Post by codystarbuck on Jun 16, 2019 19:59:49 GMT -5
So, this has been on my mind a bit, lately. My biggest music love is New Wave, as the late 70s and early to mid-80s period gave rise to a ton of cool stuff that wasn't on a lot of mainstream radio. So, I have several big 80s compilation series and individual albums of 80s acts (some more than others), while also having a decent selection of punk, heavy metal, glam rock, rockabilly, Modern Rock/Indie/Alternative/Whatever; plus some soul, disco and funk. Anyway, our music feed at work had a bit of an upgrade last month and we are now getting a lot of 80s and 90s stuff, instead of what we were getting (which was more recent era stuff. So, I have been at work jamming to early Vince Clark-era Depeche Mode, New Order, Fine Young Cannibals, Pretenders, Human League, Flock of Seagulls, Madonna, Howard Jones, and some others; plus, some of what we used to get.
Then, there were a bunch of interview clips, with Martha Quinn, posted on Youtube...
Then, NPR had pieces about the new Springsteen and Madonna albums. It's like a time warp, man (cue Rocky Horror.....)
Anyway; little background. I grew up in a farm town, west of Decatur, IL, smack dab in the middle of Illinois. Our radio was from decatur. This is primarily the AM era, as WSOY was the station my parents would have on. It was light rock/easy listening, with the occasional pop song, country crossover hit, a bit of funk/soul and a bit of rock (like ELO). Very middle of the road. The other station in town, WDZ, was a bit more rock oriented; but their format varied. Y103 was the FM station (same owners as WSOY) and went from 50s era "square" stuff (you would actually hear Ray Conniff, and stuff like Andy Williams and Perry Como, and their contemporaries) to, eventually, Top 40 rock. So, my main outlet for music, was more tv, meaning the Monkees,, The Archies, and American Bandstand. The Midnight Special was past my bedtime and SNL wasn't featuring musicians who I really connected to, yet. We could tune in WLS, from Chicago, who had a signal that went all the way down state and beyond; but, didn't have my own radio to tune them in, until the late 70s. So, I would encounter songs that I liked; but, music wasn't that strong a thing for me and I wasn't seeing artists who really blew me away, on Bandstand. I might see the Doobie Brothers or Earth, Wind and Fire or something along those lines. By the late 70s, dawn of the 80s, I started hearing some of what was being called New Wave, on WLS, with The Cars, Blondie, and a couple of others, Plus this female rock singer, with a hell of a voice, called Pat Benatar.
Now, moe slightly forward to 1982, and my little farm town is being wired for cable television, just after school has ended, for the summer. We get hooked up and I flip through the new channels (such as they were; we had two of each network affiliate, WGN, WTBS, USA and the local PBS station and a UHF station, from Springfield). Amid things like CNN (where I saw the old WICS Channel 20 weatherman, Flip Spiceland, now doing weather across the country), I came across music, set to video images of bands doing stuff or playing on stage. This wasn't entirely new, as I had seen things like The Go-Gos talking about their lips being sealed, while they were still moving; but, here is a whole bunch of them. And not many commercials. It's this MTV thing I heard about on some talk show!
One of the first videos I can recall seeing was Utopia's "Feet Don't Fail Me Now"
What the hell was that? However, soon I saw the Buggles, Adam Ant, Flock of Seagulls, Rush, Elton John (whose songs I knew; but hadn't heard much in a bit) and some guys playing in front of an oil pumping station, talking about rocking a Casbah. oh, wait, the Clash? Is that that Punk Rock thing that passed us by, in central Illinois?
I watched for quite a while and only saw a couple of commercials. It was music videos almost the entire hour, with these VJ people popping in, now and then.
