MTV 30th anniversary on VH1 Classic

[Sakuraba]

Anyone else watching this marathon? It's awesome.

In one half hour I've seen:

-Kid Rock when he was still Nu Metal, and Jo-C with him. I totally forgot about him.
-The opening scenes of the first ep of The Real World, including an awesome scene where the strict Southern Dad argues with his little girl about what she'll see in New York. She says, "I don't think there's anything wrong with having hair grown down... to your butt!" Her father responds disappointedly, "When did you start saying 'butt.'" Awesome.
-About a half dozen Beastie Boys promos.
-Madonna kissing Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Of course what we remember was the cheap shot camera pan to Justin Timberlake after the Britney kiss and his reaction to it. No one even remembers the Christina kiss because of that quick cut to JT.

My only complaint is that everything is delivered in quick snippets. We don't get any interviews or classic music videos. I think the longest segment I've seen was the Real World clip which lasted about five minutes. Looks like they're ditching the music videos in favor of live performances, which I understand.

 

[Sakuraba]

Oh yeah, and Tabitha Soren? I likey. A lot.

 

[Sakuraba]

Now we get a Debbie Gibson lip-synchage of "Shake your Love", and she's wearing a bomber jacket that would fit Lou Ferrigno. Was this the style, that is looks like your boyfriend's leather jacket?

I mean her outfit is sorta cute for the period, but that jacket is enormous.

 

[Sakuraba]

Now it's a clip from Daria, and my viewing ends there.

 

[Sakuraba]

All right! Jimmy Fallon's epic intro to the VMAs where he impersonates Enrique, Avril, Nelly, Dave Matthews, Eminem, White Stripes, and James Brown. Probably his peak moment for me.

 

[Sakuraba]

A clip from Remote Control is up and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are playing.

The game is that the host names a song, and you name the artist.

Song: Sussudio

Flea's answer? The Flying Burrito Brothers.

It's funny because its absurd AND you get an appreciation for the depth of Flea's musical knowledge.

 

[Sakuraba]

A clip from spring break when Jenny McCarthy was REALLY hot and had a really biting sense of humor. She introduces No Doubt for a decent performance.

A commercial airs for sweepstakes to win a trip to Jamaica with Bon Jovi, makers of horrible music.

A song from the much fabled LL Cool J Unplugged is featured. The problem with his Unplugged is that a lot of it is like spoken poetry set to soft rock. It doesn't quite work for me. Hopefully they show songs from Clapton's, Nirvana's, and AiC's Unplugged. Those are probably my three faves.

Goodie, an unnecessary KISS performance. Why? KISS is not an MTV generation band. They had one moment on MTV where they were "unmasked". That's it. We require no songs from 1975. Like Ricky Nelson sang, "If memories are all I sing I'd rather drive a truck."

And we strike gold. Jack Nicholson in Philadelphia introducing U2 at Live Aid at Wembley Stadium! I'm reminded of Henry Rollins statement about "The Clash are what U2 wishes they could've been," but no, U2 is pretty dang fantastic. That said, which is worse: Bono's flowing mullet or his decision to wear velvet black gogo boots over leather pants?

Ironically enough, as they go into "Bad" I notice that the Edge has a look that Michael Jackson will steal for his Badd persona. Black leather pants and a loose white button up shirt. This performance is truly awesome, BTW. Some say it "made" U2, where they became the Biggest Band in the World. And they really never gave the title up.

Bono's interactions with the fans is actually quite touching. Here 26 years into the future and watching on television you can still feel the aura of good feelings at the event. He's now going into the Ruby Tuesday/Walk on the Wildside tag. Goodness this is as tremendous as ever.

 

[Sakuraba]

Alan Hunter and Martha Quinn are back in Philly promoting an upcoming performance by the Beach Boys, who at this point hadn't been relevant since Sunflower, and maybe a few select tracks off of Surf's Up. Dennis Wilson could have been the lifesaver of that group if someone had saved his life. Hell, Bruce Johnston was a great writer of soft rock type music. Him leaving the band hurt big time too. That left Mike Love, a sad, outdated frontman; Carl Wilson, whose talent was in his angelic voice, and Al Jardine was just a decent guitarist at best. Dennis and Bruce weren't in the class of Brian Wilson but the Beach Boys could have had chart success in the 1970s and beyond.

Sweet, a clip from the Ben Stiller Show.

And we're back to U2, this time the music video for Where the Streets Have No Name. I guess it was their own self coronation as the biggest band in the world. They were in the whirlwind of success following Joshua Tree, and were in the middle of paying their respects to the roots of rock 'n' roll with Ratte N' Hum. Now all they needed to do was a cheesy reenactment of the Beatles last concert on the roof of the Apple Bldg. Here U2 performances on top of a liquor store located on Main St in Los Angeles. The director exploits the police that come out to do riot control by filming them extensively, and eventually the "impromtu" concert is broken up.

What do we have here? Why it's the Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff bestowing bubble gum rap for our suffering eyes and ears. This is straight outta the Will Smith formula for being successful. From cutesy hippity hop to science fiction movies. Will this guy ever be an artist?

YES! It's the infamous "Mr. and Mrs. Michael Jackson" moment where the King of Pop kisses the Princess of Rock'n'Roll and she's all like, "Whoa, freak, we didn't agree to that!" MJ was in compete I don't like children I like women mode in trying so hard to prove himself.

Now for some clips of Jackass. Which, is, probably the most important MTV show of the past decade. It was pretty impactful and was maybe the last of the shocking "bad influence" shows MTV produced. Sure there was that Jersey Shore incident where a woman got hit by a man, but that pales in comparison to the coverage this show got back in 2000. Anyway, we see a clip of Bam Margera accidently shooting himself in the foot with a paintball gun before unloading several rounds into his father. It's just stupid, and often creative, fun of watching people joyfully inflict pain upon themselves in the name of absurdity and daredevilism. Oh man, and then we see Brad Pitt making his Jackass debut in the Night Monkeys video and he's mugging for the camera while another night monkey comes and runs him over in a downhill racer. Major LOL on that one. You just don't expect to see Brad Pitt getting run over by a soapbox derby car in a Jackass skit.