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MTV: 40 years ago

I want to say this was the high point of MTV and the YouTube views seem to confirm it.

 
TRL. BTW, MTV Cribs is back and supposedly better than ever. It will have Snookie. (someone shoot me for typing that)
 
Anyone who bashes MTV doesn't know or doesn't remember what TV was like 40 years ago.
I would say most the "Brain Surgeons" on here weren't alive 40 years ago! For me, MTV and few hits off the piece pipe were a regular occurrence
 
I'm 48 and absolutely loved the channel growing up. I'd come home from school and just watch video after video in the mid 80s. They moved with music then and influenced it at a level that is hard to measure. What 120 minutes and Yo! did for alt music and rap music was incredible. Unfortunately, ad dollars couldn't count on a viewer sitting and watching videos, so reality TV was launched. The channel really ended as a music channel when the real world started and the execs realized steady ratings could come from half hour shows.
 
We didn't have cable in Cortland for much of my youth so the only time I caught MTV was if I was visiting cousins in Lincoln... First video I ever saw was U2 "New Years Day" I was hooked! such a bummer they destroyed it...

Oh, and Beavis & Butthead will forever live in my hearts as one of the greatest! LOL! even though it was a show at least they incorporated videos and music into it...
 
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at least when it was new even the bad videos were hard to turn away from, but all day music video had a shelf life that pretty much expired after 5 years or so and then it just kinda stumbled around for a bit.
reality tv revived the channel, but put the nail in videos.
 
In 1981, I was 23. I had a few dollars saved up that I wanted to begin investing. I called a guy at Merrill Lynch and said, “I think this MTV thing looks interesting.” He told me, “That’s a fad that will be over soon.”

He’s not my broker anymore.
 
We didn't have cable in Cortland for much of my youth so the only time I caught MTV was if I was visiting cousins in Lincoln... First video I ever saw was U2 "New Years Day" I was hooked! such a bummer they destroyed it...

Oh, and Beavis & Butthead will forever live in my hearts as one of the greatest! LOL! even though it was a show at least they incorporated videos and music into it...
In one episode they were watching a video I never saw before and haven't since. It was a frumpy-looking girl in a torn dress walking through a corn field dragging a hoe behind her. Butthead said, "Its a hoe." Bevis said, "Yeah, Yeah, but what's that thing she has in her hand?" Those guys ruled.
 
Also didn't have MTV initially in my hometown. Had to watch at grandparents in Colorado as a kid on vacation. Van Halen was my favorite growing up. But the great music and artists from that era is staggering. Prince, Michael Jackson, Springsteen, ZZ Top, The Police, Madonna, etc. Some of the biggest names and bands in history.
 
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