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Post by kds on Aug 2, 2021 12:38:03 GMT
It's hard to believe MTV has been around for four decades, although at this point, they might want to consider assigning a different word for M since the channel has devolved into a basically a pop culture wasteland over the last twenty years. But, this is an interesting list of 40 big rock moments, and it's no coincidence that the vast majority of moments on this list are from the first half of the channel's history. ultimateclassicrock.com/mtv-rock-moments/As an aside, Kap mentioned Don Cortese in another post. In the 1990s, MTV started to expand beyond just music with MTV Sports. I'll say one part of MTV Sports that I really enjoyed was the annual Rock and Jock Softball game, featuring MLB players, musicians, and other celebrities. It was a really fun exhibition. MLB should try to find some of these games on YouTube to study for the lifeless softball game they do during All Star Week, which features former MLB players and celebrities.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 2, 2021 12:45:18 GMT
I'll say one part of MTV Sports that I really enjoyed was the annual Rock and Jock Softball game I recorded this on VHS when it happened and probably watched it 1,000 times in the early '90s.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 2, 2021 12:57:26 GMT
Back in 1980, I bought an RCA VCR recorder/player for $1,200, mainly to play Beach Boys' VCR compilation tapes I bought. Then, in 1981, MTV came out and I began to tape the videos/songs. My younger sister and I used to sit in front of the TV, I with the VCR remote control in my hand, and we tried to identify the video as soon as possible so I could get as close to the beginning as possible. At the beginning of each hour, MTV had that rocket launching, and the VJ announced a couple of videos that would be shown over the next hour. That helped in our anticipation. Oh, those were the days. Somewhere in my basement, I have a few boxes full of VHS tapes of those early MTV videos. I still have a VCR player, too. I thought some day I would dig 'em out and revisit them. Never did, though.
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Post by kds on Aug 2, 2021 13:08:29 GMT
I know my father has a bunch of tapes of nothing but music videos, as well as a tape from the Live Aid telecast in 1985.
I shit on MTV a lot (it really does deserve it sometimes), but growing up, I used to love it. I used to fall asleep to it at one time. Even when they started moving away from music in the 1990s, the nights were almost all music videos.
I still checked in even in the later half of the 1990s, despite diminishing returns. I loved, and still love, Beavis and Butthead. I even thought the 2010 reboot was brilliant as they chose to lampoon not just music videos but some of the "reality" shows of the time.
They did kick off New Years 1995 with a BRAND NEW Van Halen video for Don't Tell Me (What Love Can Do). In 1997, I remember a big feature on MTV News on the relaunch of Judas Priest with Ripper Owens. And late in the summer of 1997, MTV showed the reunion of the Rumours lineup of Fleetwood Mac - The Dance - on repeat.
I feel like 1999, the year I often point to as rock's low point, was when MTV decided to go full on pop and ditch any of the old guard. I'll admit I'd still tune in from time to time, but it was more for eye candy than music by that point.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 2, 2021 13:10:25 GMT
I recorded videos, too, as well as live performances from awards shows and the like. Most often I'd just watch the daytime specialized shows Hard 30 (or Hard 60 when it was in the hour-long format) and Yo MTV Raps, as I was more likely to catch the music I was after during those shows than during general programming. I'd also occasionally start off the late Saturday night show Headbanger's Ball watching live and recording choice cuts, but eventually just letting it record as I went off to bed.
Things like Living Colour's and Winger's New Year's Eve performances, GnR's Roxy performance and awards show performances, the Freddie Mercury benefit show, and many others were among my tapes, and I watched them dozens and dozens of times over. It was at a point where I remembered the hosts' lead-in comments and things as much as the music. For example, when KISS kicked off their Hot in the Shade tour (supported by Slaughter mostly, with Winger and Danger Danger among other opening acts), I remember Paul Stanley's comments on that show, "it's going to be an updated version of the KISS shows of the 70s, which was everyone else's show of the 80s." I don't know why, but that line stuck in my head for 30 years now!
