MTV's 30th Anniversary on VH-1 Classic all weekend

[Carloscda]

Will show these kids what MTV use to be like before all the wack reality shows!!

I hope they show the lost weekend with Van Halen!

[chefcraig]

And this is in the Front Line why exactly?

[Hardrock69]

1. Fitting that the MTV 30th-Anniversary weekend is not on MTV but some other channel.

2. Why the fuck is this in Front Line? If anything, it should be in the Music forum, except for the fact that MTV is not a music channel anymore, so it almost should be sent to the Dump or something.

[SunisinuS]

What is this thing called MTV?


I think it is actually a chupacabra.

[Terry]

So far it's nothing that great...just a mishmash of old clips from The Real World, Unplugged, Club MTV, various VMA shows, Remote Control, etc.

I have as yet to see one full length music video outside of a Will Smith / D.J. Jazzy Jeff tune.

The emphasis seems to be on the non-music video programming that began to creep in around the end of the 1980s. MTV peaked in 1985 anyway.

[Unchainme]

I had been having this convo. with my younger bro. the other day who had been lamenting the fact that MTV doesn't play his genre of music (Techno/House/DJ type shit) in lieu of playing chicks that are pregnant, spoiled bitches and guidos.

And while I'm not a huge fan of his music, he does make a good point. In europe it's seem to have really caught on due to a lot of exposure, and it could be argued that while these guys don't play an instrument per-say, it takes some amount of skill to do what they're doing. They ain't Justin fucking Bieber bullshitting and looking pretty for the camera.

It would be amazingly awesome if MTV went back to it's roots and just went "FUCK IT" and play videos by any given amount of artists and genres.

Put on a Dance Club show and have it hosted by the Jersey Shore kids who happens to DJ.

Bring back Headbangers Ball and have Dave Mustaine host along with the Juliya chick that used to host
Uranium on Fuse. Fuck Jamey Jasta and the shit videos that were shown on the rebirth a few years back.

Bring back "YO MTV RAPS!".

Bring back "Unplugged" but limit to those who actually have fucking talent (no fucking Taylor Swift pleas.

And for the rest of the schedule? Music. Music. Music. Special Concerts, Videos, Biographies, Movies (has to be related to music somehow). Open up the Vaults too. Don't just play the Lady Gaga's of the world, go way back, be it NWA or Van Halen. Play it. It's the ultimate fucking treat to tune into the radio and here an old classic you dig, it's the "ah shit! crank it!" reaction for me. Fucking Panama? ...snap!

[Terry]

Meh.

MTV's head got stuck up their own ass re: their popularity and impact on the music industry.

While I'll grant that they certainly DID have an impact, it wasn't necessarily a positive one from where I sit.

Considering the amount of visually pleasing, melodically deficient bands that were launched into the public consciousness solely because they looked good in music videos vs. the amount of actually decent bands that MTV "broke" into the biz, the shit factor is lopsided and doesn't weigh in MTV's favor.

While others may well like this stuff, I could give a shit about Yo! MTV Raps, Jersey Shore, the bulk of the Unplugged programs, Club MTV and even large sections of Headbanger's Ball which were given over to poofters like Poison, Trixter, Winger and the like.

In many ways, the advent and onslaught of the "music video" killed quality in mainstream music.

The first four years of MTV were purty kewl, though...especially those Pat Benetar vids in heavy rotation; she was hot, visually pleasing, rocked and could fucking sing her ass off...AND she made music that DIDN'T necessarily need a music video to make it good. MILES above the relative tripe the Taylor Swifts of today bring to the table.

All that being said, I WOULD gladly stick Mariah Carey in the pooper.

She can even call herself 'Mimi' while I do it, long as she emits one of those high-pitched squeaks when my balls slap against her pissflaps. XTina can massage my prostate orally all the while.

[chefcraig]

The emphasis seems to be on the non-music video programming that began to creep in around the end of the 1980s. MTV peaked in 1985 anyway.

Yep, after Live Aid, there wasn't anywhere else to go but down. While I loved the Remote Control game show, it was about a decade ahead of it's time and really belonged on Comedy Central, which didn't even exist at that time (1987). The Unplugged phenomenon lost it's novelty fairly quickly, mainly through overexposure and genuinely lame "artists". Outside of some now pointless movie and video award shows, the only worthwhile programming the channel has come up with has been Beavis & Butthead and Celebrity Deathmatch, and even they were products of the 1990s. Everything else has been reality-tv garbage.

[SilvioDante]

For me, MTV played a HUGE roll in my teen age years. I grew up in a city in the Midwest that was kinda off the beaten path. Too far from major cities to hear their radio stations, and no where near a huge college to hear the college radio stations. Radio was VERY formula. I remember when my parents had MTV installed. I think I may have stayed home for days just watching. I saw and heard for the first time people like Elvis Costello, Prince, U2, Ozzy and even my first look at the Mighty Mighty Van Halen with their video for "So This is Love" ("Gotta a brand new Oakland scarf right here...") It literally changed my life.

