The Early MTV Years

Remember when MTV used to be cool from 1981-1985?

What the hell happened to MTV in the past 20 years. There was still music on the channel from Richard Marx and Poison to Nirvana and Snopp Dogg but then came the Real World and Laguna Beach. That's when MTV went from Music Television to Messed Up Television. But I'm not here to talk about why the channel became CTV (Crappy Television),I'm here to talk about the early days of MTV from 1981-1985. I remember alot of things happened in the first 3 years (I was born in October 3,1982). There was alot of classic MTV promos from the classic animated Service Station segment to the now famous "I Want My MTV" ad,contests(One Night Stand w/ Men At Work,Private Affair w/ The Cars),concerts (Live Aid,Journey Live At Houston),shows (Liner Notes,Video Music Awards,the VJs (Mark Goodman,Alan Hunter,Nina Blackwood,Martha Quinn,and the late JJ Jackson) and of course,music videos.

One of the coolest VJs of all time,the late JJ Jackson.

This MTV logo was busting the wall back & forth and now,he needs to stop playing today's crap.

We all know the success of Duran Duran,Def Leppard and Madonna but what about all the forgotten artists like Duke Jupiter,The Shoes,Bootcamp,The Silencers,Rupert Hine,Will Powers and Musical Youth. They may have one hit or they never had a big career like their peers but they deserve some credit though.

Prince is the first black artist on MTV. But he can still kick Michael Jackson's ass.

One of the first New Wave bands on MTV,The White Suits.I mean the Talking Heads

You wonder why Nick Rhodes' ears are hurting,because he heard "SexyBack" a bunch of times.

Ever since the original VJs went on different things,MTV went down the hill. Maybe not,but for anyone who can remember The Police screaming "I Want My MTV",Cyndi Lauper singing in tears on "Time After Time" or when JJ Jackson interviewing Grace Slick,that was the end of the early days. Now,it's all about Rap,Teen Pop,Emo,My Super Sweet 16 and The Hills. I want MTV to go back to the very beginning when they played nothing but videos and promos.

Comments

yes i know it should went back to the 80's

Two Words: Bevis. Butthead.

To tell you the truth, I never really liked MTV. Maybe it was because I was too young for it, and therefore, didn't have the attention span for a bunch of music videos, but I liked MTV when it had the cartoons like Beavis and Butthead, 3 South, and Daria. If I wanted music that I thought was cool, I'd listen to my mom's stuff from the 1970s and early 1980s (later on, I'd use the Internet).

Oh, and Prince and Michael Jackson were the first few black musicians on MTV (also Lionel Richie, but I'm not sure). I don't know how I know that since I'm not that big a Michael Jackson fan and I didn't start liking Prince until I was in college (read: now). I remember reading it on Wikipedia.

The Dire Straights are the ones that scream; I WANT MY MTV! Not the police.

Other than that, great article.

Yeah, they're not the same anymore. I remember the joy of getting in MTV when I was in junior high. I was sick and staying at home, but I could have gone to school. Instead I stayed home and fooled around with the VCR, among being able to tune in The Weather Channel, Nickelodeon (Thank you, You Cant Do That on Television), and others, I was starting to feel better when I tuned in MTV. Luckily YouTube has some of the old promos and bumpers from that era as well. Thankfully VH1 still runs "We Are the 80's", but I still wish I could see the old bumpers and logos as well.

MTV sucks.

No,Ultra Magnus. My mom got me into MTV when I was a baby and how did you know that I saw Martha Quinn interviewing Duran Duran?

You're right SummertmeBrews. I have forgot about Hall & Oates,Cyndi Lauper,Genesis & Devo. I would also like to add Loverboy,Adam Ant,A Flock Of Seagulls,Duran Duran,The Fixx,Billy Idol,Def Leppard,Rod Stewart,INXS,The Cars,Todd Rundgren,Thompson Twins,Spandau Ballet,Utopia,etc.

oz615, that's one of the many reasons why I don't have cable or Dish. I only watch dvds.

MTV used to be cool..keyword used to be...now they have more shows than music videos...

I have found a sweet HD channel (32.2 in Portland, OR) called the Tube that only plays music videos. It truly reminds me of MTV since it does play a ton of 80s videos. I miss the MTV of the 80s as well.

youre forgetting...

Hall & Oates, Cindy Luaper, Genesis, Devo.. to name a few.

*Prince and Talking Heads remain one of my all time favs.

Well i hate to break it to you,but VH1 isn't much better these days neither,but getting back to the topic,what is also interesting is that the only time when MTV do show videos is between 2-8 am,what's odd about that is that most of the net's demographic audience are either in bed,or in class.

I remember when MTV use to be the coolest thing to watch. It was edgy and experimental. But more importantly, it was fun to watch. Now it only caters to teeny bopper crap. I find myself watching VH1 more these days, if I watch TV at all.
Back in the day (oh god I actually said that!) it was cool to have a channel your parents didn't want to watch. I wish they MTV executives (contradiction) would create a classic MTV channel, kind of like TY Land.

Let's Rock!

MTV is just a scrub trap that tries to convince naive 14 year olds that MTV is what all the college kids are watching, when really most college kids are downloading stuff from eMule and watching YouTube.