Regular readers of The World According to Jennifer are probably aware that I spent a lot of time watching MTV when I was a kid. If you are new to the blog, or somehow missed those posts, or forgot that I wrote them, or pretended to read them, but really didn’t… you can check them out here, here and here.
I was in front of my TV on August 1st, 1981 at the exact moment the moon man first appeared with the MTV emblazoned flag. When it came to Music Television, I was, as we like to say now, an early adopter. So… is it any surprise that I would acknowledege the network’s 30th anniversary? Well, maybe a bit of a surprise since along with posts professing my love, I also wrote about how ticked I was to be kicked to the curb now that I am no longer a member of MTV’s desired demographic.
Admittedly, I wasn’t thinking about being shunned when I tweeted the following:
Which led to this:
and…
And… a Billy Squier reference! Unfortunately, I can’t share that tweet because the person who tweeted it has their Twitter account set to private.
Anyway, all of this got me thinking that I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could come up with one bit of #MTVturnsthirty trivia every day between now and August 1st.
I’ll probably tweet the trivia relatively early in the day– here. That is of course unless I am struggling to come up with something, in which case it could be midnight or… (not at all).
Happy Birthday, MTV!
So does this mean I was the first with the almost correct (or correct) answer? Do I win an Amana Radar Range? Jiffy Pop Popcorn? A Jolt Cola? Or some other era appropriate prize?
Look forward to your celebratory tweets. I have fond memories of a channel I don’t even recognize anymore.
Speaking of Billy Squier, can you believe the short time it took to go from this: http://goo.gl/RrKov to this??!!: http://goo.gl/VhPgF (He’s said on a few occasions that the latter video essentially killed what was a promising career.
I could award you a lifetime supply of Pop Rocks–or is that too 1970s?
I just realized that the beginning of “Rock Me Tonight” sounds just like Foreigner’s “Cold As Ice.” Maybe it was not being original, and not music videos, that killed his career?
I can only be but so harsh about Billy Squier–I’ve already admitted (on numerous occasions) that he is one of my guilty pleasure artists.
Thanks for the comment Shan. I am counting on you to chime in during the next 16 days!
I didn’t get MTV until early 1982. My parents got cable in Feb 82. I was mesmerized.
I am counting on you too, Lance. Think you might know the answer to tomorrow’s trivia question…
I remember the first time I saw the moon man and the flag. I was at a friend’s house because we didn’t have cable. And then I think it was “Video Killed the Radio Star….” or whatever that song is called. I will never forget it!
That was the very first song played on MTV.
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Good to know, thank you for sharing!
It wasn’t until late 1983 that I had my MTV, but I have many fond memories of old music videos, some of which I post from Youtube on my blog from time to time. Sadly, the MTV I knew died quite a while back and has been replaced with a network that features nothing but self-absorbed, narcissistic loser reality shows who’d rather broadcast their asses to the world than behave like human beings. Oh wait, that’s an out of touch Gen. X’er talking. Never mind.
That doesn’t sound out of touch to me at all…