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So over the last decade or so MTV has turned into a cesspool of reality shows, celeb-poitation, and general culture-rotting material. But if you think back hard enough you can probably remember a time when MTV showed music videos. GOOD music videos. When MTV mattered. When getting your song on Headbangers Ball or getting a feature on Unplugged meant you had arrived. For those of you who wax nostalgic for those days (like I do), today is a day to rejoice, raise your hands in a rock salute, and rock the fuck out. For today MTV has made their immense catalog of music videos available, for free, on the internet. HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY!!!
Ok, I’ll admit, I’ve spent a bit too much time just poking around the site tonight, reminiscing. I used to love MTV back in the day. So this new site really has me looking back. To celebrate, here’s a few selections from the library:
The Buggles – “Video Killed the Radio Star” (the first video MTV ever played, on August 1st, 1981)
Keep reading, there’s lots of cool shit after the jump!
Dire Straits – “Money for Nothing” (the video that established MTV as something you had to have)
EVEN THE POP UP VIDEO COLLECTION IS UP THERE!!!
And now, to atone for posting Wham!, here’s some Pearl Jam. They’re the band that really hit me at the right time: the peak of MTV’s greatness, the most musically impressionable time of my life (high school), and the beginning of Grunge. Nirvana was cool and all. But Pearl Jam Kicked. Fucking. Ass.
“Alive” from VH1 Storytellers
“Porch” from MTV Unplugged (probably my favorite Pearl Jam song EVAR!)
“Evenflow” (grunge died, but this doesn’t feel dated to me at all)
Ok, we’ll throw Nirvana a bone, with possibly the best thing MTV has ever done, their MTV Unplugged:
There’s also a TON of newer videos which didn’t get the amount of airplay the old ones got, since MTV stopped showing music videos in about 1998. Take this little gem for instance:
Spoon – “The Two Side of Monsieur Valentine”, on MTV Live
Or this other gem:
Well there you have it. MTV has redeemed countless hours of absolutely shit programming by making all their previous glory available online. Thank you MTV. Thank you.
