Posted on 08/07/2006 9:45:48 AM PDT by .cnI redruM
Last week, MTV celebrated its 25th anniversary, marking a quarter of a century after having conceived of the first actually new thing in popular television entertainment since "American Bandstand" and "Soul Train."
The music video became a big deal through MTV and not only updated the old "soundies" once shown in movie theaters to feature singers and instrumentalists. It also revolutionized the making of films by acclimating its audience to the extremely fast crosscutting that had been pioneered in television commercials, where the faster the message arrived, the better. In the process, the MTV audience learned to see much more quickly and recognize what sometimes quite surreal montages were saying or what they were alluding to - no small accomplishment.
Of course, that is not the whole story of MTV, which also came to project the most dehumanizing images of black people since the dawn of minstrelsy in the 19th century. Pimps, whores, potheads, dope dealers, gangbangers, the crudest materialism and anarchic gang violence were broadcast around the world as "real" black culture.
At first, far too many black people were taken in by the cult of celebrity and the wealth that came to these gold- toothed knuckleheads and mindless hussies to realize what was happening. The lowest possible common denominator was seen as the norm. The illiteracy and rule-of-thumb stupidity was interpreted as a "cultural" rejection of white middle-class norms.
It was as if these dregs had the same heroic position in our time as the largely uneducated Southern black poor of the civil rights movement. Those Southern black people, like the marvelous Fannie Lou Hamer, proved to this nation and to the world that they not only deserved their constitutional rights, but had something both noble and soulful to add to our American understanding of the richness of the human spirit. We are a much greater nation because of the success of the civil rights movement. As they emerged from beneath the bloody rock of segregation, those Southern black people brought to our national identity a compassion and a bravery of immeasurable value.
Unfortunately, the crabbed thug culture that was popularized through MTV brought nothing big with it other than some paychecks.
Twenty-five years later, Christina Norman is the president of the network - and a black woman with a new problem on her hands. Part of that problem is Lisa Fager, a black woman who is president and co-founder of Industry Ears (industryears.com). Fager is disturbed by an MTV "satire" called "Where My Dogs At?" which has a cartoon figure strongly resembling Snoop Dogg who enters a pet store with two black women walking on all fours with leashes around their necks. At the end of the "parody," they defecate on the floor.
Fager's problem is that the spot was shown at 12:30 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon and will, no doubt, perpetuate among younger viewers the misogynist and dehumanizing images we have become accustomed to in too many rap videos.
That's the way big money goes. We can be sure that Christina Norman will have a simplemindedly liberal justification for the material, but I doubt that Lisa Fager will want to hear it. Nor will the millions of black women who oppose this kind of material and are beginning to rise into the sorts of positions that will make them an influential special-interest group. I don't know how long it will take, but change is on the way.
Yes, but standing against sexual harrassment didn't become in vogue until the whole Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill saga, which I believe was after your work there. Of course, "ministering" to underlings in the workplace became fashionable again in the mid-90's, or so I'm told...
A couple of years ago, an uncle of mine gave me 50 VHS tapes of MTV music videos from 1982-1987. Pure GOLD, and better than anything that's currently on that network.
I'm proud to say that on the 20th ann'y of MTV, I was able to say I have never seen MTV, save once while at someone else's house.
I feel just as good about saying it on their 25th ann'y, too. Bleecch.
I get my music from indy bands now and I'm a lot happier for it.
Spot on. Thanks to MTV culture, most white kids have the impression that blacks go around wearing heavy gold chains, loose fitting clothing, untied sneakers and speaking like they live in the jailhouse. All that yapping about yo's, ho's and bitches and all this glorification of violence and living in ghettos. It amazes me that the black community tolerates this.
As someone who was sexually harrassed...I can tell you for a fact that I couldn't stand being in the same room with the guy, let alone following him around the Country as Anita Hill did. Any woman who has been legitimately harrassed knows this for a fact.
At the risk of wasting time, should I assume you know all the circumstances behind the allegations that Anita Hill made? Was she in fact, legitimately harrassed; i.e., she had nothing to do with their interactions?
My cats love it when I leave a paper bag on the floor...
"I quit watching MTV when they quit showing music (around 1986)."
Same here. I have it blocked now. VH1-Classic aired the first day of MTV's broadcast over the weekend. That was pretty cool. Brought back memories.
Bingo! I was thinking of that very "interview" when I posted.
IIRC, that was *also* the segment where Tabs poo-poohed President Bush's concerns that Motor Voter might lead to voting fraud....
I used to love watching "120 Minutes". And Martha Quinn. Once those were gone, so was I.
That's how you teach them to swim.
(j/k!)
Manhattan was my legal residence then.
Was MTV still on West 57th street? In the early 80s, I used to see Goodman and Blackwood and JJ out in the street in front hailing cabs and Goodman frequented the China Club uptown on Broadway same as me....85 or so.
Can you elaborate how the place was sexist and particularly racist?
Just curious.
Give credit where credit is due. While MTV turned musicians into models, MIDI turned music into programs (IMHO of course)!
I worked on the show REMOTE CONTROL. We filmed it at a studio on 9th Ave. I believe those VJ's were gone by that time.
The problem with MTV was that it was run by 20 somethings. They were given million dollar budgets and did, what 20 year olds do. The programming was childish and sexist. I was sexually harrassed by a guy named Joe Davola. He was the Producer of Remote Conrol, and I believe it was the first show he ever produced. I won't go into what he did to me (nothing physical), but lots psychological. I finally confronted him as I had advised others to do. He did back down, but I wasn't asked back for the second season, although the rest of my team was. THAT'S SEXUAL HARRASSMENT.
If you find the name JOE DAVOLA familiar sounding, it's because there was a running joke in the Seinfeld show about CRAZY JOE DAVOLA stalking Jerry. I guess others found him creepy as well!
interesting.....you probably knew Kari and Colin
there was another dark haired girl even before Kari I think(?)
anyhow....yep....the Golden Years were the first 3 or 4....it was fun then....very by the seat of the pants appearing.
that is one pop culture thing I was dead wrong about....I remember when Blondie and Talking Heads were markketing videos made to songs that you could buy in the late 70s and I thought "no way"
man...was I wrong eh?
Yes, you were wrong. Yes, I knew Colin Quinn...not well..I wrote questions... I was in on the audition process and helped choose Ken Ober (WHAT THE HELL EVER HAPPENED TO HIM?). Interestingly enough, someone else was being considered for the job...his name??? BEN STILLER! I remember his audition and Ken's was better. I'm not a Stiller fan to this day.
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