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MTV has been around so long that it's a cliché to chide the network for no longer playing actual music videos. This year marks the channel's 30th anniversary, and to celebrate the occasion, veteran music journalists Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum have assembled the authoritative oral history on MTV's first decade, which they consider the music video channel's golden era. For I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution (Dutton, $29.95), Marks and Tannenbaum conducted more than 400 interviews with rock stars, wannabes, VJs, executives, directors and washouts. The compulsively readable book charts the telegenic New Wave revolution, Michael Jackson's explosive Thriller videos, Madonna's voracious sex appeal, hair metal's vapid ascent, the rise of rap and MTV's first cautious steps toward reality programming. The authors chatted with Brian Braiker for USA TODAY.

Q. A lot of people you spoke with were awfully forthcoming.

C.M.: Everybody who agreed to talk to us has really fond memories of that era. From what they can remember they had a good time. (Laughs)

R.T.: I wasn't surprised. The music business is full of crazy characters and maniacs and drug addicts and geniuses. One of the reasons the book is so much fun to read is everyone is on a budget these days. The '80s was one of the last crazy times in the music business.

Q. And early on, they started a music video channel when there were no videos, really.

RT: MTV was based around promoting a product that barely existed. Who does that? MTV's business plan was that someone else would give them videos for free and they would air them. But hardly anyone was making videos. That's not a business plan, that's chutzpah.

Q. Is there any one artist you can point to and say without that artist MTV may not have made it?

RT: Absolutely: Michael Jackson is the man who saved MTV. The irony is that for the first couple of years the network was on the air, they hardly ever played black musicians. MTV executives would say they weren't discriminating against black people; they were just programming rock.

Q. Like a radio station.

RT: Which is kind of a persuasive argument until you understand that a lot of what they were playing wasn't just rock 'n' roll. They were also playing ABC, which was a white R&B act. So, if you can play a white R&B act, why can't you play a black R&B act? I think that's part of what made people angry about MTV. So Michael Jackson starts making videos for Thriller in 1982 and at that point MTV is probably three bad months away from being shut down.

CM: It also showed how mercenary MTV was, and I mean that as a compliment, by going from in January 1983 not really playing urban videos to November '83 not only playing it but saying "come back in 10 minutes, we're going to play Thriller again." Whatever worked, worked. They were happy to swallow their pride.

Q.What's the first instance of MTV being a kingmaker?

CM: Most of the acts of the English New Wave: Flock of Seagulls, Culture Club, Duran (Duran) probably, Stray Cats. All of these bands, their image is what sold them first in America.

RT: John Sykes and Tom Freston, two of the important early MTV employees, go on a business trip to Tulsa, Okla., and they discover that Duran Duran records are selling. But Duran Duran haven't played in Tulsa and the radio station isn't playing them. They call back to the New York office triumphant because Duran Duran was selling in Tulsa. That effect began to spread throughout the country.

Q. Do you have a favorite video or couple of videos?

CM: I became really enamored of those videos that just didn't make sense. You could tell the stars were either having a laugh or out of their minds on drugs or both. The one I watched over and over again is the Bonnie Tyler video Russell Mulcahy directed, Total Eclipse of the Heart. It's spectacularly nonsensical and over the top and dramatizes all the best and worst virtues of MTV in that era where one image piles on top of the other where they not only made no sense, but were counterintuitive against one another. And there's crazy sexuality and melodrama.

Q.Was there anyone that was really bitter, whose career didn't end up where they expected and maybe blames MTV?

RT: What surprised me was that some of the more minor bands didn't want to talk about it. Like a-Ha. Ninety-five percent of a-Ha's career is one music video. They have a love-hate relationship with Take on Me. It's a great song but it's a magnificent video. The video came to overshadow their band and their career.

CM: Some of the hair metal people have feelings against the way that their reign ended. And they blame MTV rightly or wrongly for that. No artist likes being told they're no longer cool, and MTV was a very visible way to be told that.

Q.Is there someone who talked to you who surprised you?

CM: They're not as sexy as the stars, but the people who founded MTV. Particularly one guy I liked named Les Garland. He out-excessed all the rock stars. He also made the company a lot of money. His enjoyment of the lifestyle was tied into his job requirements. That's also typical of the era. It's missing, absent almost entirely from popular music these days.

Q. Is that excess to be mourned, or are we all going to live a little longer for its demise?

CM: Probably both. As a writer, it's to be mourned. Because who wants to hear stories about people going to the gym and then checking their eTrade accounts online?

Q. Is there a corollary today to MTV as a cultural power broker or is that moment gone?

RT: There is no centrifugal point in the culture any more. If you were 12 years old in 1982, your popularity in school was determined only by whether or not your parents had MTV. That was the last time we were all more or less unified.

