I was born in the mid80s through out the years when I got older i knew the 70s 80s 90s and 2000s the music industry was a like down spiral roller coaster . I did not know in the 80s and 90s how racism money and unfairness contuine play into industry then and continue on in 2000s 2010s and today
It's the "devil" Robert Johnson described in "me and the devil blues". It's a soulless industry that only focus on the profit motive than creativity. It's a major drag!
We rightfully give David Bowie recognition for asking MTV the hard questions but we need to give Rick James the credit he deserves for publicly calling that racism out in the first place. He may not have benefited from MTV gradually playing more black videos but he took one for the team and got the ball rolling on the color barrier being broken. R.I.P. legends✊🏾
Alot of music ..and I mean alot of Great music comes from black roots. Music is supposed to bring people together. I was 80's kid so I remember that interview with Bowie. Its just goes to show you how much MTV knew about music history. After all, Nile Rogers was producing alot of great stuff in the 80's. Alot of big hits. Its messed up that some people don't get the credit they deserve bc the industry. 👍
They were so racist that one of their first video jockeys was black. If you're going to claim anyone was racist you'd have to put the blame on the labels that weren't making videos with black artists that fit the format. I know the only color most of these people care about is green though so I doubt that was the reason from either party. It probably had more to do with the music video being in it's infancy with the channel being brand new and not many black people making music that fit the theme they were going for at first. I took a deep dive on this years ago and MJ wasn't even the first, second or third black artist on the channel either. MTV started in 81 and Prince had a video in 82.
And then MTV became nearly black only... just like the racist BET (Black Entertainment Television). Where can I watch videos now, for me, by people like me?
I don't even understand how it's still called MTV. They don't even play music anymore. Just stupid reality shows. So glad I grew up in the seventies and eighties. 😊
Except MTV had what everyone else did… Nielsen ratings. They knew people weren’t watching as much as they were before so they had to switch it up. Don’t you remember “Remote Control”?
“Launching Jackson to stardom.” Actually, Michael Jackson was already a “star,” by any definition. He and his brothers had several top ten hits and his recent album “Off The Wall,” was already a million-seller. The previous year, the single “The Girl Is Mine,” was a #2 hit as well. Yes, the videos were an important part of his continued stardom, but to say he was already well-established would be an understatement.
True, he was already an established star. No question about it. But the difference between his level of fame before Thriller and the videos that came from it, versus during and after, is hugely significant. He went from being an established artist and in the game, to a mega superstar household name occupying probably one of the top 5 spots on any list of top artists of the 80s. He exploded into the stratosphere due to that album and the videos. But I do understand what you are saying. It probably could have been worded more accurately in the video. What I think is interesting is The Girl Is Mine being the first single seems like a separate era almost. I didn’t even remember that it was on Thriller, and I associate it more with his earlier stuff than I do with Beat It, Billie Jean, and Thriller.
@@jackiegoodspeed1849 The first time I watched MTV was I was 11 years old, in a hotel room when my family was vacationing at a resort in Orlando, Florida 1982. I remember thinking it was dreary and boring- only obscure heavy metal hair bands (and girls writhing on top of cars). No funk music, no disco, no pop. Seemed like a visual wasteland to me, but I didn't care. At the time, I knew this was tv for White People, not for me or my friends and family. We had Video Music Box playing on wonky UHF tv stations to fill in the vacuum and the genre thrived! You know something? I miss that era! The worst thing to happen to Black and Hip Hop music was mainstream acceptance!
@@jackiegoodspeed1849 MJ changed the videos made, but Duran Duran are the first video innovators with director Russell Mulcahy and their cinematic style of music videos for their 1982 album 'RIO'. But yes, The Jacksons' "Can You Feel It" video in 1981 was already impressive.
Regarding cassettes, I can't explain how awesome it was at the time, when your friend would come over with the new Metallica album, Master of Puppets, and having a blank tape, you too would have the new Metallica album. (Sorry Lars, I was doing it before Napster 😁)
lol...Lars was doing it too. In the early power metal/thrash metal days that was how you learned about new bands through tape-trading. They couldn't get on the radio or MTV and none had record deals so it was taping-retaping of live performances.
So I used to steal blank tapes from Target and Kmart then steal an actual tape of my favorite rock band and then record them at home and sell them to my friends…I made some good money until I was caught…and it wasn’t easy stealing those long plastic tubes those cassettes came in…
@@OaksArmorial If you define "meaning well" as the pursuit of some sort of moral high ground which enables a feeling of superiority over those you don't agree with then sure. If not I'd totally give Snyder the benefit of the doubt.....
@@OaksArmorial That's fair comment but I would bet big money that those senator's wives were in it for the publicity and the moral high ground aspect. They didn't give a rodent's rectum about the kids, they just wanted to look good for the cameras. ;)
@@BobyourUncle That’s possible but I don’t know that. But whatever their intent, if their efforts went to the ends of sheltering kids from pop-culture swill then I won’t regard it as a bad thing. Rockers and rappers who jeopardize and even corrupt kid’s well-being and development with the music they create only to serve their own egos, self-aggrandizement, fame and fortune… I can’t call that a good thing.
I’m an A-HA fan from the take on me days and I’d just like to say after 37 years the band are still around making quality music. A-HA are a criminally unappreciated and hugely underrated 80’s band with a huge back catalogue.
In usa, right? Because In other countries, they had various hits. Take on me being one of them, of course. Same thing with rick astley. Here in brazil, he had at least 6 hits and other minor hits too, like he did in europe, asia etc. The only ones i see talking like he is a "one hit wonder" is north americans ( of course im not saiying every north american acts like that XD. But you get the point. Seem like usa aways came with the "one hit wonder" label for artists that have various hits... But not there)
A-Ha still sound amazing Sun always shines on TV was so much of a better song than take on me personally I know it was supposed to be like the second part of that video like the continuation shall I say but yes I'll agree A-ha is a hell of a band and still put out solid music. Their live performance at the award ceremony a few years back in Britain was phenomenal
A-Ha are indeed still going, their popularity is questionable though as they recently played in my shitty nowhere town that only books has beens. I doubt that the majority that bought tickets are aware of anything other that the 3 80'S hits.
I remember from 1978 until 1981 right before MTV was launched, artist were making videos as there was a pre MTV. Actually certain artists were actually doing them all the way back in the early 70s but was not widespread
Yes. In NYC in late 70s/early 80s there were UHF stations like Channel 31 that had shows Video Music Box that played underground rap music, reggae and funk. The first time I watched MTV was I was 11 years old, in a hotel room when my family was vacationing at a resort in Orlando, Florida 1982. I remember thinking it was dreary and boring- only obscure heavy metal hair bands (and girls writhing on top of cars). No funk music, no disco, no pop. Seemed like a visual wasteland to me, but I didn't care. At the time, I knew this was tv for White People, not for me or my friends and family. We had Video Music Box playing on wonky UHF tv stations to fill in the vacuum and the genre thrived! You know something? I miss that era! The worst thing to happen to Black and Hip Hop music was mainstream acceptance!
I was in a band that won an Australian band competition and went to Japan for the Yamaha World Final of MusicQuest 1992 and came second to the host countries dubious winner. Despite winning a huge amount of money on paper, we actually recorded 2 songs and had about 3 hours of negotiation with Mushroom Records before being dumped into historic oblivion because we asked a simple question ... if we surrender all rights in the known universe, can we keep rights in the unknown universe? Eventually we were given a box of 500 CD singles and told to F*-off. I'm sure the James Web Telescope could have increased our income, but sadly this stupid industry had no desire to compensate us for our talents. We opted out and went back to playing pubs and clubs, never idolizing the Gudinski myth nor affirming the merits of participation in this dumb industry. It is no better 30 years later ... probably worse. $0.02
haha you got off lucky, i did a fair bit of production for the unknown universe. you can click and find out but i'm relatively comfortable not exposing people to things they never even wanted to find out about in their whole lives. but from my experience (music software developer, but not a mas0n huh fancy that) you got off good. PWEI were on mushroom they're basically invisible today. they're lucky.
