Readers' MTV Memories

August 1 marks the 30th Anniversary of MTV. MTV revolutionized the way we looked at music and the VJs were a big part of shaping that vision. We want to know what it meant to you. Do you have fond memories of watching MTV or your favorite VJ?

Leave your memories below in the comments and we’ll post some special featured stories as we get them.

Entries may be edited and become the property of 80sVjs.com.

Featured Memories

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Keith Jones, Portland, OR

On June 25, 2009, I was happily working at home when I began receiving text messages from friends telling me that Michael Jackson had died. I thought at first that it was a mistake and that someone had started a rumor. So, I jumped on the internet and sure enough, it was true.

I turned on CNN and started watching their coverage. About an hour into it, I thought, “I should be watching this on MTV, they probably will have the original VJs and musicians from the period of time when he was at his peak – the 80s. They were better equipped and more connected in the music world to provide a more substantial commentary. But more importantly, the history of MTV and Michael Jackson were intertwined, so who better to comment on his passing? No one else had what MTV had.

Instead, I was treated to one of their current personalities, standing in a cubicle, reading the press release on air….over and over again. I thought, maybe they are trying to quickly assemble the people and archive footage to properly cover this. So, I stayed on the channel, watching far too many commercials with some Michael Jackson videos peppered in. So, after 3 hours, I sadly switched the channel from MTV, my former source of all things music…to CNN. Maybe the coverage got better, I don’t know, because they lost me after only 3 hours.

The next day, I sat on my back porch and couldn’t stop thinking about Michael Jackson’s death. It was as if a part of my childhood had been lost. He was a huge icon in the 80s and everyone sat in front of their TV waiting for his videos to premier or replay. We all practiced the Moonwalk to varying degrees of success, we all bought the Thriller album and played it non-stop.

But something else bothered me: my other icon from childhood, MTV was also dead. I hadn’t watched it for some time and I’m no longer their target audience….I understood that. But it was so different now, no longer about music and no longer even to cover something with like the death of a major music star. I had been looking forward to hearing personal stories from the original VJs: Martha Quinn, Alan Hunter, Mark Goodman, Nina Blackwood and JJ Jackson. But I didn’t get that and it felt like a void. Where were they?

“I wonder if they are on Facebook?”

I hopped on Facebook and only one name came up with a match: Martha Quinn. She looked just the same, a familiar, friendly face from my youth. I wanted to let her know how she was missed on MTV for this important event. But what I wanted to say was too long for a comment….and there was an email address. So, I started writing.

I related my experience that I’ve detailed above and then I paused and jumped on YouTube to watch some old clips. As I watched a compilation video someone had posted, there was a moment where Martha Quinn chides someone off camera: “Who produced this record? Who’s playing on the record? See this is the problem, we have no information on Samantha the musician….” That’s when it hit me. The VJs had affected my life more than I had realized.

I had thought I was naturally a music fan. All through high school I gravitated towards better and better music. I was interested in lyrics and performers. My friend had a brother in college and we raided his album collection to discover Husker Du and Sonic Youth. I was interested in who produced an album, because you could start to hear a certain “sound” from their work (Daniel Lanois being a favorite).

Then, in 1993, I was able to make that knowledge useful – I opened a music store. It was a music store and coffee house at the height of the “Grunge scene” and now I was talking to labels and industry people. I prided myself on watching people come into the store, look at 2 albums and then walk over to them and suggest a third thing they might like. Recording artists on tour would stop by and hang out. I would talk to customers at length about their favorite bands or music, often learning something new in the process. People were always so passionate about their music.

Even after I moved on from the music store, I still consumed massive amounts of music and make music recommendations to people. Today, I have a record collection in the hundreds, a CD collection in the thousands and an iTunes collection that if played consecutively non-stop, would take a full year to listen to in it’s entirety. Music is a huge part of my life….and it started with the VJs.

The VJs didn’t just introduce videos, they told you about what went into making the music, connections with other bands and backstories. That information added to your music experience and knowledge. It was more than a catchy tune that you could sing along with. In some cases, it gave you a better appreciation of what you were listening to. That was a sales technique I used in the music store that I thought I came up with on my own…I didn’t, it came from them.

Everything I learned from JJ Jackson, Martha Quinn, Alan Hunter, Mark Goodman and Nina Blackwood in the 80s, I applied in the 90s.

My email to Martha changed at that point and I told her how she and the other VJs effected my life. I thanked her for that and sent it. A little while later, I received a reply from her. She opened by saying:

“If I had even the tiniest hand in your love of music, I’m deeply honored.”

Incredibly gracious and as always, addressing the music first and foremost.

