30 Years I'll Never Get Back

MTV turned 30 last week.  Wow. To me it only seems like 27 years ago, but whatever.  The tributes have been showing up everywhere.  I'm sure by now everyone has asked you your favorite video of all time (which is difficult to answer, but gun to my head, I'll take the Beastie Boys "Sabotage.")   My friend Crystal wrote a fairly comprehensive overview of MTV that you can read here.  Might as well jump into the hype pile....

The first hour of MTV's programming was re-broadcast on VH1 Classic and not MTV.  Kind of funny.  For years, the joke about MTV has been that don't play any "M" (music.)   Now, it appears that they don't even care about their own anniversary.    

Of course, because it is 2011, not 1981, I didn't really watch the WHOLE hour.  I DVR'd it and fast forwarded through the crappy videos (and there were plenty of them.)   Imagine how many hours of our lives we'd have back if we could have done that.   I might have even had a girlfriend in junior high if we had this feature.  Might have.

Commercials were much more fun in 1981.  They all seemed like :30 second musicals. I mean, a marching band singing about sugar-free gum that squirts?  Genius!  I firmly believe that if we lived our lives like commercials in the 80's, we wouldn't have any worries. 

More things I realized watching MTV:
-Duran Duran would have never existed without MTV.  Period.
-Mick Jagger was the worst lip syncher of all-time.
-They sure made a big deal about stereo back then.  Now we compress our music so much, it doesn't matter.
-Not everyone ages well (sorry, Nina Blackwood)
-Many videos were just some guy (usually British) dancing in too-tight pants with swooshy dissovles and double images added for effects.  And I watched it.  And I liked it. 
-Man landed on the moon every hour at the top of the hour.

Happy Birthday, MTV.  I can't wait for Beavis and Butthead to return this Fall (for reals.)