A lot worse now...Artists make as little as 0.0000097c for streaming...Streaming has destroyed the industry...all they did was basically LEAGALISE "NAPSTER"...I've seen receipts from Spotify for just on One Million Streams...and the artist got a cheque for $305.00au
@@IrishCassidy that's a different mushroom records, but it definitely looks like both of them were shady. the story of what mushroom canada did to ann and nancy is awful
I have a soft spot for vinyl too as a BB but Ive only bought cds since they came out. I still have some of the great vinyl records of the times around though.
There was a story that he took the money he made from that song and made a recording studio in Jamaica and that many well-known artists like to record there. Great song!
eddy grant is a prince, i just checked the wikipedia page and it doesn't mention it, but he's royalty. that video ... water can represent the unconscious or reincarnation haha. great track
I remember Eddie Grant giving an interview, and he was really bitter about the industry. For some reason he stated he regretted doing the score for Romancing The Stone (a huge hit).
Shout out to the legendary David Bowie for standing up for injustice , to Walter Yetnikoff for taking that step & to my favorite artist & greatest entertainer in the world ,Michael Jackson for breaking down the barriers🙌🏾
When CD's were launched it was said they cost so much so that it didn't kill the vinyl industry overnight since cd's actually cost only a few pence to produce, they never really came down to an appropriate price they were always overly expensive
Dee Snider's testimony is the most iconic thing to happen in the music legal system. I don't even like his music, but I respect the ever living shit out of the human he is
I was a huge fan of Twisted Sister and cheered him loudly during that televised witch hunt. My mom did the same after getting over the shock that someone who looked like Dee Snyder could be as intelligent as Dee Snyder. LOL
I grew up in the 80s. Whenever MTV banned a video, it just made me want to see it more. When they put parental advisories on the labels of tapes and CDs, it made me want to buy them more. And yes, I recorded songs off the radio, because I couldn't afford to buy them. I was raised by a single mother who couldn't afford to buy me all those things no matter how much she wanted to. When I got older and got a job making my own money, I was finally able to go to the store and buy what I wanted. And boy did I! You could still buy tapes then and CDs were just getting more affordable. The 80s were truly the last great decade. Nobody cared if it was banned or had a warning. If your parents wouldn't buy it for you, you could get someone else to get it for you. Dee Snyder, you won.
I am just a generation before ‘MTv’ being in my 20’s when the network began and it defined an entire generation. The 80’s seemed like such a tumultuous decade much like the 1960’s. The youth in that decade became the parents of the children of the 80’s. I remember when MTv started, it began broadcasting at 4pm in the afternoon and ceased at 10pm with MTv news. I don’t remember when it went 24 hours. I didn’t have cable for a few years as I was living by myself and didn’t have a lot of money.
I did home taping. I remember the outrage in the 80's when sony DAT (Digital audio tape) was introduced. They demanded the player get a comb filter installed to reduce the quality of copies.
The PMRC in their own inadvertent way was the best thing to happen to music during the 1980s. They brought attention, and then sales,to a lot of great acts by deemed by them to be offensive.
No kidding. It's actually the norm now. At my job, it's what a lot of the younger guys listen to. I'm a Gen Xer and it's sad to see that this is what the younger generation is into. It makes you wonder if these guys play this crap around their kids. Luckily, the Internet has made it so there are other genres of music out there that people can find but the fact that explicit hip hop and rap is becoming the norm is not good news for the music industry and society as a whole.
Me and coworker at Tower Records in 1986 printed up small stickers that said "Keep Up The Good Work.".These would be put beneath the Record industry warning of "Home taping is ruining the record industry."
@@bttrflygal mtv didn't exist til the 80s he has been a star since he was very young with his brothers they were The Jackson 5 and when they got older they became The Jacksons he was the lead singer. Then in the 80s he became a solo artist up until he died.
@@villamedj3533 this video and my comment you replied to is about talent not color. Crawl back down your Qanon rabbit hole and stop bothering strangers on UA-cam.
Dexys midnight runners are a band from the UK, they are more than a 1 hit wonder! They'd already had a hit before that song came out & went on to have a handful of hits. The band are still alive today, known as dexys
@@RestrainingHollywood aids is there for the sexual deviants and war is inevitable. This generation shall not pass before some really bad stuff happens.
Facts! I loathe it when folks dump on the 80s. Everytime I'm in a comment section and someone is saying how much they love the 80s and how awesome it was, you'll find some kill joy that mentions aids and Reagan. Reagan was the man! I loved that guy. And aids wasn't my problem. That was the fault of those that ran around having unprotected sex with anyone and everyone. For me, the 80s rocked out with it's c**k out. It was sublime. A gift from God. The best decade ever. Oh yeah. 🤟😝
What really pisses me off is what was mentioned in the video. The fact that Black Artists weren’t played on MTV. The station is called Music Television. THAT SHOULD INCLUDE ALL GENRES OF MUSIC, RIGHT??? If they wanted it to be JUST Rock, they should have named the station RTV for Rock Television🤦♂️🤔.
Lol. I miss it like a Tiny Tim song. 10 free albums and only buy 5 more.' It quickly became a monthly curse. If you thought canceling spam is hard now, you have no idea how frustrating it was when for many months at over 25 bucks ans shipping each. They kept you buying after trying to jump through the hoops of stopping the cancelation, with nothing but snail mail and land lines to do it.
Back in the days when you used to say, "Wait A Minute! I just got some email! Somebody's selling 12 CDs for a dollar!" That WAS back in the days. Now it's like 12 CDs in the garbage.
I paid 600 dollars for my first CD player. It’s amazing how, when we’re younger, we are so fast to follow marketing drivel (see iPhone, iPod, iPad, etc.) The irony? I’m replacing the vinyl I dismissed back then after I got my CD player!
7:23 I was born the 80’s and it wasn’t until the late 90’s I realised that there were more genres of music than pop I also believed that if a genre wasn’t pop it wasn’t successful because it wasn’t played mainstream. I now understand why that was
So the decline of the professional musician, and the death of the music industry, began in the 80s. We all already witnessing the first generation lacking a mark in the music culture and music idols.
Comes to show no matter which deacade it was the music industry can rip most recoding artist off or not getting roylaties nor their share for each hit song . I was born into this decade did not realize that when I was in my 20s . The 70s 80s and 90s continue play unfairness racism and nor cut of shares some recording artists did co wrote
True but most people probably only know of "Come on Eileen" because it was the only one promoted. Thanks to Spotify today, I'm able to find songs that I never heard that I really like from one-hit wonder artists. It sucks that record companies had so much control over a band's success and is something that still continues today but if used wisely, the internet can give an artist or band the exposure they need.
Superfreak was a risqué song. There were DOZENS of white artists that were limited or outright banned from MTV for less. Guns N Roses for instance. But let's automatically jump to racism as usual and disregard any and all other factors that may have contributed.