It was eye opening. Since the bulk of the music videos were coming from either the UK, Canada, or more experimental bands, it was like entering a Wonderland of new music: The Talking Heads, ABC, Duran Duran, Genesis & Phil Collins solo, Billy Idol, The Human League, The Motels, Yaz(oo) ,The Tubes, Berlin, Ultravox, Triumph, Loverboy, Quarterflash, Saga, The Waitresses, The Pretenders, Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, and something called Steel Breeze. There were some I already knew (the Cars, The Police, Gary Newman, Pat Benatar, Billy Joel, etc...) but, a ton I didn't. It was the topic of conversation at school, in the fall and then we started to see it grow. 1983 became the year that MTV started to break through, as the "I Want My MTV!" campaign was working and I started seeing and hearing the bands I saw on MTV, on the radio and on Bandstand, and other places. Some of the other cable channels started to add video music shows. Now, we were getting names like Culture Club, Men at Work, INXS, The Fixx, U2, Fine Young Cannibals, English Beat. Then, give it another couple of years and MTV is the mainstream and some of those more experimental bands aren't being shown much, anymore. They have some show, called 120 Minutes, that features some stuff that seems a bit deeper, rawer, compared to a Van Halen or Bon Jovi. Even Springsteen is doing videos now and people like Tina Turner have gotten a career resurgence, on the strength of music videos for new songs.
My wife is a big progressive rock fan; but, was introduced to these bands at an earlier age, by her oldest sister's boyfriend (and, later, husband) and is a bigger album person. For me, MTV was where I really started to build my musical tastes, since I am a more visual person (my memory tends to work as images recalled and I am more into visual arts). Still, it wasn't just the New Wave and pop acts that MTV showcased that became my first loves. Early MTV introduced me to the Punk bands that I missed and I went backwards. Same for Heavy Metal (and went forward, with some of those). Bands like The Stray Cats got me to check out Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, the Collins Kids, Wanda Jackson, earlier Carl Perkins, Joe Mapp, and more. I got introduced to the Post Punk bands, like Siouxsie & the Banshees, and stuff like Echo & the Bunnymen, The Cure, REM, The B-52s, The New Romantic bands and singers, the Ska Revival bands, rap, and some good old fashioned pure rock and roll.
MTV also introduced me to the world of British Alternative Comedy, in the form of The Young Ones, which led me down a rabbit hole of Black Adder, Fry & Laurie, French & Saunders, Lennie Henry, Red Dwarf, and Not the Nine O'Clock News (who were taking the piss out of music videos pretty early on...)
Funny enough, the point where I start pulling back from mainstream music is where MTV was pulling back from music video programming and putting out more programming like Bevis & Butthead and The Real World. I still found some music through them (Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Smashing Pumpkins, 4 Non-Blonds, The Breeders, etc); but, it became fewer and further between.
So, what did you think of the early years of MTV (say the first decade or two, depending on your age and access)? Did it start losing you when the videos became secondary or was that what was drawing you, with things like the animation, reality shows, TRL, or some of the rest? Did MTV open up new music to you or was it more of the same? No effect?
Did you want your MTV?
Then, there were a bunch of interview clips, with Martha Quinn, posted on Youtube...
Then, NPR had pieces about the new Springsteen and Madonna albums. It's like a time warp, man (cue Rocky Horror.....)
Anyway; little background. I grew up in a farm town, west of Decatur, IL, smack dab in the middle of Illinois. Our radio was from decatur. This is primarily the AM era, as WSOY was the station my parents would have on. It was light rock/easy listening, with the occasional pop song, country crossover hit, a bit of funk/soul and a bit of rock (like ELO). Very middle of the road. The other station in town, WDZ, was a bit more rock oriented; but their format varied. Y103 was the FM station (same owners as WSOY) and went from 50s era "square" stuff (you would actually hear Ray Conniff, and stuff like Andy Williams and Perry Como, and their contemporaries) to, eventually, Top 40 rock. So, my main outlet for music, was more tv, meaning the Monkees,, The Archies, and American Bandstand. The Midnight Special was past my bedtime and SNL wasn't featuring musicians who I really connected to, yet. We could tune in WLS, from Chicago, who had a signal that went all the way down state and beyond; but, didn't have my own radio to tune them in, until the late 70s. So, I would encounter songs that I liked; but, music wasn't that strong a thing for me and I wasn't seeing artists who really blew me away, on Bandstand. I might see the Doobie Brothers or Earth, Wind and Fire or something along those lines. By the late 70s, dawn of the 80s, I started hearing some of what was being called New Wave, on WLS, with The Cars, Blondie, and a couple of others, Plus this female rock singer, with a hell of a voice, called Pat Benatar.
