Music of the Day, 1 August 2023
i want my ...
Forty-two years ago on this day, MTV launched. Being in the middle of college, I doubt that I even knew about it back then. A few years later, a good friend from work, TEB, invited my then-husband and me to her apartment to hang out. One thing led to another … and there we were, watching MTV in all its neon-color and frizzy-haired glory.
I know the title of the first song that MTV played, and I imagine most readers know it too; it’s a common music trivia question. It would be a cheat to feature it today since I didn’t witness the channel’s debut back in 1981, not least because I wasn’t living in New Jersey. Instead, here’s one of my enduring MTV memories—Dire Straits’ monster hit from their 1985 album Brothers in Arms: “Money for Nothing.”
Trying to parse the song and video’s success is a Sisyphean task: the tune’s lyrics—aside from a repeated slur [Edit: which Mark Knopfler has stated is a direct quotation of the workmen featured in the video in cartoon form]—skewer MTV and the rise of “the pretty people” in music in great form; and the music solidly rocks. The video’s many cool effects undoubtedly boosted the song’s popularity.
I like the video much more than the song alone, even though I adore Sting’s guest vocals. The cartoon workers hauling their microwave ovens and refrigerators never fail to amuse me. Also, it’s far from the best track on Brothers in Arms.
By the time I was part of a household that paid for cable, MTV had moved on from featuring mostly rock videos; and with three gamer stepkids in the family, it wasn’t worth trying to shoehorn in time to watch MTV in the faint hope of catching a few decent vids. But I still have a soft spot for MTV. My sporadic enjoyment exposed me to a lot of music I’d have likely never heard otherwise, including genres I didn’t seek out.
It deserves some credit for improving live concert performances too. Rush made some great videos (let’s not talk about “Time Stand Still” right now), and I think their popularity encouraged the band to create several video vignettes for concert tours. In addition to being great musicians, those guys were funny as hell.
So happy birthday, MTV. I miss what you were, but I thank you for the great memories and enduring contributions to live music performances.
Only an oblique reference to The Buggles and "Video Killed the Radio Star", eh? ;-) The more fascinating factoid is that the founders of that new-wave flash in the pan, bassist Trevor Horn and keyboardist Geoff Downes, went on to join Yes (!) after the musically and emotionally fraught Tormato sessions. The new lineup made a record called Drama, in my opinion one of the more underrated Yes albums. Check out tunes like Machine Messiah and Tempus Fugit (I absolutely love how they build the band's name into the latter song, which has an amazing bass groove by Chris Squire).
For some reason, I never really got into MTV. It just didn't jell for me. Sure, some of the early vids were great (I remember the Rainbow tune "Can't Happen Here" being an epic video). And there were(are) some bands that seemed tailor made for the video era. ZZ Top waltzed into stardom with their beards and theatrics. Def Leppard were gifted, and I will concede that a lot of my beloved "hair metal" came out of the video era, but in general, I was more of a walkman and rock out dude, than a "plant myself in front of the TV" viewer.
Of course, MTV also brought us Celebrity Deathmatch, some of the finest claymation on the planet.
Good times!