@@meyerj75 in a ridiculously easy to find article in JET magazine it was pretty clear. There was a black VJ in 1981. The station was originally formatted to be a rock station. Like how rock stations on the radio play ... ya know ... rock. The MTV exec said they spent 75% of their time begging artists to make videos. By 1988 the channel had YO! MTV Raps! Which Jumpstarted hip hop and rap and boosted it into a global phenomenon. So weird.... when you actually take a second to actually figure out why.... there are normally perfectly valid reasons and it's hardly ever.... like 0.02% of the time is it racism
So if you want to be real about it. A white knight and the black musicians came in and strong armed a company into changing their entire business model using accusations of racism as a weapon until they got what they wanted. Pretty sorry if you ask me.... because I would be willing to bet that whole racist sword would have lost it's edge had their been videos for.... oh I don't know.... Jimi Hendrix, Thin Lizzy, Chuck Berry, Living Colour, etc.... rock music on a rock station.
And this is one reason, "probably the major reason," why they stopped making VCRs in the early to mid 2000nds, for the same reason why they were upset at the millions of people who were making and recording those wonderful and now nostalgic "Mix tapes?"
CDs: For the first few years that they were out in stores, the cost (at least in NC) was around $22 - $24. They eventually dropped to around $17 - $18 and stayed there for years. Black Artists on MTV: Several were there in the mix from the early days, but MTV used being a "Rock" video channel as justification for keeping black R&B, Funk and Soul artists (which, by default, most black artists were considered because of limiting definitions at the time) from being in heavy rotation, or on at all. Prince, as an example, was in light rotation with "1999" and "Corvette" before "Billie Jean" came along, but that was because they considered his music closer to the style represented on the channel....though still too black to be in heavy rotation. Michael swung those doors wide open. Thank God.
prince sucks. he didn't need mtv, n mtv didn't need him. the race card players/ pimps just wanted to stir up problems, n use prince n others to get their message across, n shake down mtv like they do to other companies. mtv was initially intended for white males age 13 -21, to promote artists, n increase record sales. not racist, just business.
Vinyl became rare at the close of the 80's? We still had places like Tower Records and The Wiz, along with M&P record stores that carried vinyl into the late 90's. I didn't see the rarity until 2000 and later when CDJ started to phase out traditional turntables.
In NYC in late 70s/early 80s there were UHF stations like Channel 31 that had low budget DIY type programs that played underground rap music, reggae and funk. The first time I watched MTV was I was 11 years old, in a hotel room when my family was vacationing at a resort in Orlando, Florida 1982. I remember thinking it was dreary and boring- only obscure heavy metal hair bands (and girls writhing on top of cars). No funk music, no disco, no pop. Seemed like a visual wasteland to me, but I didn't care. At the time, I knew this was tv for White People, not for me or my friends and family. We had Video Music Box playing on wonky UHF tv stations to fill in the vacuum and the genre thrived! I'm old enough to remember when NYC radio stations like Z-100 or Power 95 would brag about NOT playing Hip Hop! It was part of their marketing. You know something? I miss that era! The worst thing to happen to Black and Hip Hop music was mainstream acceptance!
One point that's not mentioned on the CD vs vinyl bit is that labels started featuring "extra" tracks on the CDs simply because they could (at the time) hold roughly 70 minutes of music for a single CD; vinyl albums were generally limited to no more than 40 minutes total on both sides of the record. Only a few artists routinely took advantage of this (Michael Jackson's "Leave Me Alone" doesn't appear on the vinyl version of "Bad" but is on both the cassette and CD versions; cassettes could also hold more music than vinyl but there was also a risk that the tape could be more easily damaged through repeated playback). Also, the advantage of being able to play an album straight through without having to flip it over (as one had to do with vinyl and cassettes) helped, especially in genres where "continuous play" was a bonus (notably, classical/opera but also some progressive rock).
Actually there are many vinyl albums that clock at about 50 minutes or more on a single disk, in theory there is no maximum amount of music you can fit on a disk. The big issue is: the longer the playing time you try to squeeze in, the thinner the grooves need to be, increasing the risk of skipping during playback as well as making the sound more degraded through repeated playing. Audio CDs have a fixed maximum length of 74 minutes but it's still more than you can safely fit on a vinyl and filling it up does not increase skipping/audio quality issues.
I worked at my college radio station in the 80s for one reason ,just to tap into their huge record collection so I can make my mix tapes for my sony walkman.
The music industry crapped on Iron Maiden too. They are probably the greatest heavy metal band ever and I never heard them played on the radio here in Canada.
It was Queen who revolutionised visual video with music " Bohemian rhapsody " this is the really where it went viral, should check out the history of that, it's very interesting
What makes you think that things were much better for anyone who sold their soul to the entertainment industry? Abuse is abuse and new technology will always be new technology… and people will always be greedy and unrealistic and have their priorities arse-about.
I always thought it was a bit odd that the records/cassettes/CDs used to have stickers on the plastic that they came wrapped in that proudly and loudly announced that the hit singles blah bla blah and bla blah bla blah were on this or that album. Which would make sense if those songs had been released before the album went on sale but they weren't. They typically only released one song in the run up to the album's release but the stickers would generally feature 2-4 songs on average. So...tell me how that makes any sense. I mean, they were dead on most of the time but that doesn't mean that I had to like it. You know?
You are wrong, when CD players came out in 1982 they was more then $1000 each and not the $750 you said it was, I know I was there looking at the cost of one back then
When I first saw CDs, in 1981-82, the average price in a record store was $30 for a single disc. Single vinyl records and tapes were around $9. No brainer for me.
The 80s was probably the largest profits for music than any other decade. Any artist that was hitting number 1 was selling 10 million. The 90s was up there to. Adele hit 20 million, so it's still possible. But I checked a big name recently, top sales for a individual recording was 3 million.
1:08 - in the late 1990's, it was Napster (MP3 downloaded music) and Metallica; Recording music (a favorite song of yours) on a (dual) cassette tape (deck) from a FM/AM radio station. CD's usually had cost, for 1 was $15 - $20.
You missed the part where it went from Payola to BUY IN!!! And MTV lead the way to get your video on & aired it took 800K -1.2 million depending on when & how often the video would air .NOT just the cost of getting it made They looked at like all products on TV get ad's & your video was the same for your product MUSIC!! This got much worse as time went on & much more scary Artist themselves started dying over it!!!
Excuse me? I said excuse me? "Billie Jean" did not LAUNCH Michael Jackson to stardom! He was already a huge, huge star like 20 years before that!!! Excuse me? I said excuse me?
1987 the year that made Kylie Minogue a music star and didn't need MTV to do it 💫 and was pinned as a 1 hit wonder at the time, so glad Kylies still going strong in the 2020s 🤟💯👌
But she kind of was a one hit wonder in North America. Her first album did Ok (mostly because of MTV and the Locomotion video). Her second album failed to chart in the US or Canada and she was dropped by the record company and her third album wasn't even distributed in North America. The fact was she never toured here (until something like...2007?) and touring has been the name of the game if you really want to break big on this side of the pond. While I understand she was something of a household name in the UK and Aus. (on TV shows too I think) she was soon kind of cast the wayside in a competitive and fickle US market that embraced the Tiffanys and Debbie Gibsons or whatever the new flavor of the month was. Maybe her managers felt the US market was saturated with bubbly pop songs by young women and that the touring (and endless interviews) required to keep up her profile wasn't the right move- or maybe she just didn't want to do it.
She had Sounds and Countdown here in Australia as well as countless commercial stations, to do her promoting/bidding. Not to mention that she was already in acting beforehand (as in Neighbours, if anyone watches or used to watch the show).
