You're browsing the archives for the category 1988
The commercial break kicks off with another airing of the “Big Bang ’89″ promo, hyping the big show live later on MTV that night. Sandra Bernhard looks skinny and sexy and mean (in marked contrast to her subdued, puffy appearance on Project Runway recently–is she on some variety of steroid medications, or was it a […]
posted 12 August 2008 in 1988. no comments yet
Kevin Seal explains that they’re shoehorning in another video that didn’t make the cutoff date, one that will in all likelihood appear in the 1989 countdown. (Basically, this means that MTV blocked out time based on ten videos an hour, but some hours (two out of the first two), they have time to play eleven.)
We […]
posted 7 August 2008 in 1988. 2 comments
Here’s a list of some of the albums that came out in 1988, hip-hop’s golden year: EPMD’s Strictly Business, Big Daddy Kane’s Long Live the Kane, Boogie Down Productions’ By All Means Necessary, Slick Rick’s The Great Adventures of Slick Rick, N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton, the Jungle Brothers’ Straight Out the Jungle, Eric B. […]
More snark from Kevin Seal, who waves his hands insincerely to connote his great excitement with the countdown. Seal talks about Henry Lee Summer denying that he sounds like John Cougar Mellencamp: “He’s a very modest fellow, especially when it comes to the women who fall all over him in this video,” says Seal. Cut […]
posted 29 July 2008 in 1988. 3 comments
Once again, MTV visits the Duke.
First up, a network spot for the show Now Hear This: MTV’s Guide to New Music. This program aired on Monday nights and was hosted by golden-maned Adam Curry. “World premiere videos,” voiceover guy says, and we see clips of Keith Richards, Huey Lewis, and the Fresh Prince (aka Will […]
posted 24 July 2008 in 1988. 2 comments
Inside my skull, Kylie Minogue is Exhibit A for how the pleasures of pop music can be contextual. If I had spent the last twenty years living in London or Sydney, I would have heard Kylie’s countless singles on the radio, seen her tweak her image in dozens of videos, and read lots of glossy […]
posted 22 July 2008 in 1988. 2 comments
Back from the commercial break, we are joined again by Kevin Seal, wearing a black jacket over a black t-shirt. “This is the top funky one hundred of 1988,” he says, and then hypes the “Big Bang ’89″ New Year’s Eve event later that night on MTV: “We’ll count down the minutes to midnight, in […]
posted 17 July 2008 in 1988. 2 comments
“Time to visit the Duke,” former Sex Pistol Steve Jones often says on his (excellent) Los Angeles radio show when heading into a commercial break. I had been listening for months before any guest asked him what “the Duke” meant; I had assumed it was a euphemism for the bathroom, but it turns out Jones […]
posted 15 July 2008 in 1988. 4 comments
Very little happens in this video. But then again, very little needs to. Somebody clearly made the calculation that having George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison in one room would provide enough entertainment value by itself, and they were right. Twenty years later, the appeal of the Traveling Wilburys and […]
posted 10 July 2008 in 1988. 5 comments
Top of the hour: MTV does a 30-second station ID. The network had retired the classic astronaut footage by 1988, but kept the theme song. This spot is a nifty piece of animation featuring the MTV logo in a gyroscope, with close-ups on doors and windows opening up all over the logo, revealing naked bicycle […]
posted 8 July 2008 in 1988. 2 comments
