbs, too. Good times!
Girls On Film by Duran Duran was a shocking, amazing, fascinating video at a very formative time in my youth. It caused me to, well, spend many hours in my bunk. I recently found the uncensored version on youtube, and was surprised how much they cut it for Mtv. Even edited, it made quite the impression on this young teen.
There was this one video that they played in fairly regular rotation, don’t think I’ve heard the name of the band before or since but the song’s refrain was something like “No one can stop us now, tonight we’re on the loose!”. It was a concert video, and the lead singer was very sweaty in some sort of yellow track suit with a tank top, and knee pads. At one point he went over to the keyboard and hammered out a solo, which I can still hear in my head. I really don’t know the significance of the knee pads.
Hey (don’t forget) Mickey!
Pretty good looking lady at 39.
Its amazing how many of the “characters” in the video are still news/newsworthy/discussed today.
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.)
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.
Does anyone remember the interview that VJ Martha Quinn did with (I think) the singer from Motley Crue where it looked as if the pair were passing a joint between them off-camera (the camera would be on Quinn, she would be holding her hand just off-camera to him, the camera would switch to him and he would be passing something back to her, and there would be a faint wisp of smoke disappearing in the air. I can’t find anything online about it, but I remember everyone in school talking about that the next day.
Once in a Lifetime- Talking Heads
I still do the “chopping arm” motion once in a while for no special reason.
The Metro by Berlin
Came on after Austin City Limits, young whippersnapper!
“On the Loose” by Saga. We did that as a drum solo in marching band my sophomore year of high school.
Yep. Same as it ever was.
Sledgehammer, hands down. It’s the first video I ever remember seeing on MTV and it blew my little mind.
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!
This one.
You just don’t see production values like that anymore.
Same here!
My fave early MTV video was “Hungry Like the Wolf” from Duran Duran. Old school Duranies represent!!
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:
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.
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.
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.
You know, that dance wasn’t as safe as they said it was.
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.)