Are you old enough to remember when MTV2 used to show videos?

[Orrex]

I thought that the whole "point" of this pointless channels was to show videos once MTV had completely filled its own programming day with Carson Daly and The Real World.

But a brief glance at MTV2 reveals that most of the programming is taken up by idiotic half-hour specials and half-assed movies that no one watched the first time around.


Honestly, I doubt that I'd watch the channel even if they did still show videos, but I can't help noticing the programming shift.

[Bucky]

1. I'm even old enough to remember back when people cared about what was on MTV

When Wham! died, MTV died. That can't be a coincidence.

[flvegan]

2. Showing videos really has little point anymore.

I remember watching the original MTV and hoping the next video was from one of the bands I liked at the time. Or when they'd show their top requests, I knew I'd get to see Guns n Roses or Motley Crue (well, until they banned "Home Sweet Home" from ever winning again) instead of some stupid Boys 2 Men shit.

Now, if you want to see Lady Gaga you just go to YouTube. MTV showing videos wouldn't be as profitable.

[XemaSab]

9. Just for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SbUC-UaAxE

[WCGreen]

33. I liked that show they had on Sunday night with al the alternative stuff

That's where I first heard bands like the Sugar Cubes, The Northern Pikes, Crowded House, 10,000 Mainiacs, The Church and a whole lot of other bands that were ahead of the curve...

[peekaloo]

43. 120 Minutes!

The only MTV I ever watched. :-)

[Common Sense Party]

58. That and Headbanger's Ball!

Totally different styles, but I loved them both.

[khawkings09]

3. don't know and don't care. MTV is shite

[RainDog]

4. I'm so old we used to have to walk 15 FEET to turn the tv channel

and I used to run home from elementary school to watch Where the Action Is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOGRTLn2uKY

(actually, I couldn't find footage of wtai)

and watch Hullabaloo at night

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNzmrEgz_GI&feature=related

[Captain Hilts]

5. with pliers.

Shindig,
Hootnany
Hullabaloo...

I was a little kid, but I remember.

[RainDog]

6. yeah. my bro and sisters were all older than me

so I got to hear all kinds of music when I was a kid that I might have missed otherwise.

there's a lot of Shindig on youtube. I dig it the most. :)

[Captain Hilts]

7. The Beatles version of "I'm A Loser" performed on Shindig is the best version

they did of that song. MUCH stronger base.

[jobycom]

39. Ha! We had a tv like that long after most others went remote.

[GreenPartyVoter]

66. LOL And then you had to smack it when the horizontal hold went out.

[Kat45]

19. Thanks. I loved those shows!

Wouldn't miss them. Was that George Maharis hosting Hullabaloo?

[RainDog]

35. apparently so

I recognized his face but didn't know his name.

[Jamastiene]

29. You missed the part about

being barefoot and having to run in the snow back and forth to school, uphill...both ways (this is actually possible, I have learned).

:P

[RainDog]

36. and we had nothing to eat but candy cigarettes and lik-em-aid.

it was tough back in the olden days. :)

[Shell Beau]

8. Yep. For some reason "Living on a Prayer" comes to mind.

[Forkboy]

10. V66....watch and weep, my friend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqouGVGNdtg

[flvegan]

11. Oh, man! Does that take me back.

[Forkboy]

12. They were better than MTV for awhile.

At first they played anyone who made a video. There were no "blocks" of like minded music. It would go from Simple Minds to AC/DC with no regard...as music video should be. :)

[flvegan]

13. I also liked that they had so much focus on the Boston music scene.

You know, back when bands like Extreme were cool.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

14. Were bands like Extreme ever cool?

I loved the whole glam-band scene, but even to me Extreme was never cool. But Poison rocked. And Motley Crue. And Skid Row. And GnR. And Enuff Z' Enuff (look those fuckers up)

Then I got into the death metal, speed metal and thrash metal shit and never looked back. I'd rather go to a Metallica/Anthrax/Slayer/Megadeth super concert than have sex with the hottest woman in the world. Seriously, I'd choose the concert.

[Sebastian Doyle]

15. You seriously think Poison was better than Extreme?

I mean I'm not really a fan of either, but at least Nuno Bettencourt could actually play guitar.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

22. I liked the sound Poison had

Talent back then didn't mean a damn thing to me. For us, Extreme was in the same category of bands as Winger and Warrant that were just too uncool to like.

[flvegan]

17. I knew them personally.

I met them a bunch of times, so they were cool to me.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

21. They'd be cool to me too if I knew them personally

It's not even that I didn't like their music - it's just that they were considered uncool.

Slightly off topic: Kurt Cobain crashed on my floor once before Nirvana made it big. He was a real piece of shit, though.

