MTV turns 30, on VH-1 Classic tonight

[SiriusRushFan]

http://blog.vh1.com/files/2011/07/mtv-1311791081.jpg

 

August 1st 1981, ah, the first day of the good old music video days, when MTV was actually just starting and was worth watching. We would spend hours back then watching the various videos. Still remember the first time I saw KISS without their make up was on MTV in '83. lol

 

Then after about 6 or 7 years when Nina Blackwood and Alan Hunter, and Mark Goodman all left it started going down hill from there I think, until Martha finally left for good. Although Headbangers Ball and some of the Unplugged concerts were still decent to watch for awhile after most of the original VJs had left.

 

VH-1 Classic has been running an MTV special all weekend but tonight at midnight the first hour of MTV will be replayed as it was shown back then. I'm gonna try to check it out just for the memories.

 

The original MTV VJs, except JJ Jackson who died in 2004, are still on the air but they have been on sat radio since 2005 taking turns DJing the 80's channel. They will be hosting a 5 hour special tomorrow, with some 80's band members as special guests, starting at 7am. Replaying at 1pm and again at 7pm. They still rock. A pic from 1983...

 

http://www.sohoblues.com/RockandRollRevue/previewpages/preview18.jpg

 

 

And a pic of how they look today, taken just a couple days ago. That's Eddie Money in the middle, one of the guests from tomorrows special. And Martha is still a beauty of course.

 

http://www4.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Mark+Goodman+MTV+VJs+Visit+SiriusXM+Record+252ymRKr3UZl.jpg

[laughedatbytime]

LOL...they can't even show music on MTV on their 30th birthday, they have to farm it out to VH1 Classic, the latest channel in the MTV family of networks that is being ruined by worthless programming. I'd estimate it's about 60% gone. How many times can they show that "Temptations" movie?

 

MTV today sucks. I haven't watched it in at least five years and have absolutely no interest in anything they show. I may watch the retrospective because it was pretty good back in the day (through about 1989 to 1991), but now there's no point to its continued existence. It takes every libertarian impulse in my body to keep from lobbying my Congressperson to get it removed from the public airwaves, but it is pure crap and deserves special demerits for starting the excrable trend of reality TV with the garbage that is "The Real World".

 

A pox on all involved...

Edited July 31, 2011 by laughedatbytime

[SiriusRushFan]

QUOTE (laughedatbytime @ Jul 31 2011, 04:34 PM)

I haven't watched it in at least five years and have absolutely no interest in anything they show.

It's been about 20 years for me I think. It should be called RTV for the reality crap shows they have on there now. Double spew...

[circumstantial tree]

I can't understand why they keep the MTV logo because it represents nothing aired on that channel. If they renamed it, it would disappear.

[SiriusRushFan]

3 short clips from a few days ago of the 4 original VJs in the studio reminiscing...

 

 

 

[J2112YYZ]

As a little kid in the 80s I used to watch MTV all the time when I was at home. Lots of fond memories from when it was a 24/7 music video station.

 

My favorite show was Headbanger's Ball. Once they canceled that in '94 or '95 I believe, the station became dead to me. It's pretty much been worthless since the mid 90s and i'm not positive as to why the channel is still on the air now since it's well outlived it's welcome and original purpose.

[circumstantial tree]

Ironically, it was MTV that introduced me to Rush in early 1982.

 

The last time I watched MTV, and even then it was rare, was around 1993.

 

I had been a big fan of 120 Minutes, but they kept moving that show to a later and later time slot. I wasn't going to stay up past 1:00.

[go2wrk@95974]

Yep...81-82-83-84..Then the SH*T hit the fan,

((or should I say apollo 11 took a nose-dive))

and it's been worthless ever since.

Edited August 1, 2011 by go2wrk@95974

[laughedatbytime]

QUOTE (J2112YYZ @ Jul 31 2011, 07:28 PM)

As a little kid in the 80s I used to watch MTV all the time when I was at home. Lots of fond memories from when it was a 24/7 music video station. My favorite show was Headbanger's Ball. Once they canceled that in '94 or '95 I believe, the station became dead to me. It's pretty much been worthless since the mid 90s and i'm not positive as to why the channel is still on the air now since it's well outlived it's welcome and original purpose.

Their ratings are actually higher now, even though their programming is total crap.

 

I don't know anyone who watches it, but Viacom wouldn't continue to run this garbage if it didn't produce ratings. That it does draw eyeballs is about the saddest comment on this country that could possibly be made.

