How timely! I just built a solar generator box and have been using it on my patio to power a 12" HDTV with a Roku running it through a JBL speaker. Anyway, my neighbor dialed up on the Roku a channel called "Loop 80s" which is a constant feed of MTV videos from the 80s. Flashed me right back!
Also, while I knew that Video Killed the Radio Star was the first video played on MTV, I did not know Pat Benetar was the second.
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Glennbo
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How timely! I just built a solar generator box and have been using it on my patio to power a 12" HDTV with a Roku running it through a JBL speaker. Anyway, my neighbor dialed up on the Roku a channel called "Loop 80s" which is a constant feed of MTV videos from the 80s. Flashed me right back!
Also, while I knew that Video Killed the Radio Star was the first video played on MTV, I did not know Pat Benetar was the second.
Yes, that's a nice bit of trivia. While people tend to know the first video, ask them to name the second one and it can stump them.
Those 1st and 2nd videos aside, I remember the first 9 months of MTV being a celebration of all the old live broadcast shows (Kirshner, Grey Whistle Test, BBC) and concert films (Pompeii, Song Remains the Same, etc). A few promo videos. All the '70s stoner/progressive rock. It was a year or so before the city I lived in got wired for cable TV. I was watching it at a friends place who had satellite dish.
By the time everyone had cable a year later the old videos were "closet classics" and the station was 99% that new wave garbage (my jr high school opinion at the time). That's the "change" moment I remember. (It was for the worse.) A year after that the "closet classics" were the 1st round of new wave stuff and they were unrecognizable.
Those 1st and 2nd videos aside, I remember the first 9 months of MTV being a celebration of all the old live broadcast shows (Kirshner, Grey Whistle Test, BBC) and concert films (Pompeii, Song Remains the Same, etc). A few promo videos. All the '70s stoner/progressive rock. It was a year or so before the city I lived in got wired for cable TV. I was watching it at a friends place who had satellite dish.
By the time everyone had cable a year later the old videos were "closet classics" and the station was 99% that new wave garbage (my jr high school opinion at the time). That's the "change" moment I remember. (It was for the worse.) A year after that the "closet classics" were the 1st round of new wave stuff and they were unrecognizable.
At 1:14 into it there's a Lee Ritenour video "Mr. Breifcase". I had a couple of his albums, but didn't remember him having any MTV videos.
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Glennbo
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For better or worse, this changed popular music in the U.S.
Just listening to those drums, it occurred to me I'm still unconsciously trying to get some of those sounds today. But alas. I usually end up kind of migrating to the sounds of today. Not that they are necessarily better then those long-a-go sounds, but they are the sounds of today.
I actually knew that Pat Benatar was the second video, but only recently learned that none other than Mr. Movie Score himself, Hans Zimmer, is grooving away on the keys as a "special guest."
At 1:14 into it there's a Lee Ritenour video "Mr. Breifcase". I had a couple of his albums, but didn't remember him having any MTV videos.
probably because they slotted it in right after the Pretenders "Message of Love".
seems like some bad programming there.
It would've fit much better after "Bluer than Blue"
Featuring the great songwriter & vocalist, Eric Tagg...!
He's a great vocalist! I guess I never noticed Lee Ritenour on MTV because I only knew of his instrumental stuff and work with Dave Grusin.
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Originally Posted by lucas_LCS
probably because they slotted it in right after the Pretenders "Message of Love".
seems like some bad programming there.
It would've fit much better after "Bluer than Blue"
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Not the best back to back hits!
This is what I think of when I think of Lee Ritenour. Fun to play drums with!
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Glennbo
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Video gave the power of visual to the record industry, which killed the shoe gazers of the seventies. Watch old Don Kirshner's Rock Concert shows where the bands relied more on chops than scissor kicks. Doobie Brothers come to mind. Nary a foot on the monitor solo anywhere.