@@Colleens-Corner oh wow if it's that easy why doest everyone from Australia become huge?! Clearly u not huge making comments like that and u say your a artist lmfao. What a lame comment u making yaself look dumb! 🤟🤙🤣🌞
@@johncorey7408 welll she anit no one hit wonder in the rest of the WORLD, maybe the US has no taste?! Kylie's huge in Touring, album sales , streaming, charts and history prove it 🤟💯
@@shaunhoward3166 Wow!!! All I just said was that she had some very good PR to promote herself here in Australia 🇦🇺. So maybe she has friends in high places. I never said she was not talented or said anything bad about her. And yes, I am an artist, just not a performer (and no, I haven’t made it big. I am not sure how that makes me look dumb? You might wish to retract that comment? It’s totally uncalled for!!!
"Racist MTV" is overstated as always. Nobody can name more than 2 Black artists making videos at the time. I want a list of Black videos MTV refused to play.
The advent of MTV made it harder for women artists . The focus on the looks of a performer made it more important and those women without traditional good looks were left behind. It also pressured women to objectify themselves to promote their music. Male artists were doing it already to women. Madonna was smart to use MTV .
Adele was at her most successful when she was obese, céline Dion is also hardly conventionally gorgeous, Tina Turner was past 50 when she had her biggest hits in the 80’s and 90’s, likewise Cher, Amy Winehouse was not very attractive and covered in tattoos… its all about the talent and quality of the songs. Women who had a hit on the basis of their looks do not last long.
Actually 'music videos' have been around since 1940 when they were called 'soundies'. Up to 3 min long they were recorded performances of various genres of music.
August 1, 1981 was a great day. Blows my mind to think about how crappy MTV is now. PMRC (an asinine attempt at puritanism) actually helped sell albums through the label warning. That was hilarious.
I remember on few occasions that I actually purchased a original cassette tape from the record store! Most of my music was recorded off some else original copy. I didn't pay nothing but a couple of dollars blanks cassettes and was getting great music for free! And the same with VHS TAPES!
Vinyl Sales were ALREADY nonexistent, because of cassette tapes. It wouldn't bug me so much if there wasn't a whollllleeee segment about them before this wrongness.
@@hurtspublishing3906 Sure, now, but then there was no interest since vinyl is not portable at all. I lived then, trust me...vinyl was on life support propped up by little vintage record dealers keeping it alive. I find it to be kind of muddy myself so vinyl never really appealed to me.
@@MrMash-mh9dy Correct--I was a kid in the 80's. We never considered buying vinyl, we bought everything on cassette (not only could you play it at home, you could play it in the car or on your Walkman as well). Even though CD's were out, we didn't start buying those until the early 90's (not nearly as many people had CD players, and they weren't yet common in cars until the 1990's). I remember my older sister buying some vinyl in her teenage years...but once I became a teenager, vinyl was a non-starter for us.
@@americasevilgenius And you hit the nail on the head there. The portability of cassettes made them far more appealing and when CD players were good enough to actually be portable, they made cassettes disappear. And then digital steaming made CDs fade away because it was as portable as cassettes.
ROFL You think shows being forced to show Michael Jackson's Billie Jean is what "launched Jackson to stardom"??? That's ripe. You know he was a mega superstar before that, yeah?
What do you think was the worst offender to the music industry?
Record labels,& censorship
Nickel Back
I was born in the mid80s through out the years when I got older i knew the 70s 80s 90s and 2000s the music industry was a like down spiral roller coaster . I did not know in the 80s and 90s how racism money and unfairness contuine play into industry then and continue on in 2000s 2010s and today
There isn't any true talent anymore....everything is done though computers. What happened to bands??
@@xanadools4261 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Hey Nickel Back... I want my nickel back.
The music industry is just evil no matter what decade
but so darn entertaining. or at least pervasive. so darn pervasive.
Yep, most of them are Satanic.
But now nobody buys music and the technology dilutes the true talent. Everyone’s a producer lol
It's the "devil" Robert Johnson described in "me and the devil blues". It's a soulless industry that only focus on the profit motive than creativity. It's a major drag!
Mob or not still a dirty industry.
The Parental Advisory stickers were the best free promotion an album and artist could have received. They sure helped boost record sales.
Everyone please stand and give Tipper Gore an ovation, lol
Fact! I would but obscure raps albums based on that sticker… being an impressionable 13 year old and all, it was a badge of honor!
Yep, it became (ironically) sought after.
Prince is the reason that sticker exists 🤣
Tipper Gore and the other women on the PMRC would have had strokes if they heard rap music lyrics that showed up about 20 years later.
We rightfully give David Bowie recognition for asking MTV the hard questions but we need to give Rick James the credit he deserves for publicly calling that racism out in the first place.
He may not have benefited from MTV gradually playing more black videos but he took one for the team and got the ball rolling on the color barrier being broken.
R.I.P. legends✊🏾
and Walter Yetnikoff who helped Michael Jackson getting his music video played. Maybe MJ wouldn't be that big.
Although ...there will always be this colour barrier
Alot of music ..and I mean alot of Great music comes from black roots. Music is supposed to bring people together. I was 80's kid so I remember that interview with Bowie. Its just goes to show you how much MTV knew about music history. After all, Nile Rogers was producing alot of great stuff in the 80's. Alot of big hits. Its messed up that some people don't get the credit they deserve bc the industry. 👍
They were so racist that one of their first video jockeys was black. If you're going to claim anyone was racist you'd have to put the blame on the labels that weren't making videos with black artists that fit the format. I know the only color most of these people care about is green though so I doubt that was the reason from either party. It probably had more to do with the music video being in it's infancy with the channel being brand new and not many black people making music that fit the theme they were going for at first. I took a deep dive on this years ago and MJ wasn't even the first, second or third black artist on the channel either. MTV started in 81 and Prince had a video in 82.
And then MTV became nearly black only... just like the racist BET (Black Entertainment Television). Where can I watch videos now, for me, by people like me?
I don't even understand how it's still called MTV. They don't even play music anymore. Just stupid reality shows. So glad I grew up in the seventies and eighties. 😊
Life is change.
AGREED!!!!
Well it's origin had music intention
The same reason we still use ABC..NBC..CNN..TNT..BBC
Except MTV had what everyone else did… Nielsen ratings. They knew people weren’t watching as much as they were before so they had to switch it up. Don’t you remember “Remote Control”?
“Launching Jackson to stardom.” Actually, Michael Jackson was already a “star,” by any definition. He and his brothers had several top ten hits and his recent album “Off The Wall,” was already a million-seller. The previous year, the single “The Girl Is Mine,” was a #2 hit as well. Yes, the videos were an important part of his continued stardom, but to say he was already well-established would be an understatement.
True, he was already an established star. No question about it. But the difference between his level of fame before Thriller and the videos that came from it, versus during and after, is hugely significant. He went from being an established artist and in the game, to a mega superstar household name occupying probably one of the top 5 spots on any list of top artists of the 80s. He exploded into the stratosphere due to that album and the videos. But I do understand what you are saying. It probably could have been worded more accurately in the video.
What I think is interesting is The Girl Is Mine being the first single seems like a separate era almost. I didn’t even remember that it was on Thriller, and I associate it more with his earlier stuff than I do with Beat It, Billie Jean, and Thriller.
MJ changed the videos made. Interesting that's not mentioned. Great catch on the slight given to him.
MJ and MTV launched each other into superstardom 🔥
@@jackiegoodspeed1849 The first time I watched MTV was I was 11 years old, in a hotel room when my family was vacationing at a resort in Orlando, Florida 1982. I remember thinking it was dreary and boring- only obscure heavy metal hair bands (and girls writhing on top of cars). No funk music, no disco, no pop. Seemed like a visual wasteland to me, but I didn't care. At the time, I knew this was tv for White People, not for me or my friends and family. We had Video Music Box playing on wonky UHF tv stations to fill in the vacuum and the genre thrived! You know something? I miss that era! The worst thing to happen to Black and Hip Hop music was mainstream acceptance!
