The finale for my trilogy covering MTV’s 40th birthday is really a love letter to how the budding network rescued my musical tastes while KLOL educated me on the past and Rock’s modern foundation. I wish I could say that about MTV now. My previous statement is not a dig at today’s popular music since older generations have always crapped on the younger’s. I realized by my thirties, Britney Spears and her vapid contemporaries weren’t designed for me. Their appeal was tailored for those who took my place as I had graduated to the demographic in which radio and TV programming and advertisers are hellbent on selling me appliances.
However, music is lacking on the network by such a name. It has been for maybe half the channel’s lifespan. I find this to be a pisser. Again, MTV doesn’t need to fill its time with videos of my preferred artists, it would just be nice to see them program the way they used to from 1981 to 1986 with contemporary artists. Let Generation Z experience the fun, the joy, the shock, whatever, in how their faves choose to visualize a song. What would do Generation Z one better would be what MTV used to excel at, introducing new artists who can’t get a break thanks to today’s asshole gatekeepers. Who or what today’s gatekeepers are? They’re a mystery thanks to the Internet while the established Media Baronies continue foundering. I’m going to gamble on saying they’re now streaming services, TikTok, YouTube and probably the nouveau riche shitbags known as Influencers. My tutor, FM radio is dead to them. FeceBook is for old people. In their defense, Gen Z’s attention spans aren’t any shorter than the rest of ours, otherwise, successful Pop songs would be under a minute.
My proposal is the story of how MTV saved me from having the same dullard, pedestrian tastes I left behind in Springfield. Admittedly, the place’s FM Pop/Rock station WDBR was pretty excellent. They straddled the pigeon-hole formats of AOR and Top 40 deftly. It’s why I had a hard time adjusting to Houston’s FM choices. Springfield was a little city, WDBR could please enough. Houston was a sprawling metropolis, there were thousands of more people with more stations to profit from diving the audience up. Since the Top 40 station became quickly unbearable, I embraced the premiere AOR-Rock station KLOL while MTV balanced it out.
I quickly leaned more toward what MTV was playing which in those early years were artists from the First Australian Wave led by Men at Work, the New Wave acts of the UK and the random Americans or Canadians who were video savvy. I agree, the programming wasn’t very diverse, MTV catered to White kids in the ‘burbs. Most Black artists were quick to say Michael Jackson didn’t count when “Billie Jean” appeared and MTV didn’t seem interested in this new Rap craze sweeping the east coast, namely the Sugar Hill Gang. Hell, they even ignored contemporary Black artists who were popular with everyone: Stevie Wonder, Rick James, The Gap Band, Lionel Richie/Commodores, Diana Ross and The Pointer Sisters.
What I loved the most was how MTV seemed to have the scoop on what would be good a few months in advance, before my friends back in Springfield would hear of it. For a few years, I had pretty solid correspondence going on with a classmate named Kim and I often provided her a list of all the cool stuff MTV was premiering. It gave Kim a heads up on to expect from WDBR or WLS. MTV’s programming also tempered KLOL from going off too far into the deep end with Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Doors, The Rolling Stones and AC/DC. I grew up without the orthodoxy I adopted in college. Before Marquette, I was alright with Duran Duran getting followed by Robert Plant followed by the Pretenders followed by ZZ Top. Hell, KLOL educated me more about the Talking Heads, The Police, The Cars and David Bowie than MTV ever did.
But as I draw this celebration to a close, I want to thank MTV for introducing me to Duran Duran, Split Enz, Berlin, Thompson Twins, Tears For Fears, Squeeze, The Jam, Ultravox, Roxy Music, Sparks, Eurythmics, Talk Talk, Wall of Voodoo, Def Leppard (seriously), INXS, Sherbs, Goanna, Midnight Oil, Sarah McLachlan, Rainmakers, Hoodoo Gurus, OMD, X, English Beat, Modern English, Blotto, They Might Be Giants, Thomas Dolby, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Re-Flex, Mondo Rock, The Cure, Culture Club, Prince (again, seriously), Madness and The Boomtown Rats. Quite an exhaustive list. You may point out, hey, not all of these acts existed during MTV’s salad days. No. A few broke through the transition into a lifestyle channel when they had shows featuring new stuff, especially a favorite I wish to bring back as a podcast, 120 Minutes. I would have a friend with cable videotape it for me every week to help me with music choices during my brief stint programming WMUR.
What will the next forty years be like for MTV? Given how Mills and Gen Z don’t watch TV in the same manner as Gen X, Boomers and older. It has become a zombie but this writer made some suggestions. I think MTV could rethink streaming or better yet, cut out the middle men, the few remaining record labels should cut a deal with Netflix, Hulu or whoever is willing to take a chance. Make blocks of music videos by possible genres to offer. I only wish my demographic was as interested in new things as it was when were young and rebelling.
Thanks for the early Eighties MTV. You saved me from being a typical Central IL Burnout or Meathead, always excited about Ozzy coming to town and not much else.