August 1, 1981: MTV, standing for "Music Television," goes on the air. The world would never be the same -- and not in a good way. The 1st video was the appropriately, if not quite correctly, titled 1979 hit by The Buggles, "Video Killed the Radio Star."
There were music videos before MTV debuted. Sometimes, they were called "promotional films," and The Beatles seemed to specialize in them. Before that, in the 1940s, they were called "soundies," and would be shown with movie theaters' newsreels or in jukeboxes containing small film projectors.
But MTV, whether knowingly or not, promoted Marshall McLuhan's idea that "The medium is the message." Suddenly, the visual meant more than anything else. Never mind whether the lyrics, the voices, or the playing of the instruments sounded good: Did the performance look good? (Most of the time, my answer was, "Not to me, but it sure did to a bunch of people with no taste.")
The original commercial showed various performers telling America to demand its MTV, by yelling, "I want my MTV!" (Shades of the 1976 film Network, and, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!") They included The Police, Pat Benatar, and Pete Townshend of The Who, all of them talented enough to know better, but they took the money, anyway.
By 1983, the performers doing the commercials were adding the tagline, "Too much is never enough." These included people who should have known better, including Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones (who, clearly, believed it) and David Bowie.
Oddly, some already-established performers -- including Bowie, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen -- didn't need videos to become famous and respected, yet ended up making great videos. Even the sappiest of disco performers didn't need videos: They just needed to go on American Bandstand, The Midnight Special, Soul Train or Dance Fever, and do their stuff.
Disco sucked, and polluted the airwaves in the Seventies, but it was better than the synthesizer-driven, wouldn't-be-on-the-radio-if-not-for-MTV crap of the Eighties. Duran Duran was crap, but teenage girls loved the way they looked, and so they became huge.
If Bruce Springsteen looked like Jon Bon Jovi, he would have been as big as Elvis Presley; if Bon Jovi looked like Springsteen, we'd have never heard of him. The distance between them is a lot more than the 14 miles of U.S. Route 9 between Springsteen's Freehold and Bon Jovi's Sayreville.
Or, to put it another way: Susan Boyle is 3 years younger than Madonna. If Susan looked like Madonna, she might have become famous at the same time; but if Madonna looked like Susan, she would never have become famous.
Think about it. Doris Day had a hit record in 1942, when she was 20. Teresa Brewer had a hit record in 1950, at 19. Connie Francis had a hit record in 1958, at 19. Lesley Gore had a hit record in 1963, at 16. All of these women, at those respective times, were attractive, but they didn't need to play off that, because they had talent.
Madonna's 1st hit came in 1982, when she was 24. Why not sooner? Was it because she was not attractive enough? No, it was because MTV allowed her to overcome her comparatively lower level of singing and writing talent.
Oddly, some already-established performers -- including Bowie, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen -- didn't need videos to become famous and respected, yet ended up making great videos. Even the sappiest of disco performers didn't need videos: They just needed to go on American Bandstand, The Midnight Special, Soul Train or Dance Fever, and do their stuff.
Disco sucked, and polluted the airwaves in the Seventies, but it was better than the synthesizer-driven, wouldn't-be-on-the-radio-if-not-for-MTV crap of the Eighties. Duran Duran was crap, but teenage girls loved the way they looked, and so they became huge.
If you'd never heard of these guys, and had to guess
how they sounded, your guess might well be,
"Like a bunch of twats." And you would be right.
If Bruce Springsteen looked like Jon Bon Jovi, he would have been as big as Elvis Presley; if Bon Jovi looked like Springsteen, we'd have never heard of him. The distance between them is a lot more than the 14 miles of U.S. Route 9 between Springsteen's Freehold and Bon Jovi's Sayreville.
Or, to put it another way: Susan Boyle is 3 years younger than Madonna. If Susan looked like Madonna, she might have become famous at the same time; but if Madonna looked like Susan, she would never have become famous.
Think about it. Doris Day had a hit record in 1942, when she was 20. Teresa Brewer had a hit record in 1950, at 19. Connie Francis had a hit record in 1958, at 19. Lesley Gore had a hit record in 1963, at 16. All of these women, at those respective times, were attractive, but they didn't need to play off that, because they had talent.
Madonna's 1st hit came in 1982, when she was 24. Why not sooner? Was it because she was not attractive enough? No, it was because MTV allowed her to overcome her comparatively lower level of singing and writing talent.
She could stare, she could dance, she could writhe.
But she couldn't sing or write a song worth a damn.
But it was the Eighties, so no one cared.
At first, it seemed like MTV wouldn't play videos by black performers. Then came Jackson's album Thriller, and it was off to the races.
In 1984, they began issuing the MTV Video Music Awards, or VMAs, with the "Moon Man" trophy that evoked their original commercials that seemed to pay tribute to Neil Armstrong -- certainly not to Louis Armstrong.
But by the dawn of the 21st Century, MTV began airing, for want of a better choice of words, original programming. This included The Osbournes, with Ozzy, Sharon, and their kids Kelly and Jack. (Their older daughter Aimee, and Ozzy's children from his 1st marriage, declined to participate.) While it never happened, probably because Kelly and Jack would have known, they could easily have staged a scene in which Kelly or Jack asked Ozzy, "Dad, what does 'MTV' stand for?" The answer, of course, is "Money."
One more note: I mentioned the film Network. Paddy Chayefsky, who wrote that film's screenplay, and also the author of the novels that became the films Marty and Altered States, died of cancer, only 58 years old -- on August 1, 1981, the day that MTV debuted. What a twist of fate that was!
*
August 1, 1981 was a Saturday. The NFL wouldn't start its preseason games for another 4 days. The new NBA and NHL seasons were way off. And baseball was still in its strike. So there were no scores on this dubiously historic day.
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