Thursday, July 12, 2007

Formerly of the MTV Generation

Early this morning, even before my neighbors started their early morning running up and down the stairs, I was awake and watching VH1 Videos. It was both a thrilling and nostalgic experience. The music felt bigger to me than it had a long time. It felt like it had a chance of actually being affecting and not just being the music I run to or clean the dishes to. It was a moment of clarity at a very early hour in the morning, all made possible by the artistry and dentistry of videos.

I was born in 1974. This means I was around for the Buggles first video, "Video Killed the Radio Star," which was the first video ever shown on MTV. It was August 1st, 1981. (Go here to view said video, which is very hard to embed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe9FMoElCoU).

We had one of the brown box remote channel changers that you zip up and down like a keyboard to change the channel. (I have searched in vain to find a picture of this to jog all our memories, but I can find nothing. If you know what I'm talking about and can find a picture to send me, I would be extremely grateful).

But as we all know, it is very difficult to view videos anymore unless we are up at hours we do not intend to be. Sure, we've all seen The Beastie Boys "Sabotage" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzTxuDUfzzM), and The White Stripes lego-riffic fantasy "Fell in Love With a Girl" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRDi67G0Siw), and personally, I still feel artistically indebted to A-Ha's "Take On Me" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUod3jGQt0U).

But surely there's more to inspire us that the four or five stations out there are withholding from us, choosing instead to expose us to yet another Sweet Sixteen, mind-baffling bitchfest.

To misquote Jason Compson, "Once a video enjoyer, always a video enjoyer, what I say!" And let it begin with the following, a song and video called "Young Folk" by Peter, Bjorn, and John. It f-ing rocks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51V1VMkuyx0


5 comments:

Foxygen said...

Take on Me is one of the best videos ever made, hands down.

In the past few years, the two videos that stand out the most for me (in a quick recall, although I'll probably remember more later) are these two. One popular, one not so much.

The not so much popular but very delightful Junior Senior:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKcDa0Kp2K8

It's the happiest song ever written

And the Killers. Eric Roberts playing the creepy old dude. Come on - this is good stuff!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc50ONFU3jQ

Anonymous said...

We had one of those cable boxes. They made it fun to change the channel, I thought.

Susie said...

I could zip to 'I' with my eyes closed! For those of you that don't understand that, your bottle is warming in the microwave!

Susie said...

Julia keeps making me listen to Video Killed the Radio Star now with childlike repitition. Oi, vay!

Do take a moment to check out the Fray doing Shakira's Hips Don't Lie.

Molly said...

See, the Buggles just have something for every generation. Sort of like Michael Jackson.

Yes. That was a very bad joke.