[flvegan]

24. Okay, that's some cool shit.

That's one of those "tell your kids" stories.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

25. I told my kid (13 year old boy)

His response? "Kurt who?"

Cobain was playing with Nirvana (if they were even called that then) at some shitty little dive in town, and they were opening for one of my friend's bands (who sucked bad which tells you something about how bad Cobain's band was), and we all partied after the show. Cobain was whacked out on something, but I'm not sure what. I think he actually pissed himself while he slept because he stunk up the whole house - plus, I don't think he'd taken a shower in at least a month. We kicked him out the next morning, like we did with the other bums who crashed at our place. We were responsible long-hairs who had serious jobs washing dishes at the local greasy spoon. Imagine my surprise when a couple of months later "Smells Like Teen Spirit" hits the radio as the next big thing.

[vi5]

50. Finally! Someone else....

I saw Nirvana fairly early on as well and they were not only highly unimpressive they were downright bad. And Cobain came across as an arrogant, pretentious indie rock jerk. Which was fine by me when you backed it up with good music (Sonic Youth, Dino Jr., etc. all have the same arrogant vibe but it was (IMHO justified).

They were right place, right time, right level of marketing, and having Butch Vig produce and getting Grohl on drums didn't hurt. But man, people don't realize how not great that band truly was.

[Kat45]

18. Cool! I remember V66, and the bands in the clips in the trailer.

Thanks for posting. Did you go to the V66 reunion a few months ago? Unfortunately, I couldn't make it that night.

[Forkboy]

67. I didn't go.

To be honest, even back then I hardly liked any of the music. The stuff I was into wasn't being made into videos at the time. I just remember watching it all day long, sometimes with the volume down while I played my own stuff. The videos were great either way. It was still all new and fun, even if the music didn't hit me.

I remember Chuck Norris being on one time and he smashed this puzzle, so my friend called up, got on the air and said, "You're real tough. You beat up anything besides puzzles?" :rofl:

I bet the reunion was some funny stuff though. :)

[SoxFan]

46. Holy Flashback, Batman!

I remember watching this station!

Bonus points to anyone who knows what club The Metro is today...

[Kat45]

54. House of Blues now stands where Metro and Spit were.

Though for a period of time in between, they were Avalon and Axis.

[SoxFan]

55. Well done!

The Rat is now an upscale yuppie asshole hotel, the Channel is long gone, abut the Paradise is still the 'Dise!

[Kat45]

62. Yup. And I've spent a lot of time in all of them.

I've noticed a big difference in live shows at clubs these days. Back when I practically lived in clubs, the headliner wouldn't come on 'til around midnight. These days, the first band starts around 7:30/8:00 and the headliner is over by around 11, occasionally getting up toward midnight. Then they clear everyone out and turn it into a dance club to bring in more money. Even though I don't have the energy to party 'til 2 these days, I find the current way a bit depressing.

[SoxFan]

64. I noticed that

I hadn't been to a club show in Boston in years until I went to see Echo & the Bunnymen at the Paradise a week or two ago. I was out of there around midnight.

By contrast, I remember going to the old Channel and trying to find my way out of that Southie-meets-Mordor neighborhood at 2:30 in the morning.

[Kat45]

69. Funny, I saw Echo & the Bunnymen at the Paradise back in the early '80s,

when they were first around. It was a good show then. How was the show you saw?

[Forkboy]

70. An old episode of Spencer For Hire had the Channel after it had been closed.

I'm pretty sure the beer was just scooped out of the water behind the club! :)

[BrklynLiberal]

16. I remember when the orginal MTV showed music videos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dogtown]

42. Exactly!

Or, "I can remember when there was no MTV".

[BrklynLiberal]

45. Yep.

:thumbsup: :hi:

[Dogtown]

59. Sorry I didn't catch your post earlier.

Comcast is fissin' to pee me off.


:hi:

[BrklynLiberal]

61. not a problem at all...

:thumbsup:

[gmoney]

68. Yeah, me too!

My uncle's house in Columbus had "interactive cable" and MTV before we did, so I remember visiting and spending a couple hours glued to MTV.

[RadicalTexan]

72. Yep.

And I'm not that old. I wonder how old the OPer is, 21?

[one_voice]

20. MTV2?..

Shit I'm old enough to remember when MTV premiered and showed videos...

[EvolveOrConvolve]

23. I watched MTV the first day it signed on and broadcast

I don't remember them playing the now infamous "Video Killed the Radio Star", but I didn't know the song at the time. It was definitely an event, and everyone gathered at the cool (rich) kid's house so we could watch. How COOL was it that they were showing music on TV? And how bored were we that watching music seemed cool?