Q. Where are the original VJs now? Are they happy people?

CM: It was the greatest job in the world. They loved it.

RT: I think some of them are a little envious of the money and the opportunities that MTV stars have now. But I think if you said to Martha Quinn would you switch places with Snooki, she'd say not for all the money in the world.

Q. Is there anyone who should be nervous about this book coming out?

CM: I hope there are, or we didn't do a good job as journalists.

http://www.usatoday.com/l...50896190/1

this book sounds like its going to be very interesting

[Edited 9/26/12 19:59pm]

I got that book I Want My MTV last Christmas,but I still haven't read it yet I skimmed through it and there are some interesting details throughout.I need to read it!

I like to read this book to find out their take on exactly when MTV as a network officially started to decline.

Its their own fault that it declined.

They started making it more reality than about music. They didnt live up to their title and legacy as a music channel and went along with what was hot at the moment just to get more money which is all MTV really cared/cares about.

They dont care about music and to be honest I dont think they ever did just saw it as a way of making money.

mjscarousal said:

Its their own fault that it declined.

They started making it more reality than about music. They didnt live up to their title and legacy as a music channel and went along with what was hot at the moment just to get more money which is all MTV really cared/cares about.

They dont care about music and to be honest I dont think they ever did just saw it as a way of making money.

the idea of music videos just died out, i would go back and site MTV's end as early as 1989, maybe sooner, even though they were still playing videos alot back then, as for now its gotten so freaking bland, artists now shoot like an albums worth of videos that all have the same quality, HD crap, sure it looks nice but all the videos now are the same very rarely is their any form of creativity, and since music doesnt sell, video is almost a loss of money for an artist too, and a label.

lastdecember said:

mjscarousal said:

Its their own fault that it declined.

They started making it more reality than about music. They didnt live up to their title and legacy as a music channel and went along with what was hot at the moment just to get more money which is all MTV really cared/cares about.

They dont care about music and to be honest I dont think they ever did just saw it as a way of making money.

the idea of music videos just died out, i would go back and site MTV's end as early as 1989, maybe sooner, even though they were still playing videos alot back then, as for now its gotten so freaking bland, artists now shoot like an albums worth of videos that all have the same quality, HD crap, sure it looks nice but all the videos now are the same very rarely is their any form of creativity, and since music doesnt sell, video is almost a loss of money for an artist too, and a label.

Well that to...... but MTV more so specificially decided they didnt want to be a music channel anymore and catered to what was popular. They could have still played music videos and catered to the era that really popularize them 80's but they wanted to keep up with the times and yes that aspect is their fault.

mjscarousal said:

They could have still played music videos and catered to the era that really popularize them 80's but they wanted to keep up with the times and yes that aspect is their fault.

Apparently they weren't making any money showing videos anymore. TV works off of ratings, and companies advertising their products are not going to spend a lot of money on a network with low ratings. MTV either had to change their format or go off the air. It's a business, they have to make money for the stockholders. MTV did have alternate stations like MTV2 that showed videos. Anyway the internet made an all music video channel obsolete. Folks can watch a video anytime they like rather than waiting for them to show it or sit through songs they might not like. You can't really blame the channel. They only give the majority of the public what they want, and have always done so. Shows with low ratings get cancelled. Early music videos were cheap to film, so there was less cost for the record labels and MTV. People started making fancy expensive videos, which probably hurt it in the long run.

mjscarousal said:

lastdecember said:

the idea of music videos just died out, i would go back and site MTV's end as early as 1989, maybe sooner, even though they were still playing videos alot back then, as for now its gotten so freaking bland, artists now shoot like an albums worth of videos that all have the same quality, HD crap, sure it looks nice but all the videos now are the same very rarely is their any form of creativity, and since music doesnt sell, video is almost a loss of money for an artist too, and a label.

Well that to...... but MTV more so specificially decided they didnt want to be a music channel anymore and catered to what was popular. They could have still played music videos and catered to the era that really popularize them 80's but they wanted to keep up with the times and yes that aspect is their fault.

but also MUSIC in general changed, with soundscan coming into the picture, and things like that, labels started focusing just one thing, whos hot right now, MTV early on was famous for playing everything, new videos, old videos, artists of every age group, then suddenly it all changed. Factor that in with videos just getting boring and the lack of creative minds in it

I'm surprised the impact of MTV still lingers.

Just look at how movies and TV shows are still edited in that silly ADHD style.

Music videos as a cultural thing has trended way back and is now dead and gone, to the point where even MTV doesn't play them anymore.

And I say thank God. Video killed the radio star.

MickyDolenz said:

mjscarousal said:

They could have still played music videos and catered to the era that really popularize them 80's but they wanted to keep up with the times and yes that aspect is their fault.

Apparently they weren't making any money showing videos anymore.