Now, moe slightly forward to 1982, and my little farm town is being wired for cable television, just after school has ended, for the summer. We get hooked up and I flip through the new channels (such as they were; we had two of each network affiliate, WGN, WTBS, USA and the local PBS station and a UHF station, from Springfield). Amid things like CNN (where I saw the old WICS Channel 20 weatherman, Flip Spiceland, now doing weather across the country), I came across music, set to video images of bands doing stuff or playing on stage. This wasn't entirely new, as I had seen things like The Go-Gos talking about their lips being sealed, while they were still moving; but, here is a whole bunch of them. And not many commercials. It's this MTV thing I heard about on some talk show!
One of the first videos I can recall seeing was Utopia's "Feet Don't Fail Me Now"
What the hell was that? However, soon I saw the Buggles, Adam Ant, Flock of Seagulls, Rush, Elton John (whose songs I knew; but hadn't heard much in a bit) and some guys playing in front of an oil pumping station, talking about rocking a Casbah. oh, wait, the Clash? Is that that Punk Rock thing that passed us by, in central Illinois?
I watched for quite a while and only saw a couple of commercials. It was music videos almost the entire hour, with these VJ people popping in, now and then.
It was eye opening. Since the bulk of the music videos were coming from either the UK, Canada, or more experimental bands, it was like entering a Wonderland of new music: The Talking Heads, ABC, Duran Duran, Genesis & Phil Collins solo, Billy Idol, The Human League, The Motels, Yaz(oo) ,The Tubes, Berlin, Ultravox, Triumph, Loverboy, Quarterflash, Saga, The Waitresses, The Pretenders, Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, and something called Steel Breeze. There were some I already knew (the Cars, The Police, Gary Newman, Pat Benatar, Billy Joel, etc...) but, a ton I didn't. It was the topic of conversation at school, in the fall and then we started to see it grow. 1983 became the year that MTV started to break through, as the "I Want My MTV!" campaign was working and I started seeing and hearing the bands I saw on MTV, on the radio and on Bandstand, and other places. Some of the other cable channels started to add video music shows. Now, we were getting names like Culture Club, Men at Work, INXS, The Fixx, U2, Fine Young Cannibals, English Beat. Then, give it another couple of years and MTV is the mainstream and some of those more experimental bands aren't being shown much, anymore. They have some show, called 120 Minutes, that features some stuff that seems a bit deeper, rawer, compared to a Van Halen or Bon Jovi. Even Springsteen is doing videos now and people like Tina Turner have gotten a career resurgence, on the strength of music videos for new songs.
My wife is a big progressive rock fan; but, was introduced to these bands at an earlier age, by her oldest sister's boyfriend (and, later, husband) and is a bigger album person. For me, MTV was where I really started to build my musical tastes, since I am a more visual person (my memory tends to work as images recalled and I am more into visual arts). Still, it wasn't just the New Wave and pop acts that MTV showcased that became my first loves. Early MTV introduced me to the Punk bands that I missed and I went backwards. Same for Heavy Metal (and went forward, with some of those). Bands like The Stray Cats got me to check out Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, the Collins Kids, Wanda Jackson, earlier Carl Perkins, Joe Mapp, and more. I got introduced to the Post Punk bands, like Siouxsie & the Banshees, and stuff like Echo & the Bunnymen, The Cure, REM, The B-52s, The New Romantic bands and singers, the Ska Revival bands, rap, and some good old fashioned pure rock and roll.
MTV also introduced me to the world of British Alternative Comedy, in the form of The Young Ones, which led me down a rabbit hole of Black Adder, Fry & Laurie, French & Saunders, Lennie Henry, Red Dwarf, and Not the Nine O'Clock News (who were taking the piss out of music videos pretty early on...)
Funny enough, the point where I start pulling back from mainstream music is where MTV was pulling back from music video programming and putting out more programming like Bevis & Butthead and The Real World. I still found some music through them (Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Smashing Pumpkins, 4 Non-Blonds, The Breeders, etc); but, it became fewer and further between.
So, what did you think of the early years of MTV (say the first decade or two, depending on your age and access)? Did it start losing you when the videos became secondary or was that what was drawing you, with things like the animation, reality shows, TRL, or some of the rest? Did MTV open up new music to you or was it more of the same? No effect?
Did you want your MTV?
