10 Things You Didn’t Know About MTV
MTV was launched on 1st August 1981, the first song played was Buggles ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ airing at 12:01 am in the US. The Buggles’ track was released as their debut single on 7 September 1979 by Island Records, and included on their first album The Age of Plastic. The accompanying music video was written, directed, and edited by Russell Mulcahy. The first hour featured videos by Rod Stewart, “She Won’t Dance With Me”, The Who, “You Better You Bet”, Pat Benatar, “You Better Run”, Ph.D., “Little Suzi’s on the Up”, The Pretenders “Brass in Pocket” and Todd Rundgren “Time Heals”.
MTV aired the full 14 minute version of Michael Jackson‘s Thriller video for the first time on 2nd December 1983. Directed by John Landis, written by Jackson and Landis, and starring Jackson and Ola Ray, it references numerous horror films and has Jackson dancing with a horde of zombies. The video doubled sales of the Thriller album, which sold a million copies a week following the video debut and became the bestselling album of all time. At the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards, Thriller won the awards for Viewers Choice, Best Overall Performance and Best Choreography, and was nominated for Best Concept Video, Best Male Video and Video of the Year.
KISS appeared without their ‘makeup’ for the first time during a 1983 MTV show. The band appeared on the channel promoting their eleventh studio album Lick It Up. The album went on to sell over a million copies in the US.
MTV Europe was launched on 1st August 1987, when the music channel began broadcasting to the entire continent from Amsterdam, Holland. ‘Money For Nothing’ by Dire Straits, which contained the appropriate line ‘I Want My MTV’ by the distinctive voice of Sting at the beginning of the track was the first track played.
The very first MTV Unplugged show was recorded in New York on 31st October 1989 with Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford of Squeeze, Syd Straw and Elliot Easton from the Cars. Tilbrook and Difford misunderstood the assignment and both came ready for rehearsal with electric guitars. Producer Alex Coletti remembers: “I said: ‘Very funny, guys. Where are the acoustics? It’s Unplugged.’ They looked at each other and went, ‘Riiight… Make a phone call, quick!”’ The program was aired on 26th November 1989.
Artists who have recorded MTV Unplugged sessions include: Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, Nirvana, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Alanis Morissette, Neil Young, Oasis, Adele, Aerosmith, Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen and Joe Walsh.
The Eric Clapton album recorded at Bray Studios, England in front of an audience for the MTV Unplugged television series won three Grammy awards at the 35th Annual Grammy Awards in 1993 and became the bestselling live album of all time, and Clapton’s bestselling album, selling 26 million copies worldwide.
Some of the prizes given away by MTV include Jon Bon Jovi‘s childhood home, Madonna‘s stage costume, dinner with Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen‘s guitar, a cruise with Motley Crue and Batman’s Batmobile!
At the 1992 awards, Nirvana‘s Krist Novoselic knocked himself unconscious after being hit on the head with his guitar after throwing it ‘skywards’. Novoselic stated: “We started playing this song and my amp just didn’t work. So I thought, ‘I’m gonna do this bass toss and walk off’. Well, the bass got caught in the TV lights, and then boom! It fell on my head. So I storm off stage, and these paramedics come and take a look at me and put a bandage on and I had to sign all these release forms so I’m not gonna sue anybody. It was in front of 200 million people, right?”
Mariah Carey‘s 1992 MTV Unplugged EP became the first Sony Minidisc to be released in the US. Carey had included a version of the Jackson 5 hit “I’ll Be There” as a last-minute addition to her MTV Unplugged setlist, after she had been informed that most acts on the show commonly perform at least one cover. “I’ll Be There” was Carey’s breakthrough hit outside North America, becoming her most successful single in numerous markets.
