MTV30

"Video Killed the Radio Star." Leo Sayers, REO Speedwagon.

My personal favorite video band was Duran Duran. SO many wonderful videos ... "Rio" ... "Plant Earth" ... "Save a Prayer" ... "Hungry Like the Wolf"

 

I turned 30 a few days ago, making me slightly older than MTV. Some of my first memories are of my mom freaking out when she caught me watching MTV when it played a raunchy video from Guns N Roses or Motley Crue. At least, they were raunchy back then.

 

More trivia: what was the video the creators of MTV showed to investors to convince them that music video was an art form that could actually sustain its own network?

The answer (cuz if you don't know it, you probably aren't going to guess this one):

 

But how many of you remember the original version of "Here I Go Again" before it was edited?

 

Without looking at it, PCLL, I'm guessing it was a series of videos Mike Nesmith put together (including Debbie Boone!). He took only a consulting fee instead of a piece of MTV. Not that he needed the extra money, what with being the heir to the Liquid Paper fortune and his performing and songwriting residuals from his days with the Monkees. But if he had a piece of MTV, he might be Gates-level rich.

 

That's not the one, but I bet the videos you're talking about were part of it, too. "Elephant Parts." For a guy best known for pretending to be a musician on TV, Nesmith has had a hell of a career.

 

His "Liquid Paper responsibilities" have always been a great excuse to not join the other Monkees on the nostalgia circuit. And just to clarify: Nesmith was an actual musician, as was Peter Tork. I dunno if Micky Dolenz can truly play a drum kit, but I have seen him play a drum synthesizer.

 

Good question on my first video. I'm not really sure, but I keep thinking of Genesis' "Illegal Alien."

Another one I recall from my youth was Tina Turner's version of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together." There was a music video show that a local cable station would air every morning and my brother and I would watch it before we went to school. They played that video almost daily, a full year or so before her career rebounded.

 

Just got done watching the replay of MTVs first uncut hour. I'm only slightly older than MTV but would like to think I have a pretty decent musical knowledge. If you saw the first hour help me out: is it me or were there several artists/bands that were well-known making videos (Rod Stewart, The Who, Cliff Richard) but few notable songs? I knew the names but maybe only 3-4 songs in the hour were ones I'd ever heard.

 

We didn't get cable until I was 15 or 16, so MTV was only showing videos during the afternoons and late at night by then. I used to go to my grandmother's and watch it all the time when I was eight or nine though, and I watched it the waiting room at the hospital when my grandfather was sick.

I remember Fine Young Cannibals, Poco, The Bangles. Motley Crue and Bon Jovi.

I loved Beavis and Butthead too. I threatened Dr. J with divorce last night when he said he didn't like them all that much.

 

The ultimate Martha Quinn tribute.

 

I remember watching my first music videos on HBO.