@@jackiegoodspeed1849 MJ changed the videos made, but Duran Duran are the first video innovators with director Russell Mulcahy and their cinematic style of music videos for their 1982 album 'RIO'. But yes, The Jacksons' "Can You Feel It" video in 1981 was already impressive.
Regarding cassettes, I can't explain how awesome it was at the time, when your friend would come over with the new Metallica album, Master of Puppets, and having a blank tape, you too would have the new Metallica album. (Sorry Lars, I was doing it before Napster 😁)
lol...Lars was doing it too. In the early power metal/thrash metal days that was how you learned about new bands through tape-trading. They couldn't get on the radio or MTV and none had record deals so it was taping-retaping of live performances.
I taped albums too. it didn't stop me from buying them, it just took a little longer to get round to it.
@@bmmaaate Yeah, I eventually bought them on CD
So I used to steal blank tapes from Target and Kmart then steal an actual tape of my favorite rock band and then record them at home and sell them to my friends…I made some good money until I was caught…and it wasn’t easy stealing those long plastic tubes those cassettes came in…
I remember that song ! Great song 👌
“The PMRC were a group of senator’s housewives who had too much on their hands, yes that’s right you had too much time on your hands” Dee Snider
They meant well; I’ll give them that.
Did Snyder mean well? I’m not so sure.
@@OaksArmorial If you define "meaning well" as the pursuit of some sort of moral high ground which enables a feeling of superiority over those you don't agree with then sure. If not I'd totally give Snyder the benefit of the doubt.....
@@BobyourUncle I define ‘meaning well’ as trying to protect innocents from material they deemed detrimental to their well-being and development.
@@OaksArmorial That's fair comment but I would bet big money that those senator's wives were in it for the publicity and the moral high ground aspect. They didn't give a rodent's rectum about the kids, they just wanted to look good for the cameras. ;)
@@BobyourUncle That’s possible but I don’t know that. But whatever their intent, if their efforts went to the ends of sheltering kids from pop-culture swill then I won’t regard it as a bad thing.
Rockers and rappers who jeopardize and even corrupt kid’s well-being and development with the music they create only to serve their own egos, self-aggrandizement, fame and fortune…
I can’t call that a good thing.
I’m an A-HA fan from the take on me days and I’d just like to say after 37 years the band are still around making quality music. A-HA are a criminally unappreciated and hugely underrated 80’s band with a huge back catalogue.
In usa, right? Because In other countries, they had various hits. Take on me being one of them, of course. Same thing with rick astley. Here in brazil, he had at least 6 hits and other minor hits too, like he did in europe, asia etc. The only ones i see talking like he is a "one hit wonder" is north americans ( of course im not saiying every north american acts like that XD. But you get the point. Seem like usa aways came with the "one hit wonder" label for artists that have various hits... But not there)
A-Ha still sound amazing Sun always shines on TV was so much of a better song than take on me personally I know it was supposed to be like the second part of that video like the continuation shall I say but yes I'll agree A-ha is a hell of a band and still put out solid music. Their live performance at the award ceremony a few years back in Britain was phenomenal
Now there’s a band that I don’t hear of much these days.
A-Ha are indeed still going, their popularity is questionable though as they recently played in my shitty nowhere town that only books has beens. I doubt that the majority that bought tickets are aware of anything other that the 3 80'S hits.
@@bmmaaate I get that 🤦, the music industry is twisted dude
I remember from 1978 until 1981 right before MTV was launched, artist were making videos as there was a pre MTV. Actually certain artists were actually doing them all the way back in the early 70s but was not widespread
David Bowie had music video's way before MTV,
Yes. In NYC in late 70s/early 80s there were UHF stations like Channel 31 that had shows Video Music Box that played underground rap music, reggae and funk. The first time I watched MTV was I was 11 years old, in a hotel room when my family was vacationing at a resort in Orlando, Florida 1982. I remember thinking it was dreary and boring- only obscure heavy metal hair bands (and girls writhing on top of cars). No funk music, no disco, no pop. Seemed like a visual wasteland to me, but I didn't care. At the time, I knew this was tv for White People, not for me or my friends and family. We had Video Music Box playing on wonky UHF tv stations to fill in the vacuum and the genre thrived! You know something? I miss that era! The worst thing to happen to Black and Hip Hop music was mainstream acceptance!
I think promotional videos go back to the 60s.
I was in a band that won an Australian band competition and went to Japan for the Yamaha World Final of MusicQuest 1992 and came second to the host countries dubious winner. Despite winning a huge amount of money on paper, we actually recorded 2 songs and had about 3 hours of negotiation with Mushroom Records before being dumped into historic oblivion because we asked a simple question ... if we surrender all rights in the known universe, can we keep rights in the unknown universe? Eventually we were given a box of 500 CD singles and told to F*-off. I'm sure the James Web Telescope could have increased our income, but sadly this stupid industry had no desire to compensate us for our talents. We opted out and went back to playing pubs and clubs, never idolizing the Gudinski myth nor affirming the merits of participation in this dumb industry. It is no better 30 years later ... probably worse. $0.02
haha you got off lucky, i did a fair bit of production for the unknown universe. you can click and find out but i'm relatively comfortable not exposing people to things they never even wanted to find out about in their whole lives. but from my experience (music software developer, but not a mas0n huh fancy that) you got off good. PWEI were on mushroom they're basically invisible today. they're lucky.
A lot worse now...Artists make as little as 0.0000097c for streaming...Streaming has destroyed the industry...all they did was basically LEAGALISE "NAPSTER"...I've seen receipts from Spotify for just on One Million Streams...and the artist got a cheque for $305.00au
I believe Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart were given a rough time by Mushroom
@@IrishCassidy that's a different mushroom records, but it definitely looks like both of them were shady. the story of what mushroom canada did to ann and nancy is awful
I'm Gen X'r......I have a huge soft spot for vinyl. I loved getting albums as a kid.
I am genx, could not care less for vinyl.
I have a soft spot for vinyl too as a BB but Ive only bought cds since they came out. I still have some of the great vinyl records of the times around though.
I love my vinyl 🧿🧿🧿👌🤗
I'm a Gen Xer who didn't touch vinyl at all. I had totally embraced the CD from day one.
@@dellcoc CDs are pretty rad and much cheaper to acquire. Vinyl is still great for collectors but I love the portability of the CD
Now I really want to hear what songs they paid stations NOT to play!
negativland, john trubee and the ugly janitors of america
uh Michael Jackson had been a star since he was in the Jackson 5 60s&70s his first legit solo album was released in 1979
Michael Jackson's first solo album was "Got To Be There", which was released in 1972. As a kid, I had it. It was and still is a great album.
I remember seeing Eddie Grant's Electric Avenue is 82 or 83.
Hearing how little these artists made from their craft, I can see why most became actors.
There was a story that he took the money he made from that song and made a recording studio in Jamaica and that many well-known artists like to record there. Great song!
@K H003 That would explain why he just disappeared. I agree. It is an excellent song.
"I Don't Wanna Dance" was a huge hit here in Brazil, in 1983.
eddy grant is a prince, i just checked the wikipedia page and it doesn't mention it, but he's royalty.
that video ... water can represent the unconscious or reincarnation haha. great track
I remember Eddie Grant giving an interview, and he was really bitter about the industry. For some reason he stated he regretted doing the score for Romancing The Stone (a huge hit).
