We oldsters love to quip that we remember when MTV still showed music videos. While this cable network has become something of a joke, with extraordinarily little programming genuinely related to music, its original purpose was very groundbreaking. For a culturally stranded Midwestern teenager like me, a television channel dedicated entirely to new pop music was a Godsend.
Music Television debuted on August 1, 1981, when I was sixteen. At that time, I was a non-athletic and nerdy teen completely immersed in New Wave music. I didn’t care whether it was Punk, Powerpop, Ska, or Synth-Pop. As long as it was upbeat, catchy, and didn’t sound like pompous and bloated Classic Rock, I enjoyed it. Unfortunately, very few of my schoolmates felt this way. If anything, they despised New Wave and regarded me as a loser for listening to those “goony-looking bands.”
That fall, I was a junior at Central High School and absolutely hated it. Central was a poorer inner-city school near downtown Columbus. The student body was largely working-class and lived by the sword. Fistfights were a way of life. Guys wore long hair, faded jeans, and Converse sneakers. Their music of choice was the louder side of Classic Rock, namely Heavy Metal. Popular bands included AC/DC, Van Halen, KISS, and Ted Nugent. To most of my classmates, this skinny kid with short hair and 1950’s neckties was a weirdo who couldn’t get with the program. I truly felt like I was on the wrong side of the moon.
October 30 was a typical Friday. After a day of class, I was shuttled to my older brother’s apartment to spend the weekend. On this day, he had just moved into a new pad near Whitehall. He was ecstatic that he could finally have cable TV. The installer arrived on Saturday afternoon. He hooked up one of those little yellow boxes with a slider for changing channels. After he left, my brother and I explored the new offerings. What came next was completely unexpected.
As John turned past channel 21, I saw the image of Elvis Costello on the screen. It took a few seconds to register. Almost immediately, I asked my brother to go back. Lo and behold, it was a film clip of Elvis Costello and the Attractions miming “Oliver’s Army.” I felt like I had just uncovered buried treasure.
Our curiosity piqued, we stayed on that channel and saw even more clips of current pop artists. It was like a smorgasbord of contemporary music: The Police, J. Geils Band, Rolling Stones, Pat Benatar, Blondie, The Pretenders, and many others. I even sat through stuff I didn’t care for, like R.E.O. Speedwagon or Styx, simply because I was eager to see (and hear) what came next.
In between music clips, a “video jockey” would recap what we had seen and preview what was next. Station identification bumpers told us that we were seeing something called Music Television, or MTV for short. We were hooked and continued watching until the wee hours of the morning. We felt like the future had finally arrived.
Throughout the weekend, I realized that MTV gave New Wave artists equal footing with the more mainstream. I was finally getting to hear artists whom I had only read about in Creem or Trouser Press: The Romantics, Split Enz, Madness, Adam and the Ants, The Selecter, Holly and the Italians, Joe Jackson, and many others. For two years, I had wished radio stations like Q-FM-96 would play Punk and New Wave. I finally got my wish from an unexpected source, cable television.
One thing should be noted. Although some songs had genuinely interesting videos, those were, for me, secondary to the music. I was not dazzled by a slick film with mediocre songs. I used MTV as a surrogate for the radio. I can honestly say that I spent more time listening to MTV than truly watching.
My favorite memories of early MTV were obscure bands with absolutely killer songs. Among them was Classix Nouveaux with “Guilty.” It fit nicely between Synth-Pop, New Romantic, and proto-Goth with a Bowiesque singer who resembled Nosferatu.
Another forgotten gem was “The Good Life” by a San Francisco Ska band called The Hoovers.
My ultimate favorite video eventually became a classic: “I Got You” by Split Enz.
Over the next year, I could tell that my classmates also watched MTV. Their attitudes towards New Wave started to soften, with some admitting that they liked The Police, Blondie, or Devo. I was elated when a buddy came to me and commented, “I like that song ‘Someday, Someway’ by that Crenshaw guy. Have you heard it yet?”
The kids at school stopped treating New Wave like something I had made up. I felt like my classmates finally respected me.
Central High closed that June. My graduating class was kept together and sent to Whetstone. Though I had my reservations about the new school, I quickly met a few other MTV viewers who loved Punk and New Wave. Underclassmen looked up to me, asking for tips on good contemporary music. It was a great feeling to finally be able to share this passion with new friends. At eighteen, little compared to discussing the likes of The Clash or The Jam with schoolmates. Though it may have been too little too late, I felt like my adolescence had finally arrived. Thank you, MTV, for making it happen.
Jim Hutter is a veteran Columbus musician, journalist, and ASCAP songwriter who has been active in these arts since the 1980's.