Ironically, the Buggles were proven right, video DID kill the radio star. MTV became less of a mirror of music but started to try control and influence music. Now its a constant stream of drunk, horny, borderline retarted teens and twenty-somethings.

[tojoro]

I noticed during each commersial break, they aired an ad about the itunes store now carrying episodes of thirty shows from MTV, so I'm guessing the weekend was one long infomercial?
Just went to take a peek, and all I saw was Darla, Aeon Flux and Celebrity Deathmatch...unless they're adding more, as B&B were prominent in the ad.
Not that I gave a shit about any of the shows. It used to be a cool medium, but it was also the beginning of looks being more important over talent. That and the mystique factor was gone as well.
I have to give kudos to emptyvee, though, as it aired and was most likely responsible for the best footage of CVH I've ever seen!

~T.

[chefcraig]

I have to give kudos to emptyvee, though, as it aired and was most likely responsible for the best footage of CVH I've ever seen!

~T.

And thanks to the brothers Van Halen, outside of poorly filmed bootlegs, it just may be the only footage of CVH that you (or anybody else, for that matter) will ever see.

[Unchainme]

And thanks to the brothers Van Halen, outside of poorly filmed bootlegs, it just may be the only footage of CVH that you (or anybody else, for that matter) will ever see.

Don't know Craig. Largo '82 seems to be an alright condition, along with "US Fest", both have been pretty well-circulated. Very easy to view on youtube.

[chefcraig]

Don't know Craig. Largo '82 seems to be an alright condition, along with "US Fest", both have been pretty well-circulated. Very easy to view on youtube.

And that gives lie to your point and weight to mine, with regard to respecting an overall fan base. Seriously, look...were either of these "releases" you mentioned made available in sanctioned form by the band, with easily accessible user menus, commentary, bonus footage, ect. to the average fan? NOPE. Next, define "well circulated." Would this not imply that hardcore VH fans had to take unnecessary (and more often than not, costly) steps in order to go beyond the "official" product issued by the band? Read: Steps the band could have profited by in more ways than just money?

Take it a bit further: The live South American version of ZZ Top's "Beer Drinkers And Hell Raisers." Unless you just so happened to be an "in the know" VH fan, nobody else knew this track/footage ever existed, and even so, it only appeared years after it had taken place. On the other hand, if this gem happened to show up in a professionally rendered clip on MTV in regular rotation sometime, say in 1983...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ7tFDeUWXg

[Unchainme]

Fuck it, may as well make the list of positives and negatives that MTV has contributed to pop culture history.

POSITIVES:

-Alternative music, and non-mainstream artists were given a platform to be aired that normally wasn't there. Elvis Costello probably wasn't really all that well-known to some kid living in the middle of nowhere in Nebraska. MTV was able to expose him to such an audience.

-Artists such as Van Halen, Nirvana, Guns N' Roses, Metallica (like it or not to the hardcore fans), Michael Jackson, U2, Journey, all made careers off of pretty much having their videos played on MTV.

-Suburb kids were introduced to Hip-Hop, thanks to artists like Will Smith, RUN DMC and NWA, and due to YO MTV RAPS being put on the air. Chalk that up as a tossup in a way due in part to the douche bags that happened to forget what skin color they were. You ain't gangsta if you're mom makes your lunch everyday, sorry holmes.

-It aired Beavis and Butthead one of the funniest animated shows of all time.

-MTV from all sounds of it, was a major reason why Cable was pushed to the forefront to every American household.

-Must we forget that Diamond Dave used MTV like his canvas during his hey-day. Dude made some very memorable videos, from his days with CVH to him goofing off in the "Yankee Rose" videos.

NEGATIVES:

-MTV was orignally designed to purely be a AOR Rock FM Station on TV. Pretty much to get airplay, you had to be a Rock Musician of some sort (RUSH, Reo, Van HALEN, Pat Benatar, Rolling Stones, Journey..even..gulp...sammy hagar..). Unfortunately MTV became a victim of it's own success, straying away from it's orignal format you eventually had peeps like Debbie Gibson, Madonna, New Kids on the Block, and Whitney Houston make the rotation. Now? good luck finding a rock video on the network.

-MTV could be blamed for the wasteland that is Reality Television, thanks in part to them airing dreck like "Real World", for what begot that begot a whole list of Spin offs and Jersey Shore. Allowing people with next to nothing talent wise make millions by making asses out of themselves.

