Byron said:

True

Musical Youth?

Yeah I remember, a sweet song.

just... you can't say Musical Youth had the same impact like MJ & Prince

They were not before MJ and Prince on MTV.
Yes music videos by Black artist were out there but in 1982 it was a huge stink why MTV was not showing Black artists.

When Prince/MJ broke the barrier a flood of all kinds of Black artists began to emerge.

muleFunk said:

Yes, they were




There was a huge stink about not showing MORE black artists, not about not showing black artists at all. Black artists, particularly from England, were being shown on MTV before "Billie Jean" and "1999". It's fact.




They didn't "break the barrier". What did happen, though, is that MTV became more popular once they started showing videos by MJ, and the MTV big wigs realized they had been holding the video channel back by not playing more artists like MJ and Prince.

thedance said:

yeah, I think the whole "MJ had the impact on MTV" argument is being distorted into "No black artists were being played before MJ", though.

Byron said:

Yep I was a kid when MTV first came on, remember Musical Youth and Eddie Grant getting major air time.

heck my local yocal radio stations did not play Eddie Grant or Musical Youth, heard them ONLY on MTV.

smaller markets had no black or alt radio stations radio stations at all, MTV opened up a lot of music for me.

U2, Talking Heads, Prince, were all MTV stables when they first came on the scene.

MTV was very eclectic once!
Now its's what my local yocal radio station was back in the day. generic

Nice one thedance, I thought the same thing. It kinda sours your emotion when supposedly respected sources, such as the BBC decide to employ the 'revisionist history' in order to increase the impact of their story.

I'm not a big fan of these people running out and buying Michael Jackson albums as if that in some way makes them closer to him. He had for the past ten years release virtually nothing, and certainly had not toured. He was financially broke if the press is to be believed - and where were all these people then?

He may have had the biggest selling album(s) of all time, but how much of that money did he actually see? I don't want to big up Prince, but he does continually ask that question, and gets maligned for it.

I was always under the impression that Billie Jean was the first video by a black artist on MTV but Prince was the first black artist on heavy rotation.

what about The Sugarhill Gang?

muirdo said:

sugarhill gang was late 70's-mtv 1981 and even then hip hop was not on mtv at all

a little off topic.. Sugar Hill Gang,

I think they "stole" the beat/ bass from a song by CHIC "Good Times"?

Crime pays, it seems, stealing from other people's songs,

hardly this can't be called art - but I think I had this on vinyl 7 inch.

The first real rap song....?

so

TheResurrection said:

So... what?

are you referring to the Prince being 1st on MTV - ?

Or my opinion about Sugar Hill Gang ?


[Edited 6/30/09 7:56am]

I've been telling people this, now that the whole "MJ was Jackie Robinson" crap has been on TV regarding him and MTV.

It's like, "Uh...no. Prince was there first in the big time. Michael was bigger, there's no doubt. But Prince did it first and Michael followed."

I <3 Michael. I'll miss him. But damn, let's give The Man the credit he deserves :p
[Edited 6/30/09 7:57am]

ernestsewell said:

That really about covers it!

thedance said:

It's called "sampling". Where have you been throughout the history of hip hop?

thedance said:

No, Blowfly did it in the 60s (Rap Dirty (1st version 1965; another 1980 after Rapper's Delight)); GilScott Heron and The Last Poets in the 70s plus there might be some mo', but Blowfly definitive is rapping, no blues singing/talking like Hendrix & stuff

There are a lot of truths being said here but no one is mentioning the fact that Prince didn't blow up with the song 1999 in 1982. The song that sent Prince to another level in the Pop World was Little Red Corvette, which came out the same month as Billie Jean. Yes, 1999 may have gotten exposure on MTV in 1982 but Michael was already a superstar and because of a name as big as his having issues getting video play on a station like MTV at the time and then once it played on the station & the song scored BIG time, that had to help Prince, who was already getting airplay from the station. I've always believed that the success of BJ helped push LRC to the stratosphere. Plus, 1999 was rereleased later on in 1983 and charted WAY higher the 2nd time around thanks to all that happened earlier in 83. That's just my

purplecam said:

That is common knowledge and nobody denies that. This thread is about historical facts.

Actually the Sugarhill Gang stuff was NOT sampled. Apparently Nile Rogers from Chic was very impressed they nailed it so well as it was actually played by a resident band and most, if not all, of the raps on Rappers Delight were written by/borrowed from other rappers - listen to the verse that says "Im the C-A-S-A N-O-V-A and the rest is F-L-Y". That was a rap borrowed from Casanova Fly. SHG were essentially an old school rap equivalent of a manufactured boy band.

dseann said:

[Edited 6/30/09 13:36pm]

tecstar said:

True that! Grandmaster Casanova Fly, better known as Grandmaster Caz of the Cold Crush Brothers.

maybe this link can help:

http://www.mtv.com/music/...Id=1535819

serk said:

Nice find, thank you for the link,



Prince - headline to 1982.
http://www.mtv.com/music/...Id=1535819



Michael - the headline pic to 1983.
http://www.mtv.com/music/...Id=1535996


so MTV actually confirmes that Prince was on MTV before Michael.

1999 was shown before Billie Jean, Beat It & Thriller.

Both were phenomenal artists, Thriller was a record breaking album in many ways,

but the first major black artist who had a breakthrough on MTV was:

Prince.


[Edited 6/30/09 22:43pm]

thedance said:

Not the first real rap song but the first to break Top 40 Pop and Top Ten on the Black chart. Which became the R & B chart again after George Michael topped the Black Single and Album charts simultaneously.

moussemaker said:

Tina Turner's 'Private Dancer' album and videos weren't released until early 1984.

Donna Summer's "She Works Hard For The Money" video was added to MTV in the summer of 1983,months after Prince and Michael were placed in heavy rotation.

Eddie Grant's "Electric Avenue" video was added to MTV in the spring of 1983,several weeks after Prince and Michael were placed in heavy rotation.

In the summer of 1982,months before MTV placed black artists in heavy rotation,I recall seeing a Jimi Hendrix video (consisting of classic live footage) as well as a Thin Lizzy video (they are a rock band that features a black lead singer).



[Edited 7/1/09 2:14am]

muleFunk said:

In my area,our local R&B stations played Madonna's early singles long before pop radio embraced her.Songs like "Holiday","Lucky Star" and "Borderline" received tremendous airplay on R&B radio.

L4OATheOriginal said:

What about Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5 with "The Message" ?
The single came out in 1982 too and wasn't doing bad in R&B + pop-charts.

Before Eddie Grant's "Electric Avenue" there was this release from 1981-1982 :




Wasn't also "Let's Stay Together" Tina's first video ? I remember her re-introduced to the scene with that clip.
[Edited 7/1/09 6:33am]

thedance said:

At the time, Prince was still an emerging artist while Michael was an established major artist. Perhaps that's the distinction?

Was there any early broadcasting on MTV of 1982-videos from Lionel Richie ("You Are"), or Stevie Wonder ? :