[BeOhBe Bob]

QUOTE (SiriusRushFan @ Jul 31 2011, 04:42 PM)

QUOTE (laughedatbytime @ Jul 31 2011, 04:34 PM) I haven't watched it in at least five years and have absolutely no interest in anything they show. It's been about 20 years for me I think. It should be called RTV for the reality crap shows they have on there now. Double spew... Nice job, was just thinkin hey...is there a thread on when MTV lost it's relevance?   And RTV? nah that's Retro TV, and THEY got better shit on than MTV does now...RTV plays A Team, MacGyver The Rifleman...etc etc etc     If this special hadn't been 2 hours replayed over and fu<kin over it'd be worthwhile NO mention of Headbangers Ball, NO 120 Minutes nothing in the way of 90's vids, when MTV was moving into shows yeah but the VIDS...Jeremy?...yeah the shows they aired...but NO Singled out NO MTV Grind or the other dance shows I'd watch jus cuz the chix was hot, a pinch of YO! MTV Raps? COME ON this was your best shit! House of Style..ok your tease us wth a topless Daisy Fuentes from behind and never air her segment?   and yeah you farm it out to the cluster f vh1classic car crash. Almost makes me wanna say f the last hour!     Someone tell me what you liked best about MTV back when MUSIC was the driving force..(OH wait there's M2...does that count as a music channel? NO how about Palladia?)   EDIT: I will add this. However you feel about the man, having Tabitha Soren introduce the President Bill Clinton, his first lady Hil, and first kid Chelsea to the throng at the what VMA was it? I guess....that was clearly a high point in the 90's for MTV, and the fans of MTV. WE put him in office through ROCK THE VOTE. Even HE couldn't deny that...er uh can you tell me what the definition of "the" is?

Edited August 1, 2011 by BeOhBe Bob

[Ancient Ways]

can't believe it's been that long. if they still showed videos I would still watch it regardless f genre. it was a good way of keeping up with everything and you would find stuff you liked outside of your genre like Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode.

[SiriusRushFan]

Edited August 1, 2011 by SiriusRushFan

[Ancient Ways]

[The Big Money]

I watched the First Hour Of MtV thing they showed at midnight. It was pretty cool except that most of the videos in the first hour of MTV weren't very good.

[Shredder2]

QUOTE (bigmoney2112 @ Aug 1 2011, 12:47 AM)

I watched the First Hour Of MtV thing they showed at midnight. It was pretty cool except that most of the videos in the first hour of MTV weren't very good.

I was expecting to see "Tom Sawyer".

[CMWriter]

Confession:

I am totally, completely, positively obsessed with MTV's Teen Wolf and I watch it every Monday without fail.

(Mainly because Tyler Hoechlin is hot. And Dylan O'Brien is hysterical as Stiles. And Rene Echevarria, yes, that guy who writes for Castle and also wrote for Star Trek: TNG and DS9, is a co-producer and writer. Rock. On.)

 

Does it have anything remotely to do with music? No. Do I feel slightly guilty watching it since MTV is supposed to be about, you know, MUSIC? Yes. But it's the best drama (dramedy?) I've seen geared towards teenagers in a long time and in my opinion it's the best thing the network offers these days.

The only bad part is having to sit through Jersey Shore and Teen Mom commercials.

 

It's changed a lot over the years; that much is for sure. The network no longer lives up to its name. It's kind of ridiculous, and sometimes I wish it would go back to how it was... if there were any decent music videos as of recently.

(But then there would be no Tyler Hoechlin for me to see every Monday.)

[The Big Money]

QUOTE (CMWriter @ Aug 1 2011, 01:56 AM)

The only bad part is having to sit through Jersey Shore and Teen Mom commercials.

Come on, everybody loves to fist pump though.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wZ7QjYZl1A0/S7Y3RuF6jyI/AAAAAAAAACE/MdjempsEVAM/s1600/Fist-Pump-Fridays.jpg

[The_Necromancer_77]

I watch Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory on MTV2. I don't really ever watch anything else because I just...can't get into what they show nowadays.

[Oracle]

The only relevance MTV has with me is that it was the first "adult" channel I was allowed to watch. My dad would let me watch "Beavis and Butthead" with him and some of the Unplugged concerts. Watching the Nirvana Unplugged program was like eye opening to me at 5 years old. I think it's still trying to appeal to the younger viewer demographic, which it obviously does.

