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Back in 1988, I videotaped the MTV year-end top-100 countdown. Earlier this year, I unearthed the tapes and started watching them for the first time in two decades. I’ve been gradually working my way through the countdown, dissecting every single clip (and the commercial breaks too). Half a year later, we’re now two and a […]
posted 5 November 2008 in 1988. no comments yet
Kevin Seal’s back, standing in front of his ladder. “Well, 1988 was a big and exciting year for bands from England,” he says. One of those bands, apparently, was Johnny Hates Jazz, who released their debut album Turn Back the Clock. (Wasn’t that an oddly retro title? Aren’t synth-pop acts supposed to be futuristic? Were […]
posted 29 October 2008 in 1988. 2 comments
I’m actually on the road today, so video #76 will have to wait until next week. But to tide you over, I thought I’d share a few stats about the 1988 charts. There was quite a bit of turnover: 32 different songs hit #1 on the Billboard charts. (The most ever was 35, a mark […]
We see the “Big Bang ’89” promo for the third time, with close-ups on explosions and spinning clocks building up excitement for the fact that 1989 will start in only a few hours, a transition that can be enjoyed in the company of Robert Plant, Poison, Winger, Cameo, Hall and Oates, the Escape Club, Bobby […]
I love Foreigner the way I love my microwave oven. The oven’s clunky and utlilitarian, and I don’t even use it that often. But when I nuke a bag of popcorn, or fill my eyes with that double vision, it makes me happy beyond all reason. Alas, this song isn’t one of the GE Spacemaker […]
posted 14 October 2008 in 1988. 5 comments
Back from the commercial break, we find Kevin Seal standing on top of a ladder, with the top half of his body out of the frame. “The top one hundred of 1988!” he shouts. He jumps off the ladder and then lies down on the floor. Standing up and dusting himself off, Seal says, “It’s […]
posted 9 October 2008 in 1988. 2 comments
A lonely bugle plays over an image of Jon Bon Jovi–who’s looking morose, with his left hand on his cheek. Maybe Jon’s run out of bottles, and hence no longer knows what day of the week it is. “Bon Jovi on the road,” says the Voiceover Guy. “They play their guts out.” The image changes […]
posted 7 October 2008 in 1988. no comments yet
A glowing white light wobbles around and comes into focus: it’s a pair of headlights on a deserted highway. The car’s driving on the right side of the road: this video was filmed in the States, apparently. Clouds race across the sky. An attractive brunette girl in a peach-colored prairie dress and a black leather […]
posted 30 September 2008 in 1988. 6 comments
A deliveryman stands outside Whitney Houston’s dressing room: we can tell it’s her room because it’s got “WHITNEY” and a star engraved on the frosted glass. This implies that Houston’s abandoned her pop-music career in favor of starring in a Broadway show–or maybe she has “venue will provide artist with a specially made door with […]
For those of you just tuning in: Cleaning out my garage earlier this year, I found three old videotapes that contained the entirety of MTV’s 1988 year-end top 100 countdown. Each Tuesday and Thursday for the past four months, I’ve written up another segment of the countdown (usually a video, but sometimes a commercial break). […]
posted 23 September 2008 in 1988. 2 comments
