Happy Birthday MTV

You know you're getting old when...



Today is MTV's 25th birthday. Wow! Saying that statement out loud makes me realize just how fast life flies by. It doesn't seem that long ago I was watching a rash of new wave bands (and their new wave haircuts) parade about on my 13" tv. Now 25 years later, I chuckle at the imitable images many of that genre's bands purveyed to a generation of viewers looking to stand out from the crowd. What can't be laughed at though is the immense influence MTV has had on the musical tastes and culture of a nation.

I was the impressionable age of 12 when I saw Donna Summer's She Works Hard for the Money. It was the first video I recall ever seeing on MTV (we didn't get cable until '83). I still recall watching the dancing ladies in the street, marvelling at the concept of music and image complimenting each other so well. That's what I say now about it; at the time it was more along the lines of "Why is that waitress dancing in the street?" All I really knew was that from that point forward, I wanted my MTV.

I got it and what followed was a lifetime of education and influence that far surpasses any teacher I ever had in school. I learned about the plight of third world poverty through the channels coverage of Live-Aid. I was exposed to a reality just 850 miles south of me through the early videos of Dr. Dre and NWA. Through the "little video channel that could", I also discovered my first real celebrity crush, VJ Martha Quinn. This proved to be gateway to a string of MTV crushes to follow. There was Kari, Jenny, and of course Daria.

Innocently innocuous female fixations aside, MTV taught me the importance of diversity. I hadn't been introduced to the concept of recess when Bowie brought androgyny to music. I did, however, discover the notion of sexual ambiguity through Culture Club's video for Do You Really Want to Hurt Me. The first time Boy George danced onto the screen, any idea I had of what constituted gender had been forever altered. MTV was providing a medium, not only for entertainment, but also for discovery of the unknown both visually and musically.

While I can credit MTV instilling within me a strong acceptance and appreciation of the uniqueness of humans, I also thank them for leading me down a path of musical diversity that continues to this very day. Though mainly focusing on new wave bands at first, MTV eventually gave life (or at least validity and social acceptance) to the then largely subterranean genres of rap, metal, and "alternative" music. Watching shows like Yo! MTV Raps, Headbanger's Ball, and 120 minutes provided me with a wider arsenal of music to appreciate and in turn cultivated my love for that which resides outside of the normal flow of popular music.

Time brings change and as MTV got older, it strayed away from showing videos in favor of actual shows. Remote Control, Beavis and Butthead, The State, and Liquid Television still reside among my favorite shows of all time from any network. As the nineties progressed, it became increasingly obvious that MTV had traded the medium that provided the channel's iconic status for structured programming.

As the channel had done with the way America saw music, it also revolutionized what America watched on TV. With the premiere in 1991 of The Real World, MTV brought the "reality show" to the masses, planting the seeds for how a culture would watch television. I even admit the only programming I'm watching this summer consists exclusively of reality-based shows. What once was thought of as a phase has become a staple in television-viewing culture and MTV is largely responsible for it, just as they are for the glut of shows that followed their lead (Night Tracks, Friday Night Videos, and Night Flight to name a few.)

Enough about the shows. The most important part of music television was the videos and their contributions to popular culture. Videos themselves progressed from simple performance-based clips into mini-epics directed by a group of rogue auteurs who utilized the medium to its potential. Russel Mulcahy directed the first video ever shown on MTV, The Buggles' Video Killed The Radio Star, but was more famously known for his work with Duran Duran. Duran Duran arguably benefited the most of any band with the advent of music videos. Mulcahy's work with D-squared included Rio and Hungry Like The Wolf. Both of these vids were conceptual in presentation and immersed the viewer in a cinematic world, a feat rarely achieved if ever, with music videos. Michael Jackson (in his brilliant pre-Neverland days) embraced the cinematic ideology with Beat It, Billie Jean, and ultimately with what many call the best video ever, Thriller, enabling him a level of fame only previously matched by Elvis and The Beatles.

It is through videos that MTV created icons and destroyed barriers. My youth is forever scarred (in the most excellent of ways) with the images of Madonna writhing around in a wedding dress singing about being "Like a Virgin"; the Beastie Boys introducing themselves to the world as party crashers willing to "Fight For Your Right"; Aerosmith and Run-DMC literally and figuratively breaking down the walls in Walk This Way; Axl Rose stepping off the bus from anonymity into the jungle, Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg bringing the hood to the world, and Kurt Cobain and Nirvana starting a rock revolution with one little song and video. I can't imagine my life without these iconic moments. I can't imagine my past 20-odd years without MTV.

Through all the musical trends and myriad fashion statements, through the launching of a thousand careers and the entry of unplugged into a nation's venacular, MTV looks pretty good for 25. The channel remains young in terms of demographics and programming choices. It is clearly more a calculated investment than innocent visionary now and it has paid off for them as the channel has spun off VH1, MTV2, and various international versions of MTV. I have a strong affinity for its younger days, but the same could be said for my own life at times. My adolescence will be forever known as my MTV years. Life was much simpler, music seemed more adventurous, and the world seemed an okay place as long as there was a VJ on the tube.

Happy Birthday MTV. Now start playing videos again....


Links:

First 62 videos shown on MTV
MTV shows
VJs
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