 

If you think about it, that was the network's purpose: to reach the young people through music programming. Now they just reach the young population by showing reality television (which, let's face it, has skyrocketed since 2002) and the like. I still respect MTV for the ground they broke 30 years ago, and I respect them now for trying to reach younger viewer's interests; but it's been washed up for a long time.

[JohnnyBlaze]

QUOTE (bigmoney2112 @ Aug 1 2011, 02:47 PM)

I watched the First Hour Of MtV thing they showed at midnight. It was pretty cool except that most of the videos in the first hour of MTV weren't very good.

What'd they show? There were a lot of "not very good" videos I remember watching back then. For example: I'm sure I'm not the only one who remembers Eddie Money's "Shakin'" or Journey's "Separate Ways". Even if the songs weren't that bad, the videos were damn terrible even for back then. But it was exciting & new and the videos kept coming so my buddies and I would watch nearly all day (like many folks on this board).

 

I think the last thing I saw on MTV was that Real World San Francisco shit back in the early/mid 90s...you know, the one with that blonde bike messenger guy and those other assholes living such a hard life in a kick ass house .

 

P.S. Being 10 years old and watching that rocket take off at the top of the hour and hearing that MTV music as Martha Quinn announced, "This hour we have videos from Asia, Men at Work, and Rush [[while showing that black & white group shot of the guys]]" was really exciting.

 

[JohnnyBlaze]

QUOTE (circumstantial tree @ Aug 1 2011, 07:10 AM)

I can't understand why they keep the MTV logo because it represents nothing aired on that channel. If they renamed it, it would disappear.

Doesn't your 2nd sentence address your first sentence?

[circumstantial tree]

As far as I know, Pat Benatar's "You Better Run" was the second video aired after the Buggles.

 

She was a major staple on early MTV. I didn't start watching it until early 1982.

 

Vital Signs was the first Rush video I ever saw.

[BeOhBe Bob]

One thing I do miss are the MTV News breaks, with REAL news...the bass riff from Megadeth..."Peace Sells" and then Tabitha Soren or Kurt Loder riff on the news o the day

 

(OK it's Tab....and Serena Altschul works on CBS Sunday Morning now but stilll..... )

[GeddyRulz]

[Rendclaw]

There are two reasons why it sucks so bad. Like most of you I stopped giving two farts in a grasshopper's ass about MTV when the canceled Headbanger's Ball, but by that time I think the signs were clear that they were going more toward the reality shows. Hell, they invented the genre. I'll give them credit for that, before reality TV became the pustule-infested monster it is today.

 

The second reason is that most of us are considered old. I'm 42 myself (even though it still feels weird to say it), and the way music is presented changed when grunge came along and wiped almost everything else out in the early 90s. I'm a child of the 80s and always will be. I still maintain to this day that the 1980s were the best for music as a whole since the 60s. The 70s, well... severe hit and miss.

 

Until I had to send my DVR back to Comcast, I had most of Rush Hashana on it, mostly because one block of Rush vids they did had Vital Signs, something I had never seen on TV (crappy ass Youtube videos don't count, because flash video quality is terrible, especially when someone is recording it with a webcam pointed at the TV set, but I digress).

 

My point is that the world has changed radically since we were sitting in front of the tube and watching MTV as kids back in the early 80s and now we have turned into our parents, talking about how good things used to be back in the day, and how crappy things are now. We are no different than our parents when they talked about the 50s and 60s, and our grandparents when they talked about how things were between the Depression and World War II.

 

I always quote something I saw in the "A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica" video: "Every generation will scorn the next, and their music." It's inevitable.

 

Yes, MTV has not been truly about music for more than twenty years now, and its never going back. I will again give them credit, because at least they saw that people wanted a channel that was more about music, so they made VH1. Then they put out VH1 Classic, which was more to our speed. And I could certainly deal with more music and less reality TV, but thats not going away until the genre collapses, and that may or may not be soon, when people finally get fed up with them. All I know is that they're cheap to make, and if you can script... errr.... film enough drama/conflict/sex going on, people will watch, and the creators make money hand over fist. Why do you think Mark Burnett is close to a billionaire?

 

Vh1 Classic will always get the nod from me, because the proportion of music and music docs vs. reality shows is higher than any of the other sister stations. Though I think Palladia is starting to challenge for the title. But then again, I *think* that channel is owned by Viacom too.