Shout out to the legendary David Bowie for standing up for injustice , to Walter Yetnikoff for taking that step & to my favorite artist & greatest entertainer in the world ,Michael Jackson for breaking down the barriers🙌🏾
When CD's were launched it was said they cost so much so that it didn't kill the vinyl industry overnight since cd's actually cost only a few pence to produce, they never really came down to an appropriate price they were always overly expensive
I think they are still paying off those new production facilities.
Dee Snider's testimony is the most iconic thing to happen in the music legal system. I don't even like his music, but I respect the ever living shit out of the human he is
Agreed - though I still like his music 🎵
Love how he went in there dressed like he normally would be and didn't show up in a suit and still maintained such a professional attitude.
I was a huge fan of Twisted Sister and cheered him loudly during that televised witch hunt. My mom did the same after getting over the shock that someone who looked like Dee Snyder could be as intelligent as Dee Snyder. LOL
@@eclecticx hahaha. That's golden
Frank Zappa was no slouch in that area, either.
Vinyl still ROCKS.
I grew up in the 80s. Whenever MTV banned a video, it just made me want to see it more. When they put parental advisories on the labels of tapes and CDs, it made me want to buy them more. And yes, I recorded songs off the radio, because I couldn't afford to buy them. I was raised by a single mother who couldn't afford to buy me all those things no matter how much she wanted to. When I got older and got a job making my own money, I was finally able to go to the store and buy what I wanted. And boy did I! You could still buy tapes then and CDs were just getting more affordable. The 80s were truly the last great decade. Nobody cared if it was banned or had a warning. If your parents wouldn't buy it for you, you could get someone else to get it for you. Dee Snyder, you won.
Before grunge was "Grunge" we called it "Sub Pop"
Reason being that was the record label these bands were released on.
MTV what a joke it became.
Great info! Thank you🎵🤟💜
I am just a generation before ‘MTv’ being in my 20’s when the network began and it defined an entire generation. The 80’s seemed like such a tumultuous decade much like the 1960’s. The youth in that decade became the parents of the children of the 80’s. I remember when MTv started, it began broadcasting at 4pm in the afternoon and ceased at 10pm with MTv news. I don’t remember when it went 24 hours. I didn’t have cable for a few years as I was living by myself and didn’t have a lot of money.
I remember the day and the hour!(Almost) Video killed the Radio Star! You could feel the Paradigm Shift!
I am a big fan of the 80’s music and I loved the new wave music more than heavy metal. I loved the the synthpop new wave music for my life.
I did home taping. I remember the outrage in the 80's when sony DAT (Digital audio tape) was introduced. They demanded the player get a comb filter installed to reduce the quality of copies.
Who didn’t back then with the advent of the Walkman?
The PMRC would be shocked at the crap that is out now compared to what they deemed filthy back then
The PMRC in their own inadvertent way was the best thing to happen to music during the 1980s. They brought attention, and then sales,to a lot of great acts by deemed by them to be offensive.
No kidding. It's actually the norm now. At my job, it's what a lot of the younger guys listen to. I'm a Gen Xer and it's sad to see that this is what the younger generation is into. It makes you wonder if these guys play this crap around their kids. Luckily, the Internet has made it so there are other genres of music out there that people can find but the fact that explicit hip hop and rap is becoming the norm is not good news for the music industry and society as a whole.
Me and coworker at Tower Records in 1986 printed up small stickers that said "Keep Up The Good Work.".These would be put beneath the Record industry warning of "Home taping is ruining the record industry."
What about all the racism
I actually would put money aside each week into my Tower Records Fund! Going there was a pilgrimage. I miss that wonderful music Mecca! 😥
Graduated in 81! Partied all throughout the 80's
Booze is good! Sex is fun! We're the class of '81! :D
All that accepted racism. 😏
Wasn’t the ‘parental’ sticker more seen by kids as advertisement for interesting stuff?
Working like the Streisand effect?
That's how I saw it!
Madonna the ultimate pop icon of the 80s
female pop icon
now deposed priestess of whatever they think of themselves as
gregory tagarao No Fookin Chance...
Michael Jackson has been a star since he was a child and through out his life. He is gone but will always be a legend.
He is the GOAT
Yah m tv may have helped a little but he was already pretty huge
@@bttrflygal mtv didn't exist til the 80s he has been a star since he was very young with his brothers they were The Jackson 5 and when they got older they became The Jacksons he was the lead singer. Then in the 80s he became a solo artist up until he died.
@@villamedj3533 I dont have to be black to know your a Qanon white racist. Is black the only color you learned in Qanon school 😅🤣😂
@@villamedj3533 this video and my comment you replied to is about talent not color. Crawl back down your Qanon rabbit hole and stop bothering strangers on UA-cam.
Don't suppose the points made on this video is why the industry is churning out terrible music for the masses.
Dexys midnight runners are a band from the UK, they are more than a 1 hit wonder! They'd already had a hit before that song came out & went on to have a handful of hits. The band are still alive today, known as dexys
Everything about the 80s is still better than today..😆
Like AIDS and the Cold War? Yeah it was great!
@@1171karl AIDS never went away & we're practically at war now 😆 try harder
@@RestrainingHollywood Try and act like a Grown Up...that is your daily challenge
@@RestrainingHollywood aids is there for the sexual deviants and war is inevitable. This generation shall not pass before some really bad stuff happens.
Facts! I loathe it when folks dump on the 80s.
Everytime I'm in a comment section and someone is saying how much they love the 80s and how awesome it was, you'll find some kill joy that mentions aids and Reagan.
Reagan was the man! I loved that guy.
And aids wasn't my problem. That was the fault of those that ran around having unprotected sex with anyone and everyone.
For me, the 80s rocked out with it's c**k out.
It was sublime. A gift from God. The best decade ever.
Oh yeah. 🤟😝
What really pisses me off is what was mentioned in the video. The fact that Black Artists weren’t played on MTV. The station is called Music Television. THAT SHOULD INCLUDE ALL GENRES OF MUSIC, RIGHT??? If they wanted it to be JUST Rock, they should have named the station RTV for Rock Television🤦♂️🤔.
Industry should be color blind but they're not! TBH I feel like it is their loss!
I miss Columbia House.
Me too🙌😜I wraCked up with them.😏
I got at least 50 CDs for like 50cents 🤣🤣🤣
@@GenXfrom75 🤘🤣yup!
Lol. I miss it like a Tiny Tim song.
10 free albums and only buy 5 more.' It quickly became a monthly curse.
If you thought canceling spam is hard now, you have no idea how frustrating it was when for many months at over 25 bucks ans shipping each. They kept you buying after trying to jump through the hoops of stopping the cancelation, with nothing but snail mail and land lines to do it.
Back in the days when you used to say, "Wait A Minute! I just got some email! Somebody's selling 12 CDs for a dollar!" That WAS back in the days. Now it's like 12 CDs in the garbage.
Kudos for actually sourcing your information. So few channels do that.
So now music today blows chunks
MTV = RTV now janky ass reality shows i havent watched MTV since 1989.. lol
The Buggles video wasn’t prophetic by chance, it was chosen as a statement.
I paid 600 dollars for my first CD player. It’s amazing how, when we’re younger, we are so fast to follow marketing drivel (see iPhone, iPod, iPad, etc.) The irony? I’m replacing the vinyl I dismissed back then after I got my CD player!
Vinyl died when CD was invented. CDs are still the golden standard, they just take too mich space compared to memory cards.
LOL you think payola isn’t happening today?
