I’ve got some Lou Reed, and some Lou Reed in that other band he mentioned. I’ve never owned any of the other bands. It makes me feel like I helped support cut out bins all over the world.
So the questions I now have on my mind, or the “point” as Sammy immediately expected me to have, follow:
Do any MTV/VH1-type networks any longer serve as this new technology new music showcase that Lou talks about?
As flawed as that new technology showcase may have been, did it open the door for something better, which I would say is the showcase made available by the Internet: label websites, blogs, MySpace, etc?
That said, is the new showcase any more successful? We may be back to actually having to LISTEN to new bands through blog postings these days. Can you still HEAR new music after being spoiled by watching all those videos in the ’80s?
But I didn’t buy records by any of the artists represented here because they had videos on TV. I’ve only seen a handful of the videos excerpted here. In fact the videos that were most familiar were the ones by artists I did not buy (A-ha and Dead or Alive).
I guess I can see what you mean about MTV opening the door to what we have now. Cable TV was kind of the gateway drug for the internet. Maybe someday we’ll have in the US the kind of bandwidth people now expect in other countries. Until audio + video stream on the internet with at least the reliability we get from cable or satellite TV, I don’t think online music videos will be as popular as MTV was.
I do think online retailers providing 30- or 60-second audio samples, or even a free mp3, for an album is a big advance, to say nothing of streaming new albums for free in their entirety from an artist’s website.
I guess I was less cutting edge back then. I saw Go West open for Hall & Oates. Had Til Tuesday, got into The Smiths after they broke up, Was (and am) a huge Los Lobos fan.
The “Point” is that MTV allowed the casual music fan to become a Big Ol’ Music geek like all of us are (admit it..you are reading this)
Some of it was damn subversive for the time (Beastie Boys, RHCP, Billy Idol, Minutemen) and some of it was just Gay (which was subversive in itself..)
The old story of “Kids in Houston were going to record stores asking for Duran Duran” was a big deal. Myspace and the like can’t do this because there are too many outlets and too many bands participating. MTV started by playing any video they could get their hands on (Dexy? Thomas Dolby? Tubes?) so it was a “club” that told you what was cool, but it was the best club in town.
It helped that 1982 – 1985 may have been the best era of pop music of all time (here come the flames) and videos went so well with POP music (in a Warhol sense)
Blondie
Cars
Police
Madonna
Billy Idol
Talking Heads
This was not your parents music AND it was a big art project…and it would have NEVER made it on top 40 or FM rock on it’s own
Jungleland2, you’re back with a vengeance! Nice stuff. See what I mean, Sammy, about the “points” being in development?
I won’t flame you for your taste in ’80s music (although you’ve highlighted some good stuff for those dark times), but what you say about exposure and subversiveness rings truer than I’d initially considered. Seeing that Minutemen video clip right up front was shocking.
It helped that 1982 – 1985 may have been the best era of pop music of all time (here come the flames) and videos went so well with POP music (in a Warhol sense)
Blondie
Cars
Police
Madonna
Billy Idol
Talking Heads
This was not your parents music AND it was a big art project…and it would have NEVER made it on top 40 or FM rock on it’s own
I’m not disagreeing with your basic premise, but your choices: Blondie, the Cars, the Police and Talking Heads all had Billboard Top 40 and FM radio hits prior to the birth of MTV in August 1981.
6. What’s your point?
The “point” is a work in progress. Thanks for kicking it off.
4.
Counting Lou, 5 for me.
5.
7, but I think the remainder is notable for containing many bands that I didn’t need to own due to my friends liking the band more or whatever.
Counting Lou, 12.
6, with Lou.
It’s easier to go this way:
I never owned anything by either Go West or the Sisters of Mercy.
I’ve owned records by them all except the Armoury Show and Go West.
4
2
I’ve got some Lou Reed, and some Lou Reed in that other band he mentioned. I’ve never owned any of the other bands. It makes me feel like I helped support cut out bins all over the world.
