Speaking of 90s MTV, I don’t think I was really allowed to watch this much (or at all, depending on who you ask). That said, I managed to sneak in quite a bit of The Real World (early thumbs up!, later thumbs down!), Road Rules (always thumbs down!), Daria (thumbs up!), Spring Break (thumbs WAY down!), True Life (thumbs mostly up!) and Beevis and Butthead (thumbs mostly down!) in those golden hours between getting home from school and my parents getting home from work.
By this time, MTV had moved into a transitional phase between the early, rawesome, video-killed-the-radio-star VJs-deliver-the-news MTV of the 80s and the ultra-lame pitch-controlled all-“reality”-all-the-time MTV of today. We still had Kurt Loder (WHO JUST TURNED 63, btw, OMG!), but we also had that terrible situational soft core porn show, the name of which I cannot even recall. Can anyone help me out with that one?
Even so, there were still some great videos being shown during that era. I think I didn’t realize this at the time, but this was really a cultural tide-shift in terms of what people would put on TV. For example videos like Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android” and the one for today’s feature were really pushing a new envelope.
In other news, I recognize that Ms. Apple is a kind of, scrap that, totally insane, but you’ve got to admit she’s talented in the songwriting, lyrics and vocals department. While 1999’s When the Pawn… still holds the place as my favorite of her albums, her debut, Tidal, is pretty filled with adolescent jams. Both albums were produced by my very favorite Jon Brion (though the more recent Extraordinary Machine controversially wasn’t) and both bear many of his signature style marks of out-of-the-ordinary tone, distinctive guitar solos and vibraphone vibraphone vibraphone!
Unrelated trivia: Apple (as well as Aimee Mann) also has a strong connection to my favorite film/director (Magnolia/PT Anderson), but I don’t feel like going into it right now. Maybe I can break off on that tangent when I finally post “Goodbye Stranger” by Supertramp. HA. HAHA.
Criminal.mp3
I know tomorrow brings the consequence
At hand,
But I keep livin this day like
The next will never come.
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2 comments:
Undressed! It is actually a Canadian show MTV acquired. And it definitely helped me through awkward phases seeing gay people actually able to have sex on television.
Love True Life, and the subsequent Made. Thanks for reminding me of how awesome MTV used to be. I think I lost touch with television just in time.
Ahh, yess. Undressed... Thank you, Kevin!
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