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Hmmm...I just saw this...

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1485838/20040318/index.jhtml?headlines=true

:(


Those early MTV days. Who can forget how it changed music on TV and the radio?


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That is sad.  :'(

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:'( :'(
J. J. Jackson was my favorite VJ.  He was most personable.  I didn't realize he was almost as old as my parents!  
As the article noted, he was a DJ prior to MTV at WBCN in Boston.  From the late '60s through the early '80s, WBCN was hands down the coolest station in Boston.

Were the original five VJs terminated by the network, or did they leave on their own?  

1986 was the year in which I started to hate MTV.  The only time they programmed music I considered worthwhile was on "120 Minutes."  By the early '90s, the "alternative" music scene had gone "grunge" and "Manchester" sound, and I stopped watching even "120 Minutes."

I may be mistaken, but I seem to recall hearing in 1985 that MTV's viewership had plateaued and was dipping.  I gather they overhauled their programming to make it more exciting.  Whatever they did, it worked.  Now it's non-stop teenage hedonism and semi-pornographic swill.  It has nothing to offer anyone over 30, or any brain-bearing individual of any age!
MTV doesn't care because its advertizers are happy.  You can get the young and the dumb to buy anything wrapped in sex.

Only in name is MTV the same network the late J.J. Jackson helped launch in 1981.  I miss J.J. as I miss the the original MTV, the radio station with pictures.
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MTV have always catered to the "young crowd".  (See the MTV page on the "Jump The Shark" site for examples)

IMO, MTV lost it's meaning of "music television" during the mid 1990's with the overflow of non-music relating programming like "House of Style" & "The Real World".

Quoting:
Mark Goodman, JJ Jackson, Martha Quinn (sp?) and those other people or person (?) who could forget them?
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Mark Goodman & Alan Hunter.

Whom were the orignal MTV VJs. Back when MTV actually played videos.

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Were the original five VJs terminated by the network, or did they leave on their own?  

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They were terminated by the network. However they re-hired Martha Quinn back in the early 90's...doing mostly interviews. That only lasted a year...or a little more. That was awesome to see her back on again!  8)

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MTV have always catered to the "young crowd".  (See the MTV page on the "Jump The Shark" site for examples)

IMO, MTV lost it's meaning of "music television" during the mid 1990's with the overflow of non-music relating programming like "House of Style" & "The Real World".
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The demographics of MTV were the same as most pop music radio stations.  However, a lot of people 30 and 40+ enjoy rock and pop music.  Thus, if artists had decent videos for their songs, they could capture a share of the middle-aged market...and they did.  For intance, in the early '80s, my mom, then in her early 40s, loved to watch videos.

From the get-go MTV was savaged by critics.  Not just by bluenose conservatives, but also by progressive liberals.  For example, UMass professor Sut Jhally produced a documentary called "Dreamworlds: Desire/Sex/Power in Rock Video."  Jhally, a fiece critic of American corporate culture, took issue with MTV's objectification of women and crass commercialism.

The MTV iniquities of 20 years ago are 10 times worse today.  The rock music loving adults who watched MTV videos in the '80s would find nothing of interest now.
Today, MTV explicitly advocates lifestyles only available to the young, rich, beautiful, and narcissistic.  Jhally argued MTV sent this message well enough with its videos, but they pale in comparison to the programming now.  Spring Break in Cancun, anyone?
You won't find 42 year olds watching this stuff, unless they're socially retarded.

I'll make this off-topic tangent brief, but it's been on my mind.  I'm shocked at the sheer number of college aged women participating in pornography and working in adjunct adult industries.  I can't point the finger only at MTV, but I think they contributed to the problem.  I hesitate to mention this because when you do, people accuse you of being a male chauvinist against women's freedom of choice.  I can't say I'm in favor of more censorship and more restrictions, but I can say I wish fewer young women were making the choice to become adult entertainers.  There is a canard promulgated by the adult entertainment industry that sex work "empowers women."  I'm a man who has been with other men while viewing women as exotic dancers and adult video performers, I have noted my fellow men's reactions, and I don't believe this "empowerment" bit for a second!

I know that screed is off-topic, but it's all connected to carnal world of brainless hedonism from which MTV profits so greatly...and it does genuinely disturb me.

Quoting:

The demographics of MTV were the same as most pop music radio stations.  However, a lot of people 30 and 40+ enjoy rock and pop music.  Thus, if artists had decent videos for their songs, they could capture a share of the middle-aged market...and they did.  For intance, in the early '80s, my mom, then in her early 40s, loved to watch videos.

From the get-go MTV was savaged by critics.  Not just by bluenose conservatives, but also by progressive liberals.  For example, UMass professor Sut Jhally produced a documentary called "Dreamworlds: Desire/Sex/Power in Rock Video."  Jhally, a fiece critic of American corporate culture, took issue with MTV's objectification of women and crass commercialism.

The MTV iniquities of 20 years ago are 10 times worse today.  The rock music loving adults who watched MTV videos in the '80s would find nothing of interest now.
Today, MTV explicitly advocates lifestyles only available to the young, rich, beautiful, and narcissistic.  Jhally argued MTV sent this message well enough with its videos, but they pale in comparison to the programming now.  Spring Break in Cancun, anyone?
You won't find 42 year olds watching this stuff, unless they're socially retarded.

I'll make this off-topic tangent brief, but it's been on my mind.  I'm shocked at the sheer number of college aged women participating in pornography and working in adjunct adult industries.  I can't point the finger only at MTV, but I think they contributed to the problem.  I hesitate to mention this because when you do, people accuse you of being a male chauvinist against women's freedom of choice.  I can't say I'm in favor of more censorship and more restrictions, but I can say I wish fewer young women were making the choice to become adult entertainers.  There is a canard promulgated by the adult entertainment industry that sex work "empowers women."  I'm a man who has been with other men while viewing women as exotic dancers and adult video performers, I have noted my fellow men's reactions, and I don't believe this "empowerment" bit for a second!

I know that screed is off-topic, but it's all connected to carnal world of brainless hedonism from which MTV profits so greatly...and it does genuinely disturb me.
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Quoting:


Mark Goodman & Alan Hunter.

Whom were the orignal MTV VJs. Back when MTV actually played videos.
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Goodman, Hunter, and Blackwood I did not like.  They came off as plastic and fake poseurs.

Martha was awesome.  And JJ was the "real deal".

RIP JJ.  :'(   You did it right, my man.  :D

Quoting:
Thanks for the great comments people!

I think for most people in the US, MTV started in Fall 1982. Who saw it before then? ( ??? )
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Actually when MTV first aired in Aug. 1981 it was a 'Pay Service' on cable like HBO and Showtime(at least it was in our area).

I was fortunate enough to be able to watch the very first broadcast at our local Arcade. they had a special MTV launch party and we all stood around the TV and counted down with the launch.  They even turned off all the video games so their wouldnt be any distractions. hehe.
From that day on MTV was always playing in the arcade instead of a radio.

I miss the days when MTV meant "Music Television" heh.