Phoenix Comicon reminded me of the cons I went to when I was a kid, and reminded me of what cons could be — and should be — when they’re run by people who care more about creating a good time for fans, than figuring out ways to separate fans from their money.
I’ll have a full trip report later today, but until then, I have found something HAWESOME to pass the time, or at least listen to in the background while you work. Three hours of MTV, recorded on VHS in 1983, including wonderfully cheedy commercials. I’ve been listening to part one for about thirty minutes, and the nostalgia is starting to overwhelm me.
Generation X! Rejoice, while the damn kids today wonder why MTV is actually playing music videos.
(from Appelogen via boingboing)
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So many of these videos remind me of particular days or times in my childhood — I was 11 in 1983 — and even though I knot it’s not really possible, I feel like I can remember the first time I watched some of them.
Many of the videos also shine a light — for me, at least — on how shitty the videos they make today are. When these videos were made, the medium was new, people were experimenting, and even established bands like The Police were using them to build and craft their image (watch Synchronicity II in Part 1, and you’ll see what I mean.) Compare it to the crap they make for pop music today, where they throw some kids into the desert and splice in the requisite shots of “singer in the rain” and “mysterious stranger that’s never explained or has any relation to the music” and even something like Say, Say, Say, from McCartney and Jacko becomes a work of art.
This is one of the first things I downloaded from video.google.com, compressed and then synced onto my iPhone! Classic MTV! Yeah! It really is amazing how much content they had when MTV first started airing. Most of it was concert footage, but some were honest to goodness “videos” produced for the new medium. I remember clearly the day MTV launched, and I was hooked into watching it for about 12 years straight. I hear MTV even started playing music videos again recently. Too bad I don’t have cable. Or maybe not.
OMG! I remember when Mtv used to play music. Whatever happened to that?
Thank you for this! I loved MTV back then. It really brings back some memories (for better or for worse!).
That is truly awesome, although it reminds me of my miserable failure at being Nina Blackwood. She was so “cool” and I was so, well, not (despite my best efforts). But hey, I can still recite all the words to Five Minutes of Funk so at least my MTV youth wasn’t completely wasted. Thanks for the nostalgia!
Ok, bizarre question: On that very first commercial for the cologne, does the woman’s voice on the phone sound EXACTLY like the lady that did the “Mad Minutes” with Dick De Bartolo? (Of Mad Magazine and Daily Giz Wiz fame – Leo Laporte used to run the Mad Minutes and I swear she sounds like EXACTLY the same person to me.)
I was born in 1983, but watching some of this makes me wish I could be nostalgic about it. When I was growing up, the New Kids on the Block and excessive quantities of dayglo were all the rage, not the Who and white leather belts.
Also, MTV is a steaming pile of crap nowadays. Enough with the awful, repetitive reality shows. More music, pls!
Thank you so much for posting those MTV videos. They have, like, totally made my day. Funny enough, I was just watching an all 80’s video special on Classic VH1 earlier today! Why do i now suddenly feel the need to put on spandex and leg warmers…? ^_^
OK, as a 10 year old girl I remember thinking that Huey Lewis made good music, but that he looked “old.” As a 35 year old woman, I look at him now and think, “Dang, he was hawt.” How funny.
After the Huey Lewis video, Mark Goodman said something about them being a great band to see live. I have to agree. They were my first concert – 15 years old, the “Fore!” album. They did FOUR encores. They were incredible.
Weird… so did they replay this on MTV years later? There’s a ’99 Prince video at the 19 min mark on vid 1.
–T
Hilarious… I’m an idiot. The ALBUM was 1999… lol. Shows how much I know about Prince I guess… thanks for the post.
–T
Dude!! This is freakin’ hysterical. About 51 minutes into Part I = Michael Bolton, the Hard Rock Years. I WANT MY MTV!!!!
Oh man, you reminded me that I have a VHS tape of a block of MTV from when I house-sat for my yuppie brother in my late-teens! I should dig it up and transfer it to DVD before it crumbles away. Ah, nostalgia.
I think I have a copy of a Cop Rock episode somewhere, too.
Oh. My. God. Michael Bolton trying to front a rock band. Some things need to stay buried in the past.
Someone hand me the scissors. I’m tearing all the sleeves off my shirts right now.
Jenny, you also need a red bandana to wear around the top of your thigh.