We struck up a conversation…2 years later, here I am working with all of them on their site. They are all incredibly gracious, funny and interesting. Even though I have almost every song I could ever possibly like in iTunes, I still bought a subscription to SiriusXM so I could listen to them on 80s on 8. You know what? I’m still learning from them. They still let you know what’s going on behind the scenes with the music…and it’s all stuff I don’t know. It’s so refreshing to hear that again and brings back my appreciation and enthusiasm for the music. That’s what this generation of MTV is missing out on. The music is now the background to reality TV shows about nothing.

I feel very fortunate to have had a 24 hour Music Television channel in stereo and the VJs who were a part of my music education. On this 30th Anniversary of MTV, I wish them the best and thank them for changing my life (and for my iTunes library).

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Alli Denning, Birmingham, AL
LikeTotally80s.com

The upcoming 30^th anniversary of the launch of MTV is a great time to look back and remember what it once was.  At Like Totally 80s, we hear regularly from readers who lament the loss of music on MTV.  Many who came of age alongside MTV in the 80s share that feeling.  The music made MTV so special.  From the VJs introducing the videos, to the artist interviews, special events, world premiers, and music news— it all revolved around the music.

And, the music wasn’t just the stuff that made the Top 40 charts.  MTV played a wide range of artists across musical genres, opening up new sounds, bands, and styles to teens across the country.  I no longer had to sit with my tape recorder in front of the radio to capture new songs, I could actually see the music and the musicians doing their thing.  For kids everywhere, it was a link to a much cooler, much hipper world beyond!

Like Totally 80s has been fortunate enough to talk with three of the original MTV VJs on this and other subjects (Mark Goodman, you would complete our matching set!), and it has been interesting to hear their take on the evolution of MTV.  Nina Blackwood shared with Like Totally 80s that she is, “proud of what it [MTV] was like in the early days and thankful to have been a part of it when the M actually stood for Music, not Moronic.”  Alan Hunter had this to say on the subject recently, “Certainly the past decade has produced very little for a man of my age to care about, but then I ain’t the target.”  Maybe that’s the heart of the issue.  Thirty years is a long time, and things change over time.  We just aren’t that target audience anymore.  Martha Quinn echoed this sentiment, “even if MTV played videos 24/7 today, it would still be the Lady Gaga, Ke$ha . . . The Black Eyed Peas.  Even if they had the exact same format . . . it still wouldn’t be our MTV.”

Those of us who remember MTV’s early days no doubt feel a little like music fans who were listening to U2 way before The Joshua Tree and REM before Green—that we were privileged insiders, initiates in a select group.  Alan Hunter said that what he misses most about the 80s was “the eclectic pallet of music . . . the experimentation and the fun.”  Naturally, as the crowds showed up, MTV changed, as it tried to cater to its ever-growing, increasingly diverse audience.  So while MTV may not be the same now as it was when it launched 30 years ago, we’ll always have 1981.  And Alan Hunter is right, it was fun.

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Charlotte Robinson, Chicago, IL

When I was in high school, MTV was part of my Saturday morning ritual. There was yoga to nurture the body, Style with Elsa Klensch to hone the fashion sense, Pee-Wee’s Playhouse to indulge in the absurd, and MTV to keep abreast of the latest music. Sure, I sometimes needed to do homework, but I treated my musical and academic educations with equal reverence. Apart from the Saturday routine, there was sometimes afterschool MTV or Friday night MTV or times spent with Friday Night Videos or the Canadian shows Video Hits and Good Rockin’ Tonite, all imitators launched in the wake of MTV’s success. It’s fair to say MTV (as well as the video revolution it sparked) was as much a part of my youth as radios and jukeboxes were to teens in earlier decades.

Maybe the ubiquity of MTV in our house was in part because I was playing catch-up: Our neighborhood was not outfitted with cable until 1986. Prior to that, I religiously followed the video shows available on broadcast TV. I’d seen plenty of MTV, though, at sleepovers and on a VHS tape my uncle made. It mostly featured Nina Blackwood and I watched it over and over again. By the time we got MTV in our home, a couple of the original VJs were coming to the end of their runs. All traces of newbie awkwardness were gone, but they still had a conversational tone that made you feel like they were friends filling you in on their favorite new bands. I liked them all: Martha, a girl-next door who seemed like a peer; Alan, your friend’s cute older brother you had a crush on; Nina, the hip, streetwise older sister; Mark and J.J., the knowledgeable music-heads you imagined starting off as college DJs.

