MTV turned 30 years old at a minute past midnight today. After a voiceover saying,”Ladies and gentlemen: rock and roll!” and some promotional pieces, they overturned the music business with their very first video: The Buggles, and “Video Killed the Radio Star.”
Lyrics:
Video Killed the Radio Star
(The Buggles)I heard you on the wireless back in ’52
Lying awake intent at tuning in on you
If I was young it didn’t stop you coming throughOh-a oh
They took the credit for your second symphony
Rewritten by machine and new technology
And now I understand the problems you can seeOh-a oh
I met your children
Oh-a oh
What did you tell them?Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio starPictures came and broke your heart
Oh-a-a-a ohAnd now we meet in an abandoned studio
We hear the playback and it seems so long ago
And you remember the jingles used to goOh-a oh
You were the first one
Oh-a oh
You were the last oneVideo killed the radio star
Video killed the radio starIn my mind and in my car
We can’t rewind we’ve gone to0 farOh-a-aho oh
Oh-a-aho ohVideo killed the radio star
Video killed the radio starIn my mind and in my car
We can’t rewind we’ve gone to0 far
Pictures came and broke your heart
Put the blame on VCR*You are a radio star
You are a radio starVideo killed the radio star
Video killed the radio starVideo killed the radio star
Video killed the radio starVideo killed the radio star
(You are a radio star)
Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star
(You are a radio star)Oh-a oh
Oh-a oh
Oh-a oh
Right on its heels, the incomparable Pat Benatar: “You Better Run.”
Lyrics:
You Better Run
(Pat Benatar)Whatcha’ tryin’ t’ do to my heart?
Whatcha’ tryin’ t’ do to my heart?
You go around tellin’ lies
And now you want to compromise
Whatcha’ tryin’ t’ do to my heart?
You better run!
You better hide!
You better leave from my sight! YeahWhatcha’ tryin’ t’ do to my soul?
Whatcha’ tryin’ t’ do to my soul?
Well everything I had was yours
And now I’m closin’ all the doors
Whatcha’ tryin’ t’ do to my soul?You better run!
You better hide!
You better leave from my sight! YeahI love you oh, I love you so
Can’t you see it? Don’t you know?
I can’t stand your alibis
Your tellin’ lies, you drive me wild! YeahI said, what are ya tryin’ t’ do to my head?
Said, whatcha’ tryin’ t’ do to my head?
Well now I’ve gotta draw the line
Cause you ain’t gonna take my mind!
What are ya tryin’ t’ do to my head?You better run!
You better hide!
You better leave from my sight!
You better run!
You better hide!
You better leave from my sight!
Let me go! YeahI said go away, and leave me alone!
I can’t stand you no more!
Moonrat , irrepressible but stubbornly non-blogging , still pops up on Twitter and Facebook from time to time. She did so today with a link to the Gawker site: a three-minute video history of MTV (not embeddable, alas), documenting the rise, decline, and further decline.
____________________
* Some sites say that the proper abbreviation here is “VTR,” for “video tape recording” (vs. C-for-cassette). That’s probably more generic and hence maybe more “accurate,” i.e., it doesn’t put the blame on a specific technology. Commenters here seem to focus on a lip-reading, insisting that the singer clearly forms a T at that point. Okaaaaay… Either way works for me!
whaddayamean says
I remember (oi, how nostalgically this begins) back when my family first got a TV in the early 90s. I was in junior high. I would come home after school and watch MTV like a junkie–I thought it was what you were supposed to do. I was studying pop culture to make up for all the years we hadn’t, um, had any in my house (just thick fantasy novels and NPR news).
It made me a little sad to watch the montage clip. I associate the music videos I watched as a pre-teen with a feeling of finally plugging into America, and feeling less like an outsider. Mainstreamification. Typing this out now of course makes me sensitive to the nuances of this feeling, but at the time I was REALLY grateful to have some way of connecting to other people my age. Then reality tv came, and bored me out of my mind. I just went back to books.
Wait, maybe this story has a happy ending, stuck in the sad one?
marta says
A few weeks ago I went to our now famous Alamo Drafthouse (did you hear the hubbub over the texting incident?) for a sing-along-with-the-80s. They showed 2 hours of new wave music videos complete with subtitles and the front of the theater and the aisles were open for dancing. They opened the show with the “Video Killed” song. I don’t want to get stuck in music from my teen years (I remember being at my friend’s house and seeing MTV. It was like 3 days old or something absurd) because I want to always be open to new music…but that was a FUN night. They even gave away these inflatable synthesizers. Ha.
Nance says
That Hall and Oates video I posted last week was MTV, The Beginning in spades. So much of it was just dumb, but it was worse than potato chips for hooking you in. Thank goodness I had a full time job by the time my kids got hooked, otherwise, we’d none of us have gotten squat-all accomplished.
My all-time favorites: Annie Lennox in blondie-orange crew cut and boxy suit coat singing “Sweet Dreams” and all the early Talking Heads stuff.
John says
whaddayamean: Many poignant images in that comment. You don’t strike me as someone who would have been a lonely child, but boy, every camera angle (so to speak) feels drenched in loneliness.
I think you’re right about the happy ending, though. :)
Jayne says
Ah yes, who can forget VJ Martha Quinn. Not me and all my college buddies who watched religiously during our junior year. Here was this girl, pretty much our age, pretty much fresh out of college, becoming an instant celebrity. It was fascinating to watch it unfold.
I wonder what Martha is up to now…
s.o.m.e.one's brudder says
@Jayne –
Well, if you really must know – and guess who’s first on the list?
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/galleries/mtv_vjs_where_are_they_now/mtv_vjs_where_are_they_now.html
John says
marta: [For anyone else who, like me, didn’t know about the “texting incident” which marta mentions, see this post at the Alamo Drafthouse blog.]
As with most cool cultural things, I came to MTV after the first big wave of attention. I didn’t have cable TV in the early ’80s; until I stayed at a hotel which did have it, sometime around 1984-85, I’d never seen it at all. Later I became fixated on the occasional flashbacks/greatest-hits broadcasts, to catch up on stuff that I’d missed in the early years.
I can totally see having a lot of fun at something like that Alamo Drafthouse thing. I would not get up to actually sing, AT ALL, but I’d enjoy the heck out of the videos!
John says
Nance: oh, man, Hall and Oates — they were like the Miami Vice of rock. I’m sure they kept on keeping on, but they sure dropped off MY radar after the ’80s!
I had a favorite Annie Lennox number too; mine was her duet with Aretha Franklin, “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves.” Two voices hard to imagine, on their own, to be matchable… but so well suited when they came together in that song.
John says
Jayne: if you follow the link conveniently provided by brudder, you’ll see that the waifish Marth Quinn is still, er, waifish. (Of the 20-some VJs covered in that retrospective, I don’t think I recognized more than 5 or 6.)
cynth says
I can remember hubby showing the kids MTV and they were hooked! Of course, he was as well. Can’t say I ever really was. And they played some Springsteen song so many times, I gave up on him. Daughter loves this kind of stuff, so I’ll make sure she checks out your space. She’ll be thrilled.
Jayne says
@s.o.m.e.one’s brudder – Brudder- Thanks for that link. From NYC to Malibu–she’s all growed up. But, as John points out, most definitely still waifish. ;)
John says
cynth: Was the Springsteen song “I’m on Fire”? Love that song and actually love the video, too, but I remember that one seeming to be on an endless loop. :)