If you can see through that nastiness (you can read more about it here), the song is an anti-imperialist anthem with a somewhat commercial video. Costello came under attack for his use of the pejorative “white n*****,” a term the British occupying Northern Ireland called their Catholic neighbors. This video, however, has the dubious distinction of being the first time the N-word appears on the station. In the early morning, when Elvis Costello appeared on MTV, sporting a dark blue blazer and pink shirt, holding a blue drink and lip syncing, no black musicians had yet been featured. The broadcast, while overwhelmingly white, ran the musical gamut: country, heavy metal, new wave, rap (albeit by Blondie), and reggae were all represented. MTV played 116 videos on the station’s first day. So while video clips had a televised history, MTV created demand for even more of them.Īnd 40 years ago this week, it became the first network devoted to music videos. Both pre-date the network, though each had a relatively short lifespan (1980-1981 for both).
#HOLD ME FLEETWOOD MAC DALI SERIES#
In the US, there was the unhosted series Video Concert Hall (1978-1981), followed by cable programs such as PopClips (hosted by former Monkee Mike Nesmith) and Hollywood Heartbeat (hosted by former Fleetwood Mac member Bob Welch). Australia was airing promotional band clips as early as 1974 on its shows Sounds and Countdown.
The “Video Killed The Radio Star” vid debuted on that show in 1979, three years before it became MTV’s first clip. Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” a song some argue is the first modern music video, was recorded for the program because the band felt the song was too complex to lip-sync. The explanation is rather simple: When bands couldn’t (or preferred not to) mime their song on the British music program Top Of The Pops, they would send in a pre-filmed video. This phenomenon led to a second “British Invasion” and a popularization of the genre known as “new wave.” In a 1983 Rolling Stone article, Parker Puterbaugh wrote, “n July 16th … no fewer than 18 singles of British origin charted in the American Top Forty, topping the previous high of fourteen, set on June 18th, 1965.” Most noticeably, there was an overabundance of British rockers represented. In its nascent stage, MTV looked a lot different from what one might see on, let’s say, August 1, 1984. The first night was, as network co-founder and executive Bob Pittman put it, “a total, unmitigated disaster.” It didn’t matter. No cable operator in Manhattan yet carried the inchoate station, so celebrations were held at a bar and restaurant called the Loft.
#HOLD ME FLEETWOOD MAC DALI TV#
At the stroke of midnight on August 1, 1981, MTV employees congregated around half a dozen TV sets in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
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