I remember early MTV with a sense of warmth and goodwill. To me, the VJs weren’t so different from the radio DJs who came before them – maybe even more personable. The problem, if there was one, was with the videos themselves. There was a faction of what would today be mockingly called “the olds” who saw MTV as the end of music. The station winkingly egged them on by choosing the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” as its debut video in August 1981. The boast of the song’s title was true as far as MTV completely changing the music industry – but I’m not convinced that video killed the radio star. Rather, it transformed him. It brought him into homes, made him accessible. For kids in rural areas who were unlikely to travel to a concert, it was their only chance to see him at all. And he wasn’t necessarily a “he” anymore; more female artists rose to prominence in the early MTV era (including Pat Benetar, whose video was the second shown on MTV). Besides, as I recall, radio in the late ’70s offered little variety and lots of Eagles. The radio star needed to change. It was time.

Another criticism launched against MTV was that it gave an unfair advantage to the young and attractive. Sure, there were plenty of stylish bands whose looks helped propel their careers (think: Duran Duran, although I’d argue that their music was high-quality, too). But there were also plenty of established, older rockers who translated into the video era just fine. Watch some old videos on YouTube and you will soon discover that for every clever concept video featuring an androgynous twenty-something, there are two showing someone standing on a plain set in jeans, miming a song.

In its early incarnation, MTV had room for high concepts and simple lip-synching, new and established artists, new wave and hard rock. In time, it opened up to black music, dance music, heavy metal, and alternative. It was far from perfect or representative of the total musical landscape, but for a fleeting and wonderful time, it was like having five friends with really good record collections and amazing connections.

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Nancy Harp, Austin, TX

I remember growing up in the 70s and getting my first radio/turn-table for Christmas.  I had the dial turned to the most popular radio station in my town at that time.  No cares in the world while listening to Andy Kim, Elton John and all the other fantastic groups and singers of the 70s.  I even remember my first 8-track. It was Rolling Stones “Goats Head Soup” and I had also compiled a ton, well to me a ton, of ‘45s.  I even remember finding Midnight Special and Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert when I was able to stay up late on the weekends.  Wow, a face, and a singing face at that, to the music I so loved. Hello Albums, 8-tracks and ‘45s library! I even went through the roller skating phase of the mid to late 70s.  Music, skating and friends. Ok, family is in there too.

Once the 80s emerged skating vanished and work became a priority.  I still can’t figure out why one has to work.  Work seems to cut in my recreation time.  I remember some big announcement on the local cable company about channel changes.  As long as I had my soap operas I was happy. One of the changes was the addition of a music video station.  Now, I can’t play “who’s on first and what’s on second” on who was the first VJ.  In all honesty, it doesn’t matter to me who was the first VJ to be on air. I only remember how cool it was to have such a station where I can listen to music, see the band/singers and watch videos. I would come home for lunch and use my exercise bike and watch MTV and always be late getting back to work.  MTV was instrumental in getting me hooked up with albums and cassettes from John C Mellencamp, Hall & Oates, REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, The Go-Go’s and Bon Jovi.  The list goes on and on and on.

Having a music video channel was an added plus. I had my favorite songs of the 80s, John Waite’s “Missing You”, as it is still today.  I can’t say if I had a favorite VJ at that time in the inaugural period of MTV.  I will say I did like them all.  Because I like music and MTV was all about the music.  If you ask me if I valued a VJs opinions or thoughts about music it was JJ Jackson. He had the professor shtick going on and he did it well. Through the years I would search to see where the VJs were. I was saddened by the passing of “my professor”. RIP JJ.  I remember Remote Control too.  I outgrew game shows in the 70s but Remote Control was so different. There was Ken Ober, The lovely Marisol and Colin Quinn. Unfortunately, recently Ken passed away. RIP Ken Ober.

I’m not sure what happened after the 80s on MTV.  I had a growing distaste of music due to the “roughness” of rap/hip-hop. So, I stopped watching MTV.  I started watching more Nickelodeon and cartoons.  I’ve never seen a Jersey Shore episode.  I’ve only seen a handful of Real World, maybe. I have no clue what they show on MTV anymore.  I only read about it.  Very Fine/Near Mint talks about Beavis and Butthead coming back on MTV.  I did see some of those shows in the 90s.

I can’t see MTV ever being duplicated for what it meant to a lot of people in the 80s.  Every generation has something special, this sounds like a Mike and the Mechanics song, but it’s true.  The 70s had something special for me and MTV was it for the 80s.  All the anecdotes about the different groups as well as the trivia the VJs bestowed on me were fantastic.  I loved and absorbed the whole aspect of MTV. The Headbangers Ball, Remote Control and even the news with Kurt Loder.  All the inaugural VJs were my favorites and always will be.  I can’t pick one VJ as my favorite simply because they did what, as I hope for all, was fun for them as well and made my viewing experience exceptional.