-MTV attempting to be "Socially Responsible" is dumb as hell. STOP. IT. You're a TV Station. You ain't my school guidance counselor. Also, their one-sided promotion of politics makes them look pretty disgusting in my eyes. You allow Clinton to use it as Campaign tool, while ignoring or not allowing anybody remotely from the right to voice their opinion. fuck, you even had A INAUGURAL BALL FOR THE GUY. Gore, Kerry and Obama were all allowed to be interviewed on the network during their respective campaigns. And before you ask, I DESPISE the GOP, just believe in fairness when it comes to one expressing their POV.

-MTV (in it's mutated greedy asshole form),Ticketmaster, Clear Channel killed Rock N'Roll. Any arguments against that claim?

[Nitro Express]

MTV was the perfect example of technology surpasses need. The cable companies could offer all these channels but they were hurting for content. Having a music channel was a natural choice but where do you get material to run on it 24/7? David Lee Roth said in the early days of MTV you could get your video on the air by just having a video. So this spawned the whole 1980's MTV experience which I consider pop art in itself. The whole thing was pop art because it was on the fly and entering new territory. What killed MTV in the 90's was market research done to maximize profits. It became corporate and had an agenda.

[Nitro Express]

And that gives lie to your point and weight to mine, with regard to respecting an overall fan base. Seriously, look...were either of these "releases" you mentioned made available in sanctioned form by the band, with easily accessible user menus, commentary, bonus footage, ect. to the average fan? NOPE. Next, define "well circulated." Would this not imply that hardcore VH fans had to take unnecessary (and more often than not, costly) steps in order to go beyond the "official" product issued by the band? Read: Steps the band could have profited by in more ways than just money?

Take it a bit further: The live South American version of ZZ Top's "Beer Drinkers And Hell Raisers." Unless you just so happened to be an "in the know" VH fan, nobody else knew this track/footage ever existed, and even so, it only appeared years after it had taken place. On the other hand, if this gem happened to show up in a professionally rendered clip on MTV in regular rotation sometime, say in 1983...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ7tFDeUWXg

I'm a die hard classic VH fan and I didn't even know about it until I could search the internet. In fact what brought me to the DLR Army in the first place was searching for old VH bootlegs. There was a pretty good stash of stuff here.

[Nitro Express]

The media will never improve until more and more people own it. It's owned by too few people and it's too regulated. Everything is turning into propaganda and is engineered for an agenda instead of just being on the fly and in the moment. Talk to anyone who works in radio now. They all will tell you it's no fun anymore because it's so easy to get in trouble.

[twonabomber]

that was part of MTV's problem...Viacom/CBS. they killed it, just like they've helped take radio back to the stone age along with Clear Channel.

[Nitro Express]

that was part of MTV's problem...Viacom/CBS. they killed it, just like they've helped take radio back to the stone age along with Clear Channel.

I keep saying nothing will turn for the better until we the people take everything we enjoyed back and own it. Things are better when they are locally owned and each locality has it's unique flavor. Go on a road trip now and you see the same resturaunts and stores everywhere. Business is like parenting. You can hire nannies and day care but nobody will have a bigger interest in raising your kids than you. I think Apple Computer is a pretty good example. They fire Steve Jobs stating that he lacks corporate experience and the corporate managers just about destroy the company. Steve takes his company back and runs it his unique way and brings unique products to market and is very successful.

The traditional corporate model is a failure because there is collusion at the board level. All the board members of all these companies watch each other's backs and they are politically connected enough to get bailed out. So there is no incentive to be unique or to revolutionize the world for the better. It's all about being connected and colluding for money. When that is happening at the top it shows in the products of the company and not only do the employees get fucked over the customers do as well. Too big to fail never results in blow your mind innovation and exhillerating anything.

It's not until someone with passion and vision takes over and makes something wonderful and unique that things get better. Then the real wonderfulness is to have a different flavor of wonderfulness in each location reflecting the uniqueness of that area. Isn't that why we like to travel? We want to experience something new and different. The corporate model kills this and everything becomes the same steryle shit.

[Unchainme]

I think the concept that I'm seeing on this MTV 30 week could have worked very well..

just mis-mashing videos, VMA performances, skits, interview shows into one block would make me a happy man. No setlist, so you're constantly waiting to see what's aired. When I went to bed it was U2's live aid special, when I woke up? Eminem's performance from the 2000 VMA's. Big fan of both artists, so needless to say was a good viewing.

Take VH1 Classic and make it MTV Classic. Done. Sad to think those at Viacom won't pull their heads out of their asses

[Jagermeister]

FUCK MTV!

http://www.smartandangry.com/storage/unclesamhatesmtv.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=12 43890332447

[rocknrolldork]

I really enjoyed watching it this past weekend. Made me think back to lighter times from my life.


MTV was the perfect example of technology surpasses need. The cable companies could offer all these channels but they were hurting for content. Having a music channel was a natural choice but where do you get material to run on it 24/7? David Lee Roth said in the early days of MTV you could get your video on the air by just having a video. So this spawned the whole 1980's MTV experience which I consider pop art in itself.

