Very recently, MTV finally — wait for it — launched a music video website. I swear. It’s such a delight to find out they still actually care about music videos and not just Young People’s Reality (as if) or whatever it is they’re doing over there these days.
The site content is still spotty — some artists go deep, and some aren’t represented at all, which I assume is a matter of rights negotiations. But there is certainly enough to be starting with, and it’s good quality. And it means you’ll probably be getting more music videos for a while (grin) — I already have my eye on a few things (Frankie! Christopher Walken dancing! U2 meets the Village People…)
I saw my first music video in 1983 on a network show called “Friday Night Videos.” No one I knew had cable TV then, so I’d never seen MTV. The first video on the show was “Billie Jean” and I thought it was amazing.
For those of you who have never lacked your MTV, videos were different back in the day. The production values were often minimal, the story lines random, and the musicians uncomfortable. No one really did “live” videos where they just played the music — it was all atmosphere and meaning and moody glances and suchlike. But things improved. By the time the song below came along, videos were more expensive, expansive, and coherent — and much much more about the music.
Yay! Just in time for the B-52’s.
Edited to add: I’ve just been informed that the MTV videos won’t play outside of the US. Controlling bastards. Here’s a YouTube version that will work.
Globalism, people!
I cannot listen to that song without feeling good. And it reminds me so much of things I loved about the South. I have no desire to ever live there again, but the South is in my DNA. There are things I do and believe that are the direct result of growing up there, and there are moments, images, bits of my childhood culture, that I still miss piercingly sometimes. And so I love heading down the Atlanta highway with the B-52’s under a Southern sky and feeling like I get it. Like I belong.
And here’s another treat for you, since there’s hardly ever such a thing as too much good music in the world. Thanks to Duncan for turning me onto Big Mama. And why is a South Korean group called Big Mama? Go find out here… and then send them a psychic blast of You go, girls if you are so inclined. I certainly am.
Like it? Go on over to Duncan’s place for more.