Forty years ago was the now legendary Summer of ‘84. Why was it legendary? I examined why two years ago. I’m not the only writer who’s reminisced about 1984 either. In short, it was a year of massive social and technological changes. It was also a year of the creation of massively popular albums and songs. We listened to and experienced these LP’s and singles on the radio and music videos. We mostly watched the vids on the one cable channel that mattered…MTV.
Obviously, MTV was unbelievably popular and important in 1984. But, for many of us (late stage Boomers and pretty much all of Generation X), our first glimpse of the channel wasn’t in 1984. Some people actually first saw MTV in its infancy in 1981, the year it was launched. Most of us probably first laid eyes on MTV in either 1982 or ‘83. I first saw the channel in the summer of 1983. And it was pretty much all I did : watch MTV. I was blown away by everything about it. The videos. The VJs. The commercials. The culture. To be a 10 year old, and experience the game changer that MTV was, my mind was blown. I’m sure many of you had the same reaction in the ‘80’s.
So, what’s your first MTV memory? When was the first time you watched it? Did it blow you away? Was it overrated? Did you even like music videos? Do you even like music? Just kidding.
You can give me your answers by emailing me here: grgsmmsjr@gmail.com. I’ll then post your answers in a follow up article. I look forward to hearing from you all.
Man, I miss the old MTV.
