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Post by skuncle on Jun 10, 2012 0:49:11 GMT -5
The impact MTV had was huge. Duran Duran, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Dire Straits and many many more had major radio hits because they made eye catching videos. If you had a hit video you had a hit on radio.
I suggest you read the book "I Want My MTV" it gives an excellent history of the channel and it's impact on music in the 80's. If you're old enough to remember when MTV was MTV then you'll really enjoy it, if you only know MTV thru Jersey Shore, then you'll learn why the channel was so loved.
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Post by jmack19 on Jun 18, 2012 1:11:44 GMT -5
I think the real impact MTV made was when "Don't You Want Me" by The Human League hit #1 on the Billboard chart in the summer of 1982. It opened the door for radio to start playing more new artist like A Flock of Seagulls, Men At Work and The Stray Cats and away from the older artist that benefitted
from the disco backlash that began in 1979.
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Post by dukelightning on Jun 18, 2012 6:56:45 GMT -5
Yes "Don't You Want Me" was to the 80s what "Rock the Boat" was to the 70s. They were the first #1 songs to introduce the sound most associated with that decade. Interesting how along with "Rock Around the Clock" and the sound it introduced, all of these songs hit #1 around the 4th of July.
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Post by lasvegaskid on Jul 24, 2012 17:00:07 GMT -5
The impact MTV had was huge. Duran Duran, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Dire Straits and many many more had major radio hits because they made eye catching videos. If you had a hit video you had a hit on radio. I suggest you read the book "I Want My MTV" it gives an excellent history of the channel and it's impact on music in the 80's. If you're old enough to remember when MTV was MTV then you'll really enjoy it, if you only know MTV thru Jersey Shore, then you'll learn why the channel was so loved. So in other words, acts like Stephen Bishop, Paul Davis, and Captain & Tennille that were ordinary in appearance middle aged folks when they launched in the 70s probably wouldn't have had the right "look" to make it a decade later? |
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Post by dukelightning on Jul 24, 2012 17:08:32 GMT -5
Isn't that what happened with Christopher Cross? He had that hugely successful debut album a year before MTV launched. Then it launched and by that time, it was known that he was on the heavy side. So it stands to reason that with the presence of MTV, artists that were not camera-friendly would be shunned and he was a victim of that rule. Kind of an example of what "Video Killed the Radio Star" was referring to. Christopher was great for radio but not videos.
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Post by doomsdaymachine on Jul 24, 2012 22:06:20 GMT -5
Yes "Don't You Want Me" was to the 80s what "Rock the Boat" was to the 70s. They were the first #1 songs to introduce the sound most associated with that decade. Interesting how along with "Rock Around the Clock" and the sound it introduced, all of these songs hit #1 around the 4th of July. If you want to go back even farther: "Don't You Want Me" was to the '80s what "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was to the '60s, and "Rock Around The Clock" was to the '50s. |
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Post by doomsdaymachine on Jul 24, 2012 22:07:00 GMT -5
So what difference did MTV make? Videos existed for a decade+ before. Beatles and Elvis made movies that were bascially nothing but hour long music videos. Is it that MTV focused them all in one place where the casual fan could view for the first time? That sounds about right. |
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Post by skuncle on Jul 24, 2012 23:09:05 GMT -5
If you grew up in the 80's MTV was must see TV. The idea that you'd sit and watch music videos for hours a day seems odd today, but at the time it's what we did. The idea that MTV had music videos on 24/7 seems odd today also. But the constant rotation, the stop what you're doing the new <insert artist name> video is going to premiere at 7pm, the weekly video countdown, all played into it. Again I can not recommend it highly enough, but read the book I Want My MTV and you'll understand the impact MTV had. The channels impact was HUGE to having a hit in the 80's. All you need to do is look at the Top 40 after 1981, if you weren't on MTV (Barbra Streisand, Barry Manilow, Kenny Rogers etc) then your hits were few and far between.
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Post by blackbowl68 on Jul 25, 2012 11:13:13 GMT -5
So what difference did MTV make? Videos existed for a decade+ before. Beatles and Elvis made movies that were bascially nothing but hour long music videos. Is it that MTV focused them all in one place where the casual fan could view for the first time? Yes, you can... because you had to pay to go see those Elvis & Beatles films. And they're weren't designed to promote just one song! (Maybe an album at best.) You could say watching MTV was the same as listening to a radio to some degree. |
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Post by skuncle on Jul 25, 2012 11:53:07 GMT -5
?[/quote]
You could say watching MTV was the same as listening to a radio to some degree.[/quote]
MTV was programmed as a radio station, that's how it was sold to sponsors. They said to think of it as a visual AOR radio station.
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Post by bandit73 on Jul 26, 2012 21:25:15 GMT -5
What always perplexed me is when people were "offended" by MTV but not by radio stations that played the same music. They thought adding video to music somehow made it "dirty."
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Post by lasvegaskid on Feb 1, 2019 14:23:07 GMT -5
Can MTV be blamed for Milli Vanilli? After all the real folks behind the music weren't nearly as photogenic as Rob and Fab.
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Post by djjoe1960 on Feb 1, 2019 17:16:45 GMT -5
MTV's real impact (at least during the 1980's) was how rare it was for a song to become a hit without a video (I think Boston's Amanda is one of the few #1's after the launch of MTV that didn't have a video). You can listen to the Big 80's countdown and listen to the VJ's talk about meeting most of the artists during the 1980's (which shows how important it was for the artists to appear on MTV).
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