Two.
Four
Loads, and I still have ’em. Smiths, Mode, Sprout, Los Lobos, etc, etc.
So the questions I now have on my mind, or the “point” as Sammy immediately expected me to have, follow:
Do any MTV/VH1-type networks any longer serve as this new technology new music showcase that Lou talks about?
As flawed as that new technology showcase may have been, did it open the door for something better, which I would say is the showcase made available by the Internet: label websites, blogs, MySpace, etc?
That said, is the new showcase any more successful? We may be back to actually having to LISTEN to new bands through blog postings these days. Can you still HEAR new music after being spoiled by watching all those videos in the ’80s?
No. What’s your point?
But I didn’t buy records by any of the artists represented here because they had videos on TV. I’ve only seen a handful of the videos excerpted here. In fact the videos that were most familiar were the ones by artists I did not buy (A-ha and Dead or Alive).
I guess I can see what you mean about MTV opening the door to what we have now. Cable TV was kind of the gateway drug for the internet. Maybe someday we’ll have in the US the kind of bandwidth people now expect in other countries. Until audio + video stream on the internet with at least the reliability we get from cable or satellite TV, I don’t think online music videos will be as popular as MTV was.
I do think online retailers providing 30- or 60-second audio samples, or even a free mp3, for an album is a big advance, to say nothing of streaming new albums for free in their entirety from an artist’s website.
I guess I was less cutting edge back then. I saw Go West open for Hall & Oates. Had Til Tuesday, got into The Smiths after they broke up, Was (and am) a huge Los Lobos fan.
The “Point” is that MTV allowed the casual music fan to become a Big Ol’ Music geek like all of us are (admit it..you are reading this)
Some of it was damn subversive for the time (Beastie Boys, RHCP, Billy Idol, Minutemen) and some of it was just Gay (which was subversive in itself..)
The old story of “Kids in Houston were going to record stores asking for Duran Duran” was a big deal. Myspace and the like can’t do this because there are too many outlets and too many bands participating. MTV started by playing any video they could get their hands on (Dexy? Thomas Dolby? Tubes?) so it was a “club” that told you what was cool, but it was the best club in town.
It helped that 1982 – 1985 may have been the best era of pop music of all time (here come the flames) and videos went so well with POP music (in a Warhol sense)
Blondie
Cars
Police
Madonna
Billy Idol
Talking Heads
This was not your parents music AND it was a big art project…and it would have NEVER made it on top 40 or FM rock on it’s own
Jungleland2, you’re back with a vengeance! Nice stuff. See what I mean, Sammy, about the “points” being in development?
I won’t flame you for your taste in ’80s music (although you’ve highlighted some good stuff for those dark times), but what you say about exposure and subversiveness rings truer than I’d initially considered. Seeing that Minutemen video clip right up front was shocking.
5, including Lou.
Lou Reed
The Velvet Underground
Run DMC
New Order
The Sisters of Mercy
Beastie Boys
I agree with you Jungleland.
More than you’ll ever know
I see your point.
MTV was a huge musical and sexual awakening for this isolated boy in AZ. We had 2 AOR rock stations and 5 country stations and 1 big band station.
So seeing Elvis Costello, The Clash, Talking Heads, Cars, The Police…was mind blowing.
Seeing Chrissie Hynde, Debbie Harry and even Bananarama’s Venus was a different kind of blowing.
Anyone remember that interstitial where Chrissie takes her underpants out of the laundromat dryer? I do.
Like my parents remembered who had the first TV in their hood, I remember who had the first cable with MTV.
When someone had a party, we’d record hours of MTV on betamax and haul our top-loading vcr over to their house to watch.
The market is way too fragmented now for that kind of movement. The upside is more choices. The downside is a shrinking pop culture.
I’m not disagreeing with your basic premise, but your choices: Blondie, the Cars, the Police and Talking Heads all had Billboard Top 40 and FM radio hits prior to the birth of MTV in August 1981.