Culture

WOUB-HD to Broadcast ‘The 80s (My Music)’ Nov. 27

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Martha Quinn, Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, and J.J. Jackson were all children of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s – they lived through the rise and dissolution of the world’s greatest band (The Beatles); the development of progressive rock in the early ‘70s, and through the birth of punk rock in the late ‘70s. They would all go on to be the original VJs, working for Robert Pittman’s fledging MTV network during it’s earliest days.

Their mission? To describe to the people this new and stunning form of artistic medium: the music video. Although there had been some similar feats in the past (created by Pink Floyd, The Beatles, The Smothers Brothers Radio Hour,) there had never been a network entirely dedicated to the music video.

On Monday, November 27 at 10 p.m., WOUB-HD will broadcast The ’80s (My Music), hosting by original VJ herself, Martha Quinn. The special will feature some of the all-time favorite music videos of the ’80s: The Buggle’s “Video Killed the Radio Star,” (The first music video that MTV ever aired on Saturday, August 1, 1981,) Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” and many, many more.

Some ’80s acts that had never experienced the phenomena of really selling a healthy number of records were profoundly impacted by MTV picking up their music videos. The Human League, Men at Work, Romeovoid, and Bow Wow Wow are just a couple examples. The network also played a stunning variety of genres: everything from new wave to heavy metal. This meant that Duran Duran, Split