But it's been dead for a while now, hasn't it?
Complaining about MTV had been old since the mid-00's. Even
Gen-X, who lived off of MTV for a decade and a half, had drifted away from the music network before
YouTube arrived and made MTV's music programming redundant.
Launched in 1981, MTV immediately became the default channel the latchkey kids of
Gen X came home and put on instead of clicking on their radios (I am often reminded that Jamie did not have MTV, as she was raised in a town that might as well have had
John Lithgow forbidding her to dance). Whether we're discussing elder Gen X or us on the trailing side of the generation, it was a true culture shift our parents would not enjoy until
VH1 ushered Whitney Houston and Phil Collins safely into our homes.
But for a while, the cable channel became like a singular radio station shared by a huge swath of America, contributing to
the 1980's monoculture, and ending the ability of musicians to be non-telegenic and still make it.
For the telegenic, it could mean a young
The League would find himself watching the video for
Lucky Star intently in 1984, and in the 1990's maybe watch
En Vogue videos with piqued interest when he was more likely to listen to
Jane's Addiction on his tape deck driving around North Houston.
Upon its debut, MTV was mostly rock and pop. My memory of the pre-1985 MTV is of a lot of
Human League,
John Cougar Mellencamp,
Styx, Billy Idol, and whatever else was going on.
Very early MTV included
Joan Jett and
J. Geils Band videos. My understanding is that MTV just didn't have many videos at launch unless it was from a European act who needed videos for
Top of the Pops.
Between videos, VJ's (Video Jockeys), would drop fun tidbits and make it feel like a cool hang, I guess. Ask anyone into girls between 50 and 65 about
Martha Quinn sometime and see them light up like a Christmas tree. I liked the VJ's until I didn't. Or when the VJ bit
became the bit with things like
Total Request Live (utterly unwatchable unless you were a 13 year old).
Seeing the immediate ability to get national exposure, bands rushed out to make videos, grabbing whatever they could in way of equipment and lighting. And the crazier or wilder your look, the better. Which became it's own thing as hair got bigger, pants got tighter, and pretty soon we had
Van Halen's Hot for Teacher, after which we might as well have hung it up, because that was the zenith of early music videos.