Then along came digital which gave the music itself over to the producer and the record industry. Musicians are barely needed apps nowadays.
I always figured it would swing back to musicians but the digital age seems to have bogged down the evolution of music. When I was a kid the music of each decade was instantly recognizable by the sounds. It was easy to peg what decade you're listening to up till the 90's, then with a few spectacular exceptions everything mushed into techo/rap/hiphop/pop.
But the thing is, music DOES evolve. It may not seem like it to us old timers, but think back to the 60s and 70s. What were the older people saying back then? "How can you listen to that noise? That's not music! You can't even understand the what they're saying."
The younger generations today enjoys what they enjoy. While we can sit here and criticize it with the stories of "well, back in MY day we had musicians go into a studio and we recorded it on analog tape and mixed it like that! THAT'S how you do it! Not with these digital band-in-a-box nonsense we have today! NO-SIR-RE!"
So, are the people that enjoyed rock and roll and Motown back in the 60s and 70s going to turn into the jazz musicians we have today? Think about it, the jazz aficionados are mostly like "oh, our music is so much superior to rock and roll. Look at how complex our music is! Why won't people understand that?!?! We're better! Why don't people like us?" And they just come across as needy, gate-keeping, stand-offish, and pretentious. Is that what older rock and rollers are going to be? Are we there already? You see that tone a bit with people like Rick Beato (who's great by the way, don't get me wrong, and we're also the same age), but he does seem to have that vibe about him.
Did Black Sabbath really sound just like Led Zeppelin to older folks? As in it wasn't two things they didn't like to them - they genuinely couldn't tell the difference?
When I listen to that band with the autotuned robot voice...
Right, so I'm aware that there are more than one! Probably like, 500 or something by now, right? It genuinely all sounds like the same band to me. The warble of the robot voice over a click track grid background of MIDI tinkerbell. Produced loud and chirpy.
I still hear bits of things that are compelling. I have a short attention span for a short idea looped endlessly. But I might still kind of like it. (Initially anyways.) I think it's more the cheapness that's in vogue right now that pushes the more boring stuff over the edge to sounding terrible.
We're in a golden age of audio finally and we can deliver audio with no compromise. What happens? The major labels get cheap and release all these recordings that sound like ass. Boring AND sounding like ass is just not that interesting.
I totally agree with that. But I would ask, how much of the evolution in modern music is driven by economics? i.e. It's cheaper to pay someone sitting at a computer rather than 4 or 5 people playing instruments.
That being said, I think it's fair to say that in a lot of respects, the computer has become an instrument. I'm sure those who create music with their computers have spent just as much time slaving over their digital instruments as I and others have spent slaving over our analog instruments.
To that extent, I give those making music on a computer their due respect.
I'm an old stoner so I still prefer the old stuff, but to each his or her own.
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Did Black Sabbath really sound just like Led Zeppelin to older folks? As in it wasn't two things they didn't like to them - they genuinely couldn't tell the difference?
Well, my parents couldn't tell them apart, I know that.
Luckily, I was already moved out when I was getting into Black Flag and Fear. Else they would have lost their goddamn minds if they had heard that.
TBH, I hated the MTV concept because I thought it detracted from the music. Watching bands fake along to their songs, with special FX never did anything for me. If you're going to have a video, make it be video of the performance I'm listening to.
I have a friend in the video biz who recorded 100s of hours of Heart in the studio. He made two videos for them (These Dreams was one of them) that included real footage of the studio performance you hear on the records, but the record company didn't like them coz they weren't flashy and shot fancy new Hollywood video instead.
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Glennbo
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Well, my parents couldn't tell them apart, I know that.
Luckily, I was already moved out when I was getting into Black Flag and Fear. Else they would have lost their goddamn minds if they had heard that.
My folks could tell the difference as well. My dad was a jazz sax player, and my mom who was into classical would frequently identify the orchestral instruments being played on Zappa's Absolutely Free album, "well that's a contrabass". She didn't like his lyrics though.