[Orrex]

26. Well, yeah...

That's kind of the point of my question.

:hi:

[madinmaryland]

27. They were really cool in 80/81. But they jumped the shark in 84 when they became MJTV.

[Jamastiene]

28. I'm so old, I remember when the first MTV first came on the air.

and THEY played nothing but videos (good ones at that) back then, not just a smathering of crappy videos in between shitty reality shows.

[Orrex]

30. Oh, come on!

I'm that old, too, and the debut videos weren't that good! :rofl:


Sure, you had some pack-leaders like Bowie who knew how to do it, and a smattering of pre-MTV performance-footage, but a lot of it was awful!!!

Of course, those awful videos get a pass because they were creating the format, but there were pretty serious growing pains in the early days!

[one_voice]

32. I remember seeing a lot of ..

Billy Squier. Course, that could be cuz I would stand on my mom's coffee table playing air guitar.

[GreenPartyVoter]

65. Yep. There was no such thing as MTV2.

[carlyhippy]

31. I am old enough to remember when MTV1 used to show videos, and

I remember when there was no MTV.....if you wanted to see videos you either had to watch them between movies on HBO or on an NBC show called Friday Night Videos.

I remember American Bandstand when there were no music videos, if you wanted to watch the performers you had to tune in on Saturday morning to watch them on AB.

[WCGreen]

34. And they Lip Synched...

[bluesbassman]

37. Or you had to wait until Sunday night for The Ed Sullivan Show.

You still had to sit through Topo Gigio, but it was worth it when something like this came on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFHXiOsS4TA

[bamacrat]

38. I remember when MTV showed videos.

And their "programming" consisted of True Life, TRL, and Real World.

[jobycom]

40. There was Springsteen, Madonna, way before Nirvana

there was U2, and Blondie, and music still on MTV...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K38xNqZvBJI

[JCMach1]

41. We still have real MTV over here! + VH1

none of those idiotic shows...

[HopeHoops]

44. I remember when MTV first came out and was ALL videos.

That was also before they had commercials on cable.

[HughBeaumont]

47. The best time for MTV was between 1981 and 1984.

When they showed pretty much all New Wave, Ska, rock, some underground and a few mainstream videos.

1983-84 was the beginning of the end. Mainstream "rock" and dance pop almost completely took it over while New Wave was pushed to the side for good. You almost never saw a Husker Du, Minutemen or Chili Peppers video - it was all dance pop.

Headbangers Ball pissed me off to no end. Never being a fan of Sunset Strip hair rawk, it galled me that this station called bands like Poison, White Lion, Vinnie Vincent Invasion and Warrant "metal" and allocated the lion's share of the programming time to them while shoving real, unhairsprayed metal to the 1:30-2:00 slot. There was no WWW back then, so this, college radio and word of mouth were your only options as far as underground metal was concerned. This station did not deliver with metal.

120 Minutes wasn't bad, despite Matt Pinfield's love for his own commentary.

[Deep13]

48. I remember when there was only one MTV and it showed music vids. nt

[mtnester]

49. Raises hand

then quickly drops said hand because she thought you were talking about the ORIGINAL MTV

(Flock of Seagulls, Men without Hats, INXS era)

[PVnRT]

51. I remember watching all day long during the summer, trying to record videos on tapes

Yes, videotapes. As in a VCR.

[pinniped]

52. Those MTV/VH1 channels have been pretty stupid for a while now.

MTV aired an entire Ozzy concert back in the days. Now, they suck.

If they went off the air no one would notice.

[Oceansaway]

53. Martha Quinn !!...nt

[Pryderi]

56. um...I remember Don Kirshner's Rock Concert.

[Dr Morbius]

57. I remember when "cable TV" was what they had in Frisco...

...because broadcast antennas wouldn't work with all them hills. I remember basically the entire history of cable TV, including MTV.

[pokerfan]

60. They play videos over on MTV Ocho

Ask your provider to add it.

[Walk away]

63. I remember "Fish heads, fish heads...."

That had to be year one of MTV.

[proteus_lives]

71. Shit, I'm old enough to remember MTV being actual music television.

[BlueIris]

73. I'm old enough to remember when V-Js could be taken half-seriously.

And Kurt Loder was (briefly) considered a "reporter."

Ah, middle school.

[BarenakedLady]

74. Wasn't there a show called Friday Night Videos or something?

It was before MTV I think. Or at least before my parents sprung for cable TV. It was on pretty late, so I had to set the VCR to record it.

[SeattleGirl]

75. I'm old enough to remember when the original MTV showed videos.

I don't know why it's still called MTV, unless the "M" stands for moronic.