If you have followed the Wild Heart for awhile (ok this blog is only a couple of months old people!) you probably have figured out
"Ladies and Gentlemen....rock & roll!"
by now that there are 3 musical things that the Wild Heart is passionate about: the 80′s, Fleetwood Mac, and early Mtv.
Now once upon a time there was a little network called Mtv, where all 3 of those little passions would have gotten fed had I been born earlier (like in 1970 or earlier). But alas, I was born in the mid 80′s.
Aside from the fact that I was not allowed to watch it as a young girl due to religious upbringing (I was more into VH1 anyway!) and I was just too young to get it, I missed the good years of MTV. But now, I can watch them on a little channel on YouTube that someone has made that is 100% devoted to the 1st 24 hours of MTV – even right down to the commercials that were aired during those 1st 24 hours of amazingness. Talk about a meticulous recreation! All I need now is a long HDMI cable and the time and patience to put all the videos in order in a playlist and one day I shall have a little MTV video party!
Anyways here are 10 reasons I have become obsessed with this little channel and why you should be too!
- MTV was launched on August 1st, 1981. I, along with a few others I know, were born in the mid to late 80s. We missed all the good stuff on MTV.
- When was the last time you saw a historical musical event like this that aired on television with the original commercials? The answer is never. Sometimes watching a historical event (such as the local news breaking into a trailer for Zoolander to show the events that would be forever remembered as September 11th) is kinda like reading a passage out of the Bible: won’t make sense unless you read it in context. Same goes for commercials. In this case, it shows you what was popular at the time.
- If you ask the Wild Heart, this is the absolute best mix of videos ever made: the Who, Pretenders, Stevie Nicks, Pat Benatar, Todd Rundgren. It’s the visual equivalent of my (and maybe your) iPod mix.
- Ladies – Alan Hunter and Mark Goodman. Need I say more?
- Kids, this is what MTV used to be like. Not that horrible Jersey Shore crap!
- Good music lives on – sometimes even past the time of the artist and time of actual release. For example: a few years ago me and a friend went to see Heart, Journey and Cheap Trick together. My friend was about 19 and I was 22. I was expecting people at that concert as old as my parents. I was really surprised to see people both my parents age as well as my age at the concert. Furthermore, I even remember my friend telling me that some of her friends were jealous of her for going to the concert. It’s kinda cool to know that some of these artists are now in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
- It’s kinda cool to see some vintage artist interviews from the likes of REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, etc.
- The technical issues give it a sense of realism – like as if you are watching it live when it first aired, not on YouTube.
- You can feed your inner rockstar.
- I want to see the REO Speedwagon concert…….not.