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Aug 2, 2021 13:11:11 GMT
Back in 1980, I bought an RCA VCR recorder/player for $1,200, mainly to play Beach Boys' VCR compilation tapes I bought. Then, in 1981, MTV came out and I began to tape the videos/songs. My younger sister and I used to sit in front of the TV, I with the VCR remote control in my hand, and we tried to identify the video as soon as possible so I could get as close to the beginning as possible. At the beginning of each hour, MTV had that rocket launching, and the VJ announced a couple of videos that would be shown over the next hour. That helped in our anticipation. Oh, those were the days. Somewhere in my basement, I have a few boxes full of VHS tapes of those early MTV videos. I still have a VCR player, too. I thought some day I would dig 'em out and revisit them. Never did, though. Your last sentence reminds me of how I used to record various events when I was younger - Barry Bonds' 756th home run, Pope John Paul II's funeral (woke up really early for that one), etc. Now it all just turned about to be a big waste of time since everything is on youtube.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 2, 2021 13:19:02 GMT
Back in 1980, I bought an RCA VCR recorder/player for $1,200, mainly to play Beach Boys' VCR compilation tapes I bought. Then, in 1981, MTV came out and I began to tape the videos/songs. My younger sister and I used to sit in front of the TV, I with the VCR remote control in my hand, and we tried to identify the video as soon as possible so I could get as close to the beginning as possible. At the beginning of each hour, MTV had that rocket launching, and the VJ announced a couple of videos that would be shown over the next hour. That helped in our anticipation. Oh, those were the days. Somewhere in my basement, I have a few boxes full of VHS tapes of those early MTV videos. I still have a VCR player, too. I thought some day I would dig 'em out and revisit them. Never did, though. Your last sentence reminds me of how I used to record various events when I was younger - Barry Bonds' 756th home run, Pope John Paul II's funeral (woke up really early for that one), etc. Now it all just turned about to be a big waste of time since everything is on youtube. Yeah, I used to think how lucky I was to have all of these...things...on tape. Someday, I would be happy that I taped everything. All of the effort would be worth it. Then, like you said, YouTube came along and now they're everywhere.
I remember when there was the World Premiere of "Lick It Up" by KISS, and they would be appearing for the first time without makeup. My buddy and I were planted in front of the TV. We were KISS fans from the beginning. It was, shall I say, underwhelming.
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Post by kds on Aug 2, 2021 13:20:13 GMT
I recorded videos, too, as well as live performances from awards shows and the like. Most often I'd just watch the daytime specialized shows Hard 30 (or Hard 60 when it was in the hour-long format) and Yo MTV Raps, as I was more likely to catch the music I was after during those shows than during general programming. I'd also occasionally start off the late Saturday night show Headbanger's Ball watching live and recording choice cuts, but eventually just letting it record as I went off to bed.
Things like Living Colour's and Winger's New Year's Eve performances, GnR's Roxy performance and awards show performances, the Freddie Mercury benefit show, and many others were among my tapes, and I watched them dozens and dozens of times over. It was at a point where I remembered the hosts' lead-in comments and things as much as the music. For example, when KISS kicked off their Hot in the Shade tour (supported by Slaughter mostly, with Winger and Danger Danger among other opening acts), I remember Paul Stanley's comments on that show, "it's going to be an updated version of the KISS shows of the 70s, which was everyone else's show of the 80s." I don't know why, but that line stuck in my head for 30 years now!
I remember I used to use MTV to fill up tapes in the day. I'd often tape movies off premium channels, or random TV shows, and have some extra time on the end of a tape, so that's when I'd put on MTV and hope to get some videos to fill up the whole tape. Headbanger's Ball was always good for that. And, in the early 1990s, when I started to get interested in heavy metal, it was Headbanger's Ball, and even some of the videos that popped up on Beavis & Butthead, that lead me to really get into Metallica, Priest, Sabbath, Accept, etc. Of course, they'd always play the Helloween video for "Halloween" the show before Halloween. One of the legacy acts that really adapted to MTV well was Genesis. They'd started doing "promo films" as far back as 1976, so by the time MTV came around, they were ready. Who could forgot their videos for Land of Confusion, I Can't Dance, and Jesus He Knows Me? Their former singer, Peter Gabriel picked up the artform pretty well too.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 2, 2021 13:24:31 GMT
Absolutely, Genesis and Peter Gabriel were a couple of the consistent list toppers and award winners of the new form. I'd say they, along with Michael Jackson and Van Halen/David Lee Roth, were absolutely dominant in the middle of the '80s. You could count on them atop the "best videos of all time" as well as "...of the year" lists.
Jackson especially, you can say what you want about him being a pedophile or about his music, but those videos were really impressive productions from Thriller singles onward.