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Glennbo
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MTV had the greatest impact on rural areas, where youth had zero awareness of what was "cool" in larger population centers, that had independently developed styles.
It forced semi-isolated regional styles to be homogeneous based on a corporate-dictated visual depiction.
I guess they just weren't born yet when stuff like Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer was being aired.
Wow. That's like watching someone give a book report in class on euthanasia and start talking about youth in Asia. Didn't even quickly read the back flap of the right book right before class there, champ!
Wow. That's like watching someone give a book report in class on euthanasia and start talking about youth in Asia. Didn't even quickly read the back flap of the right book right before class there, champ!
Before I first clicked the link to the story, I thought "Thriller will be the top of the list", but they picked Billie Jean. I thought okay, but the further down the list I looked the more it deviated from any semblance of what I though iconic videos meant.
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Glennbo
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Hmmm... Yeah no, I remember a deluge of terrible synthesizer pop bands. When the new sequencers and that stuff appeared where you could hold down a single key and the whole song came gurgling out.
Hmmm... Yeah no, I remember a deluge of terrible synthesizer pop bands. When the new sequencers and that stuff appeared where you could hold down a single key and the whole song came gurgling out.
Babaa O'Riley? Oh, you mean Doo Ran Doo Ran.
Stoopid filter made me add an extra "a" to keep it from coming out as ****!
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Glennbo
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Stoopid filter made me add an extra "a" to keep it from coming out as ****!
Nice one.
When musicians got their hands on this stuff it often turned out really interesting. Of course, I was thinking about the... let's call them inexperienced players in those new wave bands.
Early '80s Hawkwind is an amusing listen because you can hear the telltales of those new keyboards but being played by anarchists in a very different way. This was not on MTV. Ever.
When musicians got their hands on this stuff it often turned out really interesting. Of course, I was thinking about the... let's call them inexperienced players in those new wave bands.
Early '80s Hawkwind is an amusing listen because you can hear the telltales of those new keyboards but being played by anarchists in a very different way. This was not on MTV. Ever.
Levitation by Hawkwind has some of those 80s synths. Howard Jones was one of the few 80s MTV synth guys I actually liked from that era.
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Glennbo
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Levitation by Hawkwind has some of those 80s synths. Howard Jones was one of the few 80s MTV synth guys I actually liked from that era.
Levitation, Sonic Attack, & Church Of Hawkwind have these synths all over them.
There's even a video of the title track Levitation but I don't think MTV ever played it. Probably made for Top of the Pops.
Hmmm... Yeah no, I remember a deluge of terrible synthesizer pop bands. When the new sequencers and that stuff appeared where you could hold down a single key and the whole song came gurgling out.
But let's dive deeper here. What galled you more about this? That these pop bands were using these sequencers and holding down a single key...or that the general public loved these songs and they became very popular anyway?
But let's dive deeper here. What galled you more about this? That these pop bands were using these sequencers and holding down a single key...or that the general public loved these songs and they became very popular anyway?
Galled? Not that strong of a reaction. Just disappointment that boring music was taking the place of something that might have been more interesting. It's not bluntly offensive. (A couple examples aside, anyway.) Just boring.
The scene change from seeing the initial celebration of '70s prog with Floyd, Sabbath, Zeppelin, Crimson, etc videos morph into '80s pop synth bands after the first 8 months was kind of jarring.
Galled? Not that strong of a reaction. Just disappointment that boring music was taking the place of something that might have been more interesting. It's not bluntly offensive. (A couple examples aside, anyway.) Just boring.
The scene change from seeing the initial celebration of '70s prog with Floyd, Sabbath, Zeppelin, Crimson, etc videos morph into '80s pop synth bands after the first 8 months was kind of jarring.
But the 80s brought us hairdoods like this.
Their music was not at all memorable, but how could you forget this guys highly musical hairdoo!
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