pick a lil' blog a lil'

Gather round young'uns as I tell you about a time before there was music television. We had to stay up late on Friday night and watch something called Night Tracks on WTBS the Atlanta superstation. Of course, we just had cable TV hooked up not too long before that. Ahhh, back in the day. I know you are wondering how we survived.

MTV used to be fun. Videos were cool, edgy, funny. We devoured them all. We worshipped the VJs: JJ Jackson, Martha Quinn, Alan Hunter, Nina Blackwood, and Mark Goodman. It was music brought to life. It was a movie short or concert piece for the increasing attention deficit gaps of a generation.

Here are some of my fave memories, bands, and videos from those earliest MTV days before corporate, record industry, and Hollywood destroyed the new medium:

Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles: That was the anthem, the first song played when MTV went on the air and each time a new cable affiliate picked up the network. My friends and I crowded around my TV in my dorm room at the University of Illinois where we were welcomed by the VJ and serenaded with this song. I bet it only cost about $1.50 to produce. By today's standards, it looks incredibly tacky but hey, it was the first and you always remember your first.

Michael Jackson: Anything he did, was awesome. It was a time where he had the world at his feet instead of small children at his.......well never mind. The moon walkin', beat it, billie jean is not my loverin, jacko was a thriller.

Madonna: She wanted to rule the world. Wow! Did she ever! She could have made a video where all she did was put Pop Tarts in a toaster and we would have been all over it. This was back when she was from Michigan and not sporting that fake English accent and promoting some made up religion.

We are the World: We are the children. Maybe this was the beginning of the end or maybe it was just because I graduated from college and was ready to grow up, well almost ready. I remember a Hands Across America was held the very same day as my graduation from college.

Total Coelho: I Eat Cannibals. Another video that was cheap, cheap, cheap. It looked trashy and unprofessional. LOVED IT!! The girls were all dressed in different brightly colored Hefty bags. I remember this inspired a Halloween costume worn by my friends Jodi and Diane. Except they just wore brown bags. People up in Campustown at the Halloween street party, since cancelled(dang!) because of broken windows, arson, and alcohol poisoning, thought they were boogers.

Annie Lennox, Boy George, Poison: All the gender benders. Men with makeup. Women in suits. Big Hair for the boys. Crew cuts for the girls. It provided hours of conversation about who was what and who was doing what to whom???!!! LOL

Cyndy Lauper: who is this girl and why is she so unusual. She is my hero!

Anything British: Dexy's Midnight Runners, Spandau Ballet, Bananarama, Tracy Ullman, the Young Ones, Duran Duran. Give it an accent and it was number ONE!

Well, that's enough for now. I guess there was no real moola in just showing music videos. Too bad they have had to eliminate them almost altogether. MTV Classic channel anyone?????