Summer Songs, Part Four: I Want My MTV
When I was a kid we had something called MTV. It was great – like our favorite radio station, but with pictures. Every big hit song was likely to have a corresponding music video, and these videos became popular in their own right. “Take on Me”, “Sledgehammer”, and “Money for Nothing” were good songs on the radio, but their videos were amazing, and people really paid attention to them. I recall that a “world premiere” video was a big deal, and kids would wait around all afternoon to see it. Many of these videos still stick in my mind, even after most people forgot the songs they went to. Do you remember “Yankee Rose”?
MTV connected with kids because it was on when kids wanted it. Every afternoon after school, on weekends, all summer, MTV was there with videos, and almost everyone I know watched it every day.
MTV doesn’t exist anymore. Sure, I understand that there is a channel called “MTV”, but it isn’t “Music Television”. There may even be “MTV2″ or “MTV [Whatever]“, but videos don’t seem to matter to anybody anymore – at least not like they used to. MTV cannot be blamed for that, I suppose, since cable television in those days consisted of maybe thirty channels, and, as the only station of its kind, it had a captive audience it cannot take for granted today.
Still, if you were a kid in the 1980s, and you had MTV, you almost certainly remember the video for The Cars’ “Magic”. This is the MTV I miss.
Filed under: Musings, Nostalgia, Popular Music on July 21st, 2010 | No Comments »


