30 Years of Music History

Today I am taking a little time off from my so-called busy schedule (which basically involves getting intimate with different books that are NOT fun) to say Happy Birthday to one that's made a huge part of my growing up years. Happy Birthday MTV!

I started watching MTV Asia on Cable TV when I was around eleven but it got obsessive about a year later when all I want to watch on the tube is MTV - all those different shows. It was the boyband/girlband/pop era and the fever caught me early on.

Way back MTV was actually a music video television network. They were different shows that catered to different styles of music. There were a couple of request shows in which viewers can send a creative letter by snail mail (yup those requests were grand, indeed!), call in long distance all the way to Singapore or just write an e-mail. The VJs were cool and hot! I abandoned Cartoon Network and The Discovery Channel for a whole day of music.

During high school, MTV accompanied me in the midst off all the puberty drama. Every weekend I would watch The Top 20 and would whine if any of my favorite songs were not on the list or was knocked out of the top. Yup I was that compelled. I remember watching TRL live from the United States via satellite which was shown at around midnight here Cebu time and I have school at seven the next day. I enjoyed getting to know more about my favorite artists and hearing them perform live even just on TV. It was a compulsion that was hard to shake off.

When college came around, MTV started introducing those reality TV shows and was showing less and less music videos but I still tuned in. I spent idle time catching up on dating shows like Dismissed, Singled Out and Room Raiders. I loved watching Making The Video, a thirty minute documentary on behind the scenes of a music video shoot. I also was secretly addicted to all those seasons of Laguna Beach and tried watching some episodes of The Hills. I was a certified MTV junkie.

Three years ago, MTV was scrapped off the program list from our cable TV provider and a year later it was not available on air for Philippine audiences. One of the reasons why is that it had less viewers and poor ratings compared to its counterpart MYX. I miss watching MTV and those award shows and live performances.

MTV greatly influenced pop culture for the past thirty years. It made stars of Michael and Janet Jackson, Madonna, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga among others. It made you cool if you were a famous person and appeared on a music video that's became viral and hit number one. It made reality stars celebrities and tabloid regulars. And it started producing hit films as well.

Though MTV somehow lost it's credibility and prestige, it will always be a reminder of those years growing up and how music and videos made it easier for a social butterfly with a rebel spirit hidden underneath to fit it growing up! Cheers!

In commemoration, I will post the first ever music video to be aired on the music channel on August 1, 1981. Its "Video Killed The Radio Star" (somehow appropriate) by The Buggles. This song was remade by Presidents of the United States of America in 1998 for The Wedding Planner soundtrack. Videos have come a long way from then. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8r-tXRLazs