Buh-Bye MTV

 

To be honest, I didn't know MTV was still on the air. But we cut the cord a few years ago, so I don't know whether a lot of things are still on the air. Is Doogie Howser still going strong?

In its heyday in the mid-eighties, MTV was the channel I turned to much of the time. My kids were just reaching adolescence and MTV was something we shared. Okay, scratch that; they were busy with their own lives and I simply loved 80's music, but we did catch some music videos together sometimes. 

MTV launched in 1981, but I'm pretty sure our cable system didn't carry it at first, so I'm guessing it was around '83 when I first started paying attention to it. I was in my "country sucks now" stage (it did), so I'd switched my car radio to the local FM rock station. MTV was simply an accompaniment to that--and with moving pictures!

MTV was where I discovered Huey Lewis & the News, re-met Hall & Oates (they were better in the 80's), finally learned who Bruce Springsteen was--loved his band, especially Clarence Clemens and that little guy who looked like he belonged in the mafia. Watched Jon Bon Jovi sail out over the crowd, came to hate "Jump" with a burning passion after it was played a thousand times, laughed with my sister over Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer". Really liked Genesis, regardless of what anybody else thought. Really disliked Madonna. And Prince was great.

Some memorable videos, for good or bad:

The debut of Monica Geller:

 

MTV began reducing music sometime in the 90's (no one seems to know what year they stopped, because no one even noticed), and let's face it, once the eighties were over, so was good music. The network claims it had to change its business model due to the internet, which is a cop-out. I remember the 90's internet--dial-up, AOL, Alta Vista. Not what one would call "competition". Nevertheless, the head honchos invested instead in reality TV, one of the worst abominations in history. They say the internet rots people's brains? Try viewing an episode of Jersey Shore (which, like every other reality show, I never deigned to watch).

Am I sad that MTV is going away? Again, I didn't know it was still around, so...not really. I miss that time in my life, when things were maybe not simpler, but more optimistic. And I miss the "me" of my relative youth. 

I will say that those memories are good. I like remembering the good things.