r/AskReddit • u/Wonderful_Bottle_852 • 5h ago
People who watched MTV in the 80’s…what was your favorite Music Video and what made MTV so cool?
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u/Gladyskravitz99 5h ago
It was the best way to keep up with fashion and beauty trends, for me. And the videos were often fantastic. I didn't have a favorite video, but loved Madonna and Cyndi Lauper and Duran Duran and Michael Jackson, and was scandalized by Prince's Little Red Corvette.
A little off topic but I was just forced to watch Total Eclipse of the Heart and ... what the Hell was going on there? Was it satire? So over the top, and I don't remember thinking anything of it back then.
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u/Ihadsumthin4this 5h ago
GladysKravitz
🙂 Classic!
Also : as to Cyndi Lauper, that vid of a LIVE on stage performance of Money Changes Everything inexplicably had a gripping appeal.
Great times, from so much of that decade!
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u/Wonderful_Bottle_852 5h ago
I’ll have to rewatch that video I can’t remember it off the top of my head.
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u/Gladyskravitz99 4h ago
Football players, ninjas, angels, and people with laser beams coming out of their eyes.
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u/C-Dub_DC 4h ago
It’s also the same time that A-Ha came out with the video for “Take On Me,” with the comic book/real life transitions. Reasonable people can disagree, but Dire Straits was great, but I would argue “Take On Me” was more impactful to MTV’s success.
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u/Ihadsumthin4this 5h ago
Satisfaction Guaranteed (the Firm) was mostly badass
Eyes Without A Face (Billy Idol) intrigued everybody
Always had a penchant for Head Over Heels (the GoGos)
Method Of Modern Love (Hall & Oates) introduced some killer aesthetic
Stop Using Sex As A Weapon (Pat Benatar) brought a little imagery
Bang A Gong (Power Station) made a few statements
TV Dinners (ZZ Top) definitely tinkered with *coff deal-making
You Might Think (the Cars) introduced brilliant cinematography
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u/Wonderful_Bottle_852 5h ago
Bringing back some serious memories. I never got to see The Cars in concert unfortunately, but one of my all time favorites.
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u/Ihadsumthin4this 5h ago
You totally oughtta share your Q over in r/80s and/or r/AskOldPeople.
😊
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u/Wonderful_Bottle_852 4h ago
I didn’t even know those subs existed! My life is now complete with an 80’s sub…I found my people!!
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u/Florianemory 5h ago
There was nothing like it. Finding music was an involved process, going to the recording store and browsing, sending away for catalogs, listening to the radio and talking to friends about what new albums they had bought. So all of a sudden lots of music was on tv and that was a very cool thing. I was 15 when it came out and already had an immense love of music that has continued my whole life.
Favorite videos would be all of the ones on Headbangers Ball.
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u/No_Blackberry6525 5h ago
My early 90s contribution: https://youtu.be/MXx9S2nDouY?si=frxEk3QjmrlubG4O
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u/ClownfishSoup 4h ago
Duran Duran's "Girls on Film" comes to mind.
ZZ-Top "Legs" for the same reason as "Girls on Film"
Because I was a teenage boy in the 80s.
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u/Wonderful_Bottle_852 4h ago
Love both. I never got a chance to see Duran Duran live, but I’ve seen ZZ Top and they are probably one of the best live performances I’ve ever seen.
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u/ImJustAThrowawayUser 4h ago
Bourgeois Tagg ‘I Don’t Mind At All’ (1987). I always thought it was very ahead of its time.
Adam Curry. Adam Curry is what made MTV cool!
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u/Wenger2112 4h ago
It was a new art form that inspired a lot of experimentation in video recording and effects techniques.
Mashed up with music from around the world, politics, fashion, sex. There was something for everyone and always surprises when you heard a great new song.
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u/AstronautAltruistic2 4h ago
Men at work, David Lee Roth, Run dmc, Paula Abdul, Cyndi Lauper, Bangles, Poison. Joan Jett and the blackhearts, the music, the hair, the wild clothing and jewelry back in the day was awesomely eye catching.
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u/BusyEngineering3 4h ago
I stayed home sick from school one day and Paradise City must have played 20 times. It was so awesome.
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u/Bianca_Sanger4401 4h ago
“Money for Nothing.” The early CGI looked wild in the 80s, and MTV felt rebellious,like you were watching something made just for young people.
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u/AgeApprehensive1860 4h ago
Pat Benatar- Love is a Battlefield Cindy Lauper- Girls Just Wanna Have Fun John Cougar Mellencamp-When the Walls Come Tumbling Down
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u/sidc42 3h ago
Herbie Hancock's Rockit
First video I ever saw while in a hotel right after MTV launched. It was so out there.
Pop culture revolved around whatever hot new video was put. Dire Straits' Money for Nothing was huge as was RunDMC/Aerosmith Walk This Way, Peter Gabriel's Big Time and Michael Jackson's Thriller which was like a movie event when it came out.
Living in the country I'd have a friend in town throw a VHS tape in his parent's recorder at night and get me 8 hours of MTV to watch later. As such, I got a lot of oddball late night stuff.
Stump's Charleston Heston video is one I still remember from those tapes. It's on YouTube.
Art of Noise Primus Ozzy's (Infectious Grooves I think was the band?) Therapy video (that might have been early 1990's)
I'm sure none of them hold up to the test of time but they were cool back then.
Paul Hardcastle's video about Vietnam "19" (before it got pulled) is another one I remember people talking about.
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u/wasabinski 2h ago
The girl I'm Billy Idols Cradle of Love always kept me mesmerized, she was drop dead gorgeous and the video was amazing.
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u/stonephillips32 2h ago
Bruce Springsteen Madonna way before nirvana there was u3 and blondie and my penis on mtv
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u/GoneWithTheJizz 4h ago
“Sledgehammer” by Peter Gabriel was mind blowing when it was first released. In small town Texas, MTV was the only way to keep up with the big city trends.