“M” Used to Mean Music Television

Once upon a time there was a cable channel playing music videos 24 hours a day. Believe it. Many sweltering Los Angeles summer nights, my cousin and I would lay prone on the living room floor lights out, eyes transfixed on MTV and the late-night USA network show, Night Flight. The black room pulsed frantically with bright colors I could still see after falling asleep. We were pre-teens with nothing more interesting to do at night than binge watch before “binge watch” was a catch phrase. It was the mid-eighties and it was heaven on earth.

Some of my favorite “bands of the week” were discovered by watching the MTV “VJs” flaunt their coolness. Martha Quinn, Triple J (J.J. Jackson for those not in the know) and Alan Hunter all would have won my vote for president. Unfortunately, they don’t allow grade-schoolers to vote. It was an extension of hit shows like American Bandstand and Soul Train, except it was on when you woke up in the morning, it was there during a reprieve from summer outdoor play (squirt gun fights, riding bikes, days at the beach and public transit excursions to the mall) and it was on at 2AM when we were the masters of the house.

MTV introduced me to bar none my favorite musician, no artist. Jimi Hendrix. I can still remember the instant the video ended I knew he was someone important in music history. I had no idea he was not contemporary, I was amazed. Although Jimi died before music videos, his music clearly demanded the modern music delivery platform to display his mastery of guitar. MTV also enlightened me to Madonna, Prince, the Beastie Boys and so many others. Genres be damned. During my high school years MTV somehow became less relevant to me when school mates introduced me to punk rock. It was a game changer in my music appreciation annals.

Then it was like a boulder tumbling down a mountainside, game shows, reality shows (MTV is a pioneer “the Osbournes” and “Real World”) and fake reality shows. There were certainly some diamonds in the rough, like the rollicking “Headbanger’s Ball”, thank you Dee Snider and Riki Rachtman. The show validated the heavy metal scene. Before it was rare to hear a metal band on the radio.

The real MTV was a short music revolution, but it was a potent one. We still see music videos online and on our phones. Any artist is accessible to us instantly. No longer do we have to wait until the next airing of “Sabotage” or “Material Girl”. Like a bright star twinkling in the night sky 1,000 light years away it still casts its influence on the music industry landscape.

Let’s all start a letter writing campaign to the network execs demanding, “I want my MTV!”