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Post by kds on Aug 2, 2021 13:30:17 GMT
Back in 1980, I bought an RCA VCR recorder/player for $1,200, mainly to play Beach Boys' VCR compilation tapes I bought. Then, in 1981, MTV came out and I began to tape the videos/songs. My younger sister and I used to sit in front of the TV, I with the VCR remote control in my hand, and we tried to identify the video as soon as possible so I could get as close to the beginning as possible. At the beginning of each hour, MTV had that rocket launching, and the VJ announced a couple of videos that would be shown over the next hour. That helped in our anticipation. Oh, those were the days. Somewhere in my basement, I have a few boxes full of VHS tapes of those early MTV videos. I still have a VCR player, too. I thought some day I would dig 'em out and revisit them. Never did, though. Your last sentence reminds me of how I used to record various events when I was younger - Barry Bonds' 756th home run, Pope John Paul II's funeral (woke up really early for that one), etc. Now it all just turned about to be a big waste of time since everything is on youtube. I did the same thing. From music videos to random sports highlights. Although, there are a couple things I've not been able to find on YouTube, like the Orioles celebrating their ALDS upset of the Indians in 1996. Although, I didn't use the highest quality tapes back then, so who knows if the thing will even play. Or, if I even still have it. During a recent purge, I threw away a bunch of video tapes.
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Post by kds on Aug 2, 2021 13:34:13 GMT
Absolutely, Genesis and Peter Gabriel were a couple of the consistent list toppers and award winners of the new form. I'd say they, along with Michael Jackson and Van Halen/David Lee Roth, were absolutely dominant in the middle of the '80s. You could count on them atop the "best videos of all time" as well as "...of the year" lists.
Jackson especially, you can say what you want about him being a pedophile or about his music, but those videos were really impressive productions from Thriller singles onward.
I remember it was such a huge deal when Michael would premiere a new video. I recall by the 90s, they'd premiere them on network TV to get more eyes on them. I think Queen did some very good videos too. But, unfortunately, their stock in the US had begun to wane as MTV became more popular. But, looking back, they had some really good ones, up through the Innuendo singles.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 2, 2021 13:49:54 GMT
Queen did have some good videos, but do you remember seeing them at the time? I don't, and the reason is they were more or less (informally) banned from MTV, I believe because of the "I Want to Break Free" video of them in drag. I do vaguely recall seeing "I Want It All" when it came out, but that's about it. I don't think I ever saw any of the other videos until the Wayne's World "Bohemian Rhapsody," and then buying the VHS tapes of their video collections.
Pretty funny considering it was a harmless sitcom parody, and meanwhile Madonna's fame was rising with far more controversial videos. George Michael's "I Want Your Sex" was certainly criticized, but it, too, got plenty of airplay. Though they did add a kind of warning/disclaimer to the beginning about safe sex to make it an easier pill to swallow for the network.
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Post by kds on Aug 2, 2021 13:55:57 GMT
Queen did have some good videos, but do you remember seeing them at the time? I don't, and the reason is they were more or less (informally) banned from MTV, I believe because of the "I Want to Break Free" video of them in drag. I do vaguely recall seeing "I Want It All" when it came out, but that's about it. I don't think I ever saw any of the other videos until the Wayne's World "Bohemian Rhapsody," and then buying the VHS tapes of their video collections.
Pretty funny considering it was a harmless sitcom parody, and meanwhile Madonna's fame was rising with far more controversial videos. George Michael's "I Want Your Sex" was certainly criticized, but it, too, got plenty of airplay. Though they did add a kind of warning/disclaimer to the beginning about safe sex to make it an easier pill to swallow for the network.
Nope, I don't recall ever seeing any Queen videos, nor do I really remember hearing any of their 80s material in real time, despite MTV being on a lot in my house and active radio playing a lot in the cars. The Wayne's World version of Bo Rhap is the first Queen video I ever recalled seeing. Then, I saw their other videos via the Classic Queen and Greatest Hits VHS tapes that were released in late 1992. It's funny that the random banning and censorship still happens today, but that's a whole other ball of wax. I guess sexuality is fine, but crossdressing, not so much. I think the video that made the earliest impact of me as a young kds was The Cars video for You Might Think. Even at the tender age of four, I remember getting some feels seeing Susan Gallagher in her nightie being stalked by a giant Ric Ocasek.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 2, 2021 14:09:01 GMT
Re the crossdressing, what's odd is, remember that Culture Club were huge on MTV in the early to mid 80s, the very same time frame when "I Want To Break Free" was being suppressed! Boy George was not quite explicitly cross dressing, but he certainly veered heavily in that direction.
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Post by kds on Aug 2, 2021 14:14:46 GMT
I think Queen had another controversy with their video for Body Language, so maybe after I Want to Break Free, the folks at MTV thought those guys from Queen were "trouble makers."
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