Also, Jenny, don’t forget to empty two cans of AquaNet into your hair, as well as wear any skin-tight leather you may have…
Ahhhh, skin tight leather…
For the last 20 years, I’ve watched MTV devolve from “Music Television” to the “Shiny Things Network.” Someone at Viacom needs to wake up and realize that the M is for “Music,” not the “Morons” who watch it for crap reality TV these days…
Dude! The Panasonic ad at time code 1:02:00 shows the exact boom box that I got as a Christmas present back then. I still use it regularly, although the tape deck has not worked in years. Thanks for the nostalgia trip.
Before the web, records were advertised on tv sold over the telephone. T-shirts were also sold over the phone. Band tour schedules were only available occassionally on television — and you better have a pen ready to write down your town.
Flashbacks! I was at that Police concert in OKC in 1983.
The “reality check” for me tha this was 24 years ago…The Police shirt for the 1983 tour was only $12…The Police shirt I got for their 2007 tour was $35 lol.
You totally rule. I met you yesterday at the Con and you were so amazing! Thank you so much for the autograph, the picture and being so sweet 🙂 If I was a big fan before, I’m a HUGE fan now! You’re the best.
I love the commercial where MTV asks their viewers to push the cable companies to offer broadcasts with stereo sound (about 5 min into part 1). We’ve come a long way baby.
The less music video’s MTV played, the more pissed off I got. I tuned in for the video’s damnit!
And now CMTs the same way (yes, my eclectic music tastes does include country). Only time to get videos is in the morning.
Some random thoughts after part one:
Music back then was just good. Even the hair band stuff was good pop music. There’s a liveliness to almost all of it, from the New Wave (The Tubes, Bow Wow Wow) to the Rock (Quiet Riot) to the Funk(?) (Prince).
It’s fascinating to see some of the artists who came up in the 60’s and 70’s represented in the 80’s. There is a contest to win Neil Young’s pink Cadillac during his pseudo-rockabilly phase. A video from the Who (You Better You Bet, a post Moon classic). An announcement about a premiere video from Bob Dylan off the Infidels album.
At the end of part one is a video from Nick Heyward who I had never heard of. I go onto Wikipedia and find out he’s still around and has a Myspace page, how bizarre.
I’m struck by how much sound quality is advertised, both in commercials for stereos and in the constant references to MTV being broadcast in stereo. This just doesn’t exist anymore. Apple doesn’t advertise how good iPods sound, preferring instead to emphasize a visual aesthetic and lifestyle images. This is true of any equipment these days, the packaging is played up (particularly the size of it) much more than the quality of the playback.
Thank you so much for coming to Phoenix Comicon! I’m not on the staff (in fact, I’m the redhead that was with Michael from Farpoint Media). It was awesome quasi-meeting you, and I’m kicking myself for not suffering through my headache to go back Sunday and buy a book.
Thanks for posting this Wil, it was an awesome trip back to eighth grade 🙂
The first two videos on part one are a great example how much music video changed in about nine months in 1983. You could tell “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me” was just thrown together quickly on cheap film and pretty much. Compare that to “Heart and Soul,” where production values were at an obviously much higher level and there was an actual plot. Not that having a plot is important, but even “Little Red Corvette” looked better than “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me” in terms of being a performance video. In early 1983, “Billie Jean,” “Hungry Like the Wolf” and “Let’s Dance” changed everything.
The Sessions commercial for the soft rock collection is a blast. Forgot what a big deal those compilation albums were 🙂
So took me home in a way, you know if there was a video internet channel of this stuff I’d regularly watch it.
I think I stopped watching MTV when they stopped airing concert dates … wow, I’m old!
“Dial 1-800-Hot-Raaaawk” 🙂
Did you Matt Wagner Grendel sketch make it back in one piece?
OK, you often post super cool links, but this was by far the best thing I’ve seen in ages. Just listening to it has brought serious warm fuzzies and made my work day go so much better. I’m just finishing up the first part and I’m afraid to even start the second part because that will signal the end.
More people need to go through those old boxes and see what they can find. MTV circa ’83 was, and IMHO, IS the best television ever had to offer.
Thanks Wil!
The very first video is Night Ranger?! That’s awesome! They were my favorite band growing up. I still listen to them now. It does make me feel a little old, but thanks for sharing.
Didn’t scientists once determine the densest substance known to man to be Mark Goodman’s hair?
Quality, Wheaton. And thank you.
Wow. Thanks Wil, I’ve got this running in the background like an 80s streaming music station while I do some work.
I can’t help but contrast MTV of my youth to now. The cynic in me goes “Feh, on current MTV we would have already had two gameshows between these two videos”.
That makes me really sad for some reason.