I think it could also be the fact that they made MORE money from airing reality tv shows. Actually the network ended up pioneering reality tv shows with the Real World didn't it? It's like Marvel's dilemma right now. Comics do make money, but movies make waaaaaay more. Cartoon Network is having the same issue. Cartoons bring in ratings, but reality shows bring in even more.

lastdecember said:

but also MUSIC in general changed, with soundscan coming into the picture, and things like that, labels started focusing just one thing, whos hot right now, MTV early on was famous for playing everything, new videos, old videos, artists of every age group, then suddenly it all changed. Factor that in with videos just getting boring and the lack of creative minds in it

Music videos were mostly useful for Top 40 pop acts, and R&B to a lesser extent with BET programs like Video Soul and Video Vibrations. But BET wasn't an all video channel. I remember in the 1980's, they showed infomercials during the day (on weekdays), and actual BET progamming in the late afternoon. For other genres I don't think videos were that important. I don't recall seeing many classical, jazz, or blues music videos. People forget that a video was just a commercial for a record. Most of them weren't really anything interesting, it was just a way to see your favorite act. There were a lot of Kenny G./Air Supply style "walking on the beach" videos and Bon Jovi style stage performance videos.

Unholyalliance said:

MickyDolenz said:

Apparently they weren't making any money showing videos anymore.

I think it could also be the fact that they made MORE money from airing reality tv shows. Actually the network ended up pioneering reality tv shows with the Real World didn't it? It's like Marvel's dilemma right now. Comics do make money, but movies make waaaaaay more. Cartoon Network is having the same issue. Cartoons bring in ratings, but reality shows bring in even more.

Most definitly.

I just think they should take out the MTV Award Show all together being they are technically not a music channel anymore. I dont see the point of having it anyway...

lastdecember said:

mjscarousal said:

Well that to...... but MTV more so specificially decided they didnt want to be a music channel anymore and catered to what was popular. They could have still played music videos and catered to the era that really popularize them 80's but they wanted to keep up with the times and yes that aspect is their fault.

but also MUSIC in general changed, with soundscan coming into the picture, and things like that, labels started focusing just one thing, whos hot right now, MTV early on was famous for playing everything, new videos, old videos, artists of every age group, then suddenly it all changed. Factor that in with videos just getting boring and the lack of creative minds in it

mjscarousal said:

Unholyalliance said:

I think it could also be the fact that they made MORE money from airing reality tv shows. Actually the network ended up pioneering reality tv shows with the Real World didn't it? It's like Marvel's dilemma right now. Comics do make money, but movies make waaaaaay more. Cartoon Network is having the same issue. Cartoons bring in ratings, but reality shows bring in even more.

Most definitly.

I just think they should take out the MTV Award Show all together being they are technically not a music channel anymore. I dont see the point of having it anyway...

well i agree on that, because MTV doesnt play videos, no one really cares who wins these things in general, the artists that go to them are basically going to do something that is gonna spike sales for themselves, which means ANTICS and pre-planned nonsense which takes away 100% from music, so why have the show? I have been asking myself this for well over a decade now, almost 2. I get bombarded by videoshoots on my facebook page all the time from indie artists hiring this one and that one, i swear there is this one NYC rapper, indie artist that shoots like a video every other week, so he is always casting hot females etc...and im saying to someone "WHY? shoot videos, they dont make money, they still cost some money even if done cheap, wheres this unknown rapper getting money"...the answer,,,,and this honest...."Drug money" case closed.

This is a GREAT book. I have followed pop music very closely for almost 30 years and I have never heard a lot of the behind the scenes stories in the book. Lots of great nuggets about Madonna, Prince, Bruce, MJ, George Michael and stuff that you didn't know that you wanted to know, like the fact that Limahl slept with the director of one of his videos the night before the shoot, which he attributes to why the video looks so good. The chapter on what is called the worst video of all time, "Rock Me Tonite" by Billy Squier is both hillarious and sad, as you can trace how one video completely derailed a musician who was quite big at the time. I have reread this book multiple times and recommend it to anyone who misses videos or who wants to see how twisted the 80s and early 90s were for music.

GottaLetitgo said:

This is a GREAT book. I have followed pop music very closely for almost 30 years and I have never heard a lot of the behind the scenes stories in the book. Lots of great nuggets about Madonna, Prince, Bruce, MJ, George Michael and stuff that you didn't know that you wanted to know, like the fact that Limahl slept with the director of one of his videos the night before the shoot, which he attributes to why the video looks so good. The chapter on what is called the worst video of all time, "Rock Me Tonite" by Billy Squier is both hillarious and sad, as you can trace how one video completely derailed a musician who was quite big at the time. I have reread this book multiple times and recommend it to anyone who misses videos or who wants to see how twisted the 80s and early 90s were for music.

OK,I'm pulling my book out and I'm gonna read it this weekend! No more delays.