In the mid to late 70's I remember going to my grandmother's house in Louisville and the local radio station LRS102 that would run a bunch of live stuff and music vids on a public access tv station. They were all promo vids that companies did for up and coming artists. Mostly live or lip synced to appear live. Much like the VH vids Warner Bros did for the VH-I stuff. I remember just being floored by this.

[Unchainme]

Showing the highlights of U2 preforming at Live Aid was pretty damn cool. Bono seemed to just be amazing there. Say what you want about the guy, but fuck, U2 really made a name for themselves with that/

still amazes me that stuff like this was being shown on a network that now boasts about having "Snooki".

[chefcraig]

still amazes me that stuff like this was being shown on a network that now boasts about having "Snooki".

Not really, as the channel was prone to shameless self-promotion even back at Live Aid. Case in point, when the surviving members of Zeppelin performed "Stairway To Heaven", the camera focused several times not on the band but on the faces of the more often than not clueless veejays. Of course, Mark Goodman acted as a spoiler by revealing the set list, and the ever astute Alan Hunter described John Paul Jones as Led Zeppelin's drummer, which no doubt came as a surprise to the bassist to discover he'd be behind the drum kit.

[FORD]

Showing the highlights of U2 preforming at Live Aid was pretty damn cool. Bono seemed to just be amazing there. Say what you want about the guy, but fuck, U2 really made a name for themselves with that/

still amazes me that stuff like this was being shown on a network that now boasts about having "Snooki".

U2 was one of the definite highlights of that day, along with Queen. As opposed to all the "reunion" sets of the day (Sabbath/Who/Zeppelin, etc) which were rather disappointing by comparison.

[Terry]

U2 was one of the definite highlights of that day, along with Queen. As opposed to all the "reunion" sets of the day (Sabbath/Who/Zeppelin, etc) which were rather disappointing by comparison.

I was kinda hoping they'd rerun the Zep set at Live Aid, if only to see that train wreck one more time and record it...seeing as Zep made sure that performance wasn't included when the Live Aid dvd set came out several years back.

Frankly, VH1 could just rerun the first three years of MTV and I'd be fine with that.

[Unchainme]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAbtH0GNbkw

....christ......fucking awful.....

You know it's bad when the guest performer (Phil Collins for fucks sake!) sounds BETTER than the rest of the group.

[FORD]

You know how I really knew MTV was done?

When they hired that fucking full on dumpster diving junkie Jesse (or whatever his name was) as a "veejay" in the 90's.

That fucking idiot killed the channel even more than Britney Spears and "reality" shows did.

[twonabomber]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAbtH0GNbkw

....christ......fucking awful.....

You know it's bad when the guest performer (Phil Collins for fucks sake!) sounds BETTER than the rest of the group.

i think Tony Thompson was better on that. there are a couple times where it looks like Collins is trying to figure out where to go. Page had to be loaded.

the audio is way outta sync on that upload...


Showing the highlights of U2 preforming at Live Aid was pretty damn cool. Bono seemed to just be amazing there. Say what you want about the guy, but fuck, U2 really made a name for themselves with that


they technically only did two songs, but "Bad" was the keeper.

[Nitro Express]

My mixed doubles partner in tennis looked just like Martha Quinn.

[Unchainme]

You know how I really knew MTV was done?

When they hired that fucking full on dumpster diving junkie Jesse (or whatever his name was) as a "veejay" in the 90's.

That fucking idiot killed the channel even more than Britney Spears and "reality" shows did.

You so sure?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9veBQ2V70o

[lesfunk]

[Nitro Express]

[Va Beach VH Fan]

A Footloose screening and an Atari, where do I sign up ?? ;)

[Unchainme]

My little brother just introduced to me the most bizarre, yet cool video I've seen in a long time:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_rQ6Av0gMY&feature=player_embedded

pretty much looks like you're reading an American History book by Howard Zinn on X.

Song is pretty damn funky too, normally don't go for Techno.

See, this is the type of weird shit MTV should be showing right now. Don't care the genre, but fuck..go unique. Try something different!

[Va Beach VH Fan]

My mixed doubles partner in tennis looked just like Martha Quinn.

Go to her website, she still looks great at 52....

And, by the way, check out her twitter page and see who's in her picture....

http://twitter.com/#!/MarthaQuinn

[Seshmeister]

How big was the non portable VCR? :)

[Unchainme]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMjTXaDYlYc&feature=related


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU2fCu9Kudk&feature=related

[Unchainme]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PTsI-CtYCM

God the sheep were dumbasses. "David Lee Who?". fucking dumbfucks. Same with Hagar who seems to have a fucking complex even from the beginning Meanwhile DLR is just looking to promote his show, and just laughs it off.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HTJ3Cyt7Nk


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIay4rnkq4Y