I got my first glimpse of MTV in the summer of 1983. It had been on the air and running since August 1st of 1981 so it was almost 2 years old already. As you know during my entire time in Vermont TV basically did not exist. Nobody I knew had access to MTV. I can’t remember anybody at Vermont Academy ever mentioning it. Of course if somebody said “Did you see MTV?” I would not even know what to ask as a follow up question. It seems obvious now. Everybody has heard of MTV. I think the really sad thing about MTV is that it is nothing like it was back in the beginning. I suppose some would look at early footage and fele that it was raw or amateurish but it was pioneering as well. Guess what, I’m about to say it yet AGAIN. I was at the perfect age for the launch of MTV.
I was 16 when it launched 18 when I first saw it 19 when I started watching it frequently, 20 when I had it in my home and 25 when it turned to shit and I didn’t care about it anyway. Of course we’re getting ahead of the story again. At this point it was the summer of 1983 and Adam and I had gone to meet some ladies in Shaftsbury, Vermont. Adam’s date Toni had MTV at her house not too far from Historic 7A. I can’t say what all went on in toni’s house that night but I do recall seeing MTV and thinking it was a great concept. It left amark. Ask my kids over the past 2 decades on our Vermont vacations, as we head to Bennington on Historic 7A, when we get to Shaftsbury, I point to the little neighborhood off the right side of the road near the bridge and say “Over there somewhere is where I first saw MTV.” That isn’t what makes 7A historic though incase you were wondering. It isn’t because Bo Derek filmed some exteriors for A Change Of Seasons withing view of 7A either.
I think MTV is significat to My Musical Evolution in numerous ways. The main one being the shift in the dynamics of the music business. One of the by products of MTV wa sthe explosion of recording artists that could leverage their visual appeal against any deficienies in musical ability. The was a rush to sing individuals or groups that had The Look. Of cours this assertion doesn’t have any factual evidence to support it but from my perspective as a consumer, it sure feels accurate. We’ll discuss MTV and music videos again I’m sure. As I may have mentioned, the MTV influence has been apparent when I try to find samples of the songs in My Musical Evolution. Since the Academy Days there have been a growing number of Official Videos available where live appearances on Midnight special, Bandstand or something like that was all we had to go on.
The first thing I saw on MTV was Prince Live singing Little Red Corvette. Of course Prince has a problem with YouTube so the sound has been removed. This is disappointing because it means that the rest of my Prince references are going to be challenging.
I’m going to drop a few more MTV clips here to try to relate the flavor of the station.
I know that this is too early in the evolution for all this MTV but it has been nostalgically good to see some of this old stuff again. It’s too bad that some retro channel ins’t rebroadcasting this stuff. I think it would find a pretty decent following.