Remember paying 7-8 dollars for vinyl and all of a sudden forking out 15 bucks for a CD I wasn't happy despite being told it sounded better
Now vinyl is back
Boomers and hipsters buy it. Normal people stream.
PMRC = the first Karens
😂
7:23 I was born the 80’s and it wasn’t until the late 90’s I realised that there were more genres of music than pop I also believed that if a genre wasn’t pop it wasn’t successful because it wasn’t played mainstream. I now understand why that was
If u were born in the 80s lol u missed the 80's pooping in a diaper imo
So the decline of the professional musician, and the death of the music industry, began in the 80s. We all already witnessing the first generation lacking a mark in the music culture and music idols.
Comes to show no matter which deacade it was the music industry can rip most recoding artist off or not getting roylaties nor their share for each hit song . I was born into this decade did not realize that when I was in my 20s . The 70s 80s and 90s continue play unfairness racism and nor cut of shares some recording artists did co wrote
Dexy's Midnight Runners were no one hit wonder, the first album is a masterpiece!
True but most people probably only know of "Come on Eileen" because it was the only one promoted. Thanks to Spotify today, I'm able to find songs that I never heard that I really like from one-hit wonder artists. It sucks that record companies had so much control over a band's success and is something that still continues today but if used wisely, the internet can give an artist or band the exposure they need.
Superfreak was a risqué song. There were DOZENS of white artists that were limited or outright banned from MTV for less. Guns N Roses for instance. But let's automatically jump to racism as usual and disregard any and all other factors that may have contributed.
Listen to the reasons for not playing Black artists again. There is no woke here. It’s about market share.
2 videos aired during 1983 that featured African American artists were Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and Shalamar's "A Night To Remember".
@@meyerj75 And how many black artists had music videos ready for play?
@@meyerj75 in a ridiculously easy to find article in JET magazine it was pretty clear. There was a black VJ in 1981. The station was originally formatted to be a rock station. Like how rock stations on the radio play ... ya know ... rock. The MTV exec said they spent 75% of their time begging artists to make videos. By 1988 the channel had YO! MTV Raps! Which Jumpstarted hip hop and rap and boosted it into a global phenomenon.
So weird.... when you actually take a second to actually figure out why.... there are normally perfectly valid reasons and it's hardly ever.... like 0.02% of the time is it racism
So if you want to be real about it. A white knight and the black musicians came in and strong armed a company into changing their entire business model using accusations of racism as a weapon until they got what they wanted. Pretty sorry if you ask me.... because I would be willing to bet that whole racist sword would have lost it's edge had their been videos for.... oh I don't know.... Jimi Hendrix, Thin Lizzy, Chuck Berry, Living Colour, etc.... rock music on a rock station.
80s flirting would be a mix tape!
And this is one reason, "probably the major reason," why they stopped making VCRs in the early to mid 2000nds, for the same reason why they were upset at the millions of people who were making and recording those wonderful and now nostalgic "Mix tapes?"
i wish tv would go back to its original format. i loved music videos. now i never watchmtv because nothing on it is any good.
CDs: For the first few years that they were out in stores, the cost (at least in NC) was around $22 - $24. They eventually dropped to around $17 - $18 and stayed there for years.
Black Artists on MTV: Several were there in the mix from the early days, but MTV used being a "Rock" video channel as justification for keeping black R&B, Funk and Soul artists (which, by default, most black artists were considered because of limiting definitions at the time) from being in heavy rotation, or on at all. Prince, as an example, was in light rotation with "1999" and "Corvette" before "Billie Jean" came along, but that was because they considered his music closer to the style represented on the channel....though still too black to be in heavy rotation. Michael swung those doors wide open. Thank God.
Prince....partly responsible for the album warning labels 🤣🤣🤣... The 80s were *the fkg BEST!!*
How ?
@@lexkanyima2195 Darling Nikki... The dirty 15. He also wrote another on the list. Sugar Walls by Sheena Easton.
prince sucks. he didn't need mtv, n mtv didn't need him. the race card players/ pimps just wanted
to stir up problems, n use prince n others to get their message across, n shake down mtv like they
do to other companies. mtv was initially intended for white males age 13 -21, to promote artists, n increase
record sales. not racist, just business.
@@GenXfrom75 and ?
@@driver4011 🤣🤣🤣
Home recording was up and running in the 1960s in my dad's house.
Vinyl became rare at the close of the 80's? We still had places like Tower Records and The Wiz, along with M&P record stores that carried vinyl into the late 90's. I didn't see the rarity until 2000 and later when CDJ started to phase out traditional turntables.
Tipper Gore stayed on artists' necks 😭
8:28 they should've called themselves KKK - Karen&Karen&Karen
In NYC in late 70s/early 80s there were UHF stations like Channel 31 that had low budget DIY type programs that played underground rap music, reggae and funk. The first time I watched MTV was I was 11 years old, in a hotel room when my family was vacationing at a resort in Orlando, Florida 1982. I remember thinking it was dreary and boring- only obscure heavy metal hair bands (and girls writhing on top of cars). No funk music, no disco, no pop. Seemed like a visual wasteland to me, but I didn't care. At the time, I knew this was tv for White People, not for me or my friends and family. We had Video Music Box playing on wonky UHF tv stations to fill in the vacuum and the genre thrived! I'm old enough to remember when NYC radio stations like Z-100 or Power 95 would brag about NOT playing Hip Hop! It was part of their marketing. You know something? I miss that era! The worst thing to happen to Black and Hip Hop music was mainstream acceptance!
Loved this upload, thanks 🙏🎶🤗
I remember Watching thst as it Debut!! Lol I was 13!!!
Great video based on the article. It really puts into perspective what music videos did to shake up the industry.
One point that's not mentioned on the CD vs vinyl bit is that labels started featuring "extra" tracks on the CDs simply because they could (at the time) hold roughly 70 minutes of music for a single CD; vinyl albums were generally limited to no more than 40 minutes total on both sides of the record. Only a few artists routinely took advantage of this (Michael Jackson's "Leave Me Alone" doesn't appear on the vinyl version of "Bad" but is on both the cassette and CD versions; cassettes could also hold more music than vinyl but there was also a risk that the tape could be more easily damaged through repeated playback). Also, the advantage of being able to play an album straight through without having to flip it over (as one had to do with vinyl and cassettes) helped, especially in genres where "continuous play" was a bonus (notably, classical/opera but also some progressive rock).
Actually there are many vinyl albums that clock at about 50 minutes or more on a single disk, in theory there is no maximum amount of music you can fit on a disk. The big issue is: the longer the playing time you try to squeeze in, the thinner the grooves need to be, increasing the risk of skipping during playback as well as making the sound more degraded through repeated playing.
Audio CDs have a fixed maximum length of 74 minutes but it's still more than you can safely fit on a vinyl and filling it up does not increase skipping/audio quality issues.
Watching Desperatley seeking Susan while watching this vid.
Miss MTV
I worked at my college radio station in the 80s for one reason ,just to tap into their huge record collection so I can make my mix tapes for my sony walkman.
Mixed tapes 🙌
It would be nice if MTV still played music videos or anything even about music.
Home-taping is how the "Most Mysterious Song on the Internet" survived!
The music industry crapped on Iron Maiden too. They are probably the greatest heavy metal band ever and I never heard them played on the radio here in Canada.
It was Queen who revolutionised visual video with music " Bohemian rhapsody " this is the really where it went viral, should check out the history of that, it's very interesting
No no no! Michal Jackson's Billie Jean had already been huge before MTV played it!
