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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 […]
posted 24 July 2008 in 1988. 4 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. 6 comments
If you’re just joining us, here’s the deal: I unearthed some old videotapes that contain the entirety of MTV’s year-end countdown from 1988. I haven’t watched them since 12/31/88, but I’m slowly rolling through them now, writing about the videos (yes, MTV used to play videos) and the ads and VJ segments. Since we’ve made […]
posted 3 July 2008 in 1988, Self-reflexive. no comments yet
The break starts with another excellent animated MTV promo. (Whoever was in charge of these must have been having a blast.) This one stars marionettes in a drawing room that appears to be inspired by Marie Antoinette. The sexiest marionette, with a drink in hand and red pants so tight they look like they were […]
posted 24 June 2008 in 1988. 4 comments
(There was actually one more ad in that last commercial break, a promo spot for MTV, featuring a guy tied up on the floor of an elevator, being forced to listen to the elevator operator sing along to a swelling orchestral melody.) “Five of the top 100 videos of 1988 are Michael Jackson videos,” Kevin […]
posted 12 June 2008 in 1988. 2 comments
Another interview clip: all four Bangles sitting on a couch, not looking especially happy. “The idea you have in your head,” says guitarist Vicki Peterson, pointing to her head in case we’re not familiar with that part of her body, “is not going to get directly translated onto film. It just isn’t. There’s so many […]
posted 3 June 2008 in 1988. 3 comments
Back to Kevin Seal, who looks into the camera seriously, apparently channeling Dan Rather, and says, “’88 was a really heavy year for a lot of us, including Glenn Frey.” Seal then cracks a smile and snarks about Frey for a little while, egregiously dropping the G in the title of his latest album, Soul […]
posted 29 May 2008 in 1988. 7 comments
The lower reaches of this countdown seem to be filled with tracks that weren’t actually hits, but were presumably beloved of somebody in the MTV programming department. (Or maybe some favors were owed to record companies.) Take, for example, the non-hit “Better Be Home Soon,” from Crowded House’s second album Temple of Low Men. My […]
Contrary to the musical wisdom of Albert Hammond Sr., sometimes it does rain in Southern California. This past January, Los Angeles had rainstorms of Biblical proportions. A few weeks later, we discovered that a whole bunch of stuff we were keeping in cardboard boxes in the garage had gotten drenched, and were now covered in […]
