1989
This short clip comes from a segment of Decade, MTV's Peabody award winning documentary about the 1980s. In it, artist Keith Haring discusses his decision to be open about his AIDS diagnosis. Also included are sound bites from novelist William Gibson and actor/playwright Eric Bogosian. The clip ends with the number of deaths in 1989 from AIDS. Haring would die just two months after the documentary aired.
This segment from the MTV documentary Decade covers Ronald Reagan's election and tenure. Various "witnesses" comment on what they made of Reagan. It's left-leaning, no doubt, but ultimately ambivalent. George Michael's "Father Figure" opens as soundtrack...
This video includes three segments from an episode of Yo! MTV Raps in 1989 that feature N.W.A. in Compton, CA. One is at the city limits sign, the other at the Compton Swap Meet, and the other is shot in the back of a truck driving through the city. The clips are a good example of how Yo! MTV Raps successfully created a different kind of music video flow for hip-hop culture. In the early days, MTV could rely on its hourly flow for novelty and viewer entertainment. But as time went on, it needed to introduce viewers to more comprehensive cultural experience. In this clip, the show brings us to Compton, home of NWA, showing viewers at the start that they are traveling to this space to experience where this group comes from. The second clip takes us to the parking lot of the Compton Swap Meet. Here they talk about how this is part of assembling the lifestyle, sunglasses, clothing, etc. but also just living--picking up females as Dr. Dre says. In the third clip, the band drives through the city streets, but Ice Cube uses the opportunity to talk about to media representation, mentioning how the film Colors made people think that all of LA is violent.
Artist Jenny Holzer is known for taking advantage of public spaces to display her text-based works, wanting viewers to encounter her art outside of museums and in places where they are used to seeing news tickers and advertising slogans. This video includes a promo MTV produced which features Holzer talking about working with MTV, followed by a number of her works that appeared on the channel, circa 1989.
In the early years, MTV leaned hard on the notion that viewers should watch in stereo as a way of defining MTV as different from typical TV, and more valuable--like viewers' record collections. Even as stereo TV technology changed and became more common, MTV continued to promote the importance, or at leasted added value, of listening in stereo. This promo from 1989 suggested stereo was still necessary for the “Full Effect.”
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, tabloid news shows began featuring home movie footage as an alternative to more polished professional reportage. This has been cited as an important step in the evolution of reality programming. In this segment, MTV news edits together home movie footage of a Ramones European tour shot by a member of the band.
MTV News reached new heights of legitimacy with Bill Clinton in 1992, but the news division had expanded well beyond music news years earlier. This segment about a pro-choice march in 1989 aired immediately after a segment on the death of sixties activist Abbie Hoffman. The package includes footage of speeches from celebrities Jane Fonda and Morgan Fairchild, as well as interview clips in which the MTV microphone is clearly visible, with Kelly McGillis, Whoopi Goldberg, and others.
In this segment from an episode of Half Hour Comedy Hour that aired on MTV in December 1989, we can see how that show alternated between on-stage stand up comedy and behind the scenes interviews. The show was part of MTV's second wave of program production, and resulted from the mandate to produce cheap, but not necessarily comedy, programs. MTV got in early on the trend in standup TV shows, and also used the show to discover new talent, like Jon Stewart who is seen here, and would go on to other appearances on MTV and his greatest fame elsewhere in the Viacom multiverse--as host of the Daily Show.
This is a longer clip of MTV flow featuring the Halfhour Comedy Hour in 1989 with Jon Stewart. Here you can see more ads, including a 1-900 number where you can get the latest news out of Compton from N.W.A. Also, some great fashions to be had at New York, New York (the boutique) for Holidays 1989!
MTV employed artists and other professionals who were well aware of "postmodernism" and specifically how music video and MTV itself had been described by the term. When MTV launched a number of programming blocks around 1989, Post Modern MTV was one of them, and it featured the kind of music usually found on 120 Minutes. That is, alternative or college rock. This introduction to the beginning of the show highlights some supposedly postmodern visual techniques, and maybe even a brief clip of someone who is supposed to look like Freud.
Around 1989, MTV experimented with a new kind of programming: "vid-coms." The idea was that these were a combination of music videos with comedy shows. They varied in content, but usually included some sketches and monologues, filled in with music videos. In this segment of flow, the previous programming block, Martha's Greatest Hits (in which newly returned original VJ Martha Quinn introduces old videos, and some new ones), is ending and the vid-com Colin's Manly World begins. In it, Colin laments leaving Remote Control and having his own show, which isn't going so well. Then a video begins. Interestingly, the last video in Martha's show and the first in Colin's are both by John (Cougar) Mellencamp. These shows were a step away from depending on music videos produced by the music industry, and toward MTV's own developed programming content.
This sequence of flow from 1989 shows how MTV produced promos not just promoting the channel, but environmental awareness and activism. It begins in the midst of the B-52's video for "Channel Z" which is about environmental degradation. Then actress and pop singer Tia Carrere appears briefly to note that Billy Joel and Motley Crue are coming up, "but first this"--which is the environmental promo about pollution, done creatively and not pedantically. The flow between the B-52's song and the promo is more consistent in its environmentalism, than the Motley Crue or Billy Joel would be. Such promos weren't usually placed next to environmentally themed videos because there weren't many of them. MTV produced numerous such promos in this series.
Heavy Metal had a hard time getting respect on MTV, but Headbangers Ball became to first MTV "specialty" show to have its on tour in 1989, headlined by Anthrax. This clip from February 1989 aired just after the tour was announced, and here you can see a promo for the tour, plus the band talking about it. Also included is a segment of Metallica's "One" which was the first video released by the band. MTV worked with the record label Elektra to carefully promote the video, but wouldn't play it outside of fringe hours until there was enough demand after one week that it was immediately number one on Dial MTV. The clip was notable for its interspersing of footage from the film Johnny Got His Gun, which the song was based on, and performance footage of the band. Unlike most clips, this one featured dialogue and the music level was lowered to assure the dialogue was audible. Also in this flow: a promo for 21 Jump Street on FOX with Johnny Depp, a commercial with soon to be FOX 90210 star Gabrielle Carteris, and a couple choice local ads.
When Batman ushered in a new era of blockbuster superhero movies in 1989, it happened with the assistance of a full marketing partnership with MTV. Aside from Prince's "Batdance" video, there were commercials for the film, news about it included on The Big Picture, and what we have here: a contest to win the Batmobile used in the film. This promo includes clips from the film, an actor from the film, and also attempts to simulate the films neo-noir look.
This segment of MTV flow includes a promo for the MTV Museum of Unnatural History, which toured malls in 1989 and was a marketing partnership with several major advertisers. The idea was to attract young people by having a presence off of television, and where they hung out. In addition to promoting the channel, it also gave advertisers a way to connect that was more unique than a typical ad. The flow segment ends with a promo for listening to MTV in stereo, which really wasn't a thing MTV was pushing much any more by 1989.