What makes you think that things were much better for anyone who sold their soul to the entertainment industry? Abuse is abuse and new technology will always be new technology… and people will always be greedy and unrealistic and have their priorities arse-about.
jimmy barnes
and
noiseworks
nice plug
for our local talent
that still Rock
and tour to this day.!
☺️😊😃
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
✌🏻🇦🇺🌏🤘🏻
Payola is disgusting
life is disgusting.
I always thought it was a bit odd that the records/cassettes/CDs used to have stickers on the plastic that they came wrapped in that proudly and loudly announced that the hit singles blah bla blah and bla blah bla blah were on this or that album.
Which would make sense if those songs had been released before the album went on sale but they weren't. They typically only released one song in the run up to the album's release but the stickers would generally feature 2-4 songs on average.
So...tell me how that makes any sense. I mean, they were dead on most of the time but that doesn't mean that I had to like it.
You know?
You are wrong, when CD players came out in 1982 they was more then $1000 each and not the $750 you said it was, I know I was there looking at the cost of one back then
So you're gonna just skip why the PA sticker was really added? 2 Live Crew. That court case was a very big deal.
Too bad you didn't show Dee's testimony. He really made Tipper's husband look bad and that his wife had a bit of a dirty mind🤣
Al Gore’s always done a great job of making himself look bad.
When I first saw CDs, in 1981-82, the average price in a record store was $30 for a single disc. Single vinyl records and tapes were around $9. No brainer for me.
The 80s was probably the largest profits for music than any other decade. Any artist that was hitting number 1 was selling 10 million. The 90s was up there to. Adele hit 20 million, so it's still possible. But I checked a big name recently, top sales for a individual recording was 3 million.
1:08 - in the late 1990's, it was Napster (MP3 downloaded music) and Metallica; Recording music (a favorite song of yours) on a (dual) cassette tape (deck) from a FM/AM radio station. CD's usually had cost, for 1 was $15 - $20.
I love this hard, quick look this video brought to the table.
You missed the part where it went from Payola to BUY IN!!! And MTV lead the way to get your video on & aired it took 800K -1.2 million depending on when & how often the video would air .NOT just the cost of getting it made They looked at like all products on TV get ad's & your video was the same for your product MUSIC!! This got much worse as time went on & much more scary Artist themselves started dying over it!!!
Payola. Maybe that’s why Mariah Carey so many songs of dubious quality hitting #1
@@PungiFungi explains hundreds of songs that somehow made the air
Excuse me? I said excuse me? "Billie Jean" did not LAUNCH Michael Jackson to stardom! He was already a huge, huge star like 20 years before that!!! Excuse me? I said excuse me?
1987 the year that made Kylie Minogue a music star and didn't need MTV to do it 💫 and was pinned as a 1 hit wonder at the time, so glad Kylies still going strong in the 2020s 🤟💯👌
But she kind of was a one hit wonder in North America. Her first album did Ok (mostly because of MTV and the Locomotion video). Her second album failed to chart in the US or Canada and she was dropped by the record company and her third album wasn't even distributed in North America. The fact was she never toured here (until something like...2007?) and touring has been the name of the game if you really want to break big on this side of the pond. While I understand she was something of a household name in the UK and Aus. (on TV shows too I think) she was soon kind of cast the wayside in a competitive and fickle US market that embraced the Tiffanys and Debbie Gibsons or whatever the new flavor of the month was. Maybe her managers felt the US market was saturated with bubbly pop songs by young women and that the touring (and endless interviews) required to keep up her profile wasn't the right move- or maybe she just didn't want to do it.
She had Sounds and Countdown here in Australia as well as countless commercial stations, to do her promoting/bidding. Not to mention that she was already in acting beforehand (as in Neighbours, if anyone watches or used to watch the show).
@@Colleens-Corner oh wow if it's that easy why doest everyone from Australia become huge?! Clearly u not huge making comments like that and u say your a artist lmfao. What a lame comment u making yaself look dumb! 🤟🤙🤣🌞
@@johncorey7408 welll she anit no one hit wonder in the rest of the WORLD, maybe the US has no taste?! Kylie's huge in Touring, album sales , streaming, charts and history prove it 🤟💯
@@shaunhoward3166 Wow!!! All I just said was that she had some very good PR to promote herself here in Australia 🇦🇺. So maybe she has friends in high places. I never said she was not talented or said anything bad about her. And yes, I am an artist, just not a performer (and no, I haven’t made it big. I am not sure how that makes me look dumb? You might wish to retract that comment? It’s totally uncalled for!!!
If music was cheaper, ppl would buy them, instead of copies or now downloads.
Man, this vid only touched on a 1/3-1/2 of the messed up stuff happening in the 80's music scene, lol
"Racist MTV" is overstated as always. Nobody can name more than 2 Black artists making videos at the time. I want a list of Black videos MTV refused to play.
The advent of MTV made it harder for women artists . The focus on the looks of a performer made it more important and those women without traditional good looks were left behind. It also pressured women to objectify themselves to promote their music. Male artists were doing it already to women. Madonna was smart to use MTV .
Adele was at her most successful when she was obese, céline Dion is also hardly conventionally gorgeous, Tina Turner was past 50 when she had her biggest hits in the 80’s and 90’s, likewise Cher, Amy Winehouse was not very attractive and covered in tattoos… its all about the talent and quality of the songs. Women who had a hit on the basis of their looks do not last long.
Sex sells,always has and always will and Victoria Secret for example are now paying a heavy price because they veered from that model.
Actually 'music videos' have been around since 1940 when they were called 'soundies'. Up to 3 min long they were recorded performances of various genres of music.
Promotional film clips.
Great recap of the era🔥🔥🔥🔥 so accurate
August 1, 1981 was a great day. Blows my mind to think about how crappy MTV is now. PMRC (an asinine attempt at puritanism) actually helped sell albums through the label warning. That was hilarious.
I remember on few occasions that I actually purchased a original cassette tape from the record store! Most of my music was recorded off some else original copy. I didn't pay nothing but a couple of dollars blanks cassettes and was getting great music for free! And the same with VHS TAPES!
I didn't always share my friends tastes, but when I did yeah I did the same, why buy something you don't have to?
@@1171karl my point exactly! Besides the artist don't see the money anyway! The record companies are pocketing it!
Vinyl Sales were ALREADY nonexistent, because of cassette tapes. It wouldn't bug me so much if there wasn't a whollllleeee segment about them before this wrongness.
Vinyl has made a strong come back
@@hurtspublishing3906 Sure, now, but then there was no interest since vinyl is not portable at all. I lived then, trust me...vinyl was on life support propped up by little vintage record dealers keeping it alive. I find it to be kind of muddy myself so vinyl never really appealed to me.
@@MrMash-mh9dy Correct--I was a kid in the 80's. We never considered buying vinyl, we bought everything on cassette (not only could you play it at home, you could play it in the car or on your Walkman as well). Even though CD's were out, we didn't start buying those until the early 90's (not nearly as many people had CD players, and they weren't yet common in cars until the 1990's). I remember my older sister buying some vinyl in her teenage years...but once I became a teenager, vinyl was a non-starter for us.
@@americasevilgenius And you hit the nail on the head there. The portability of cassettes made them far more appealing and when CD players were good enough to actually be portable, they made cassettes disappear. And then digital steaming made CDs fade away because it was as portable as cassettes.
ROFL You think shows being forced to show Michael Jackson's Billie Jean is what "launched Jackson to stardom"??? That's ripe. You know he was a mega superstar before that, yeah?
But to break barriers of black artist in MTV
Thriller was definitely a jump up.
side B that was left blank left me clueless!
5:41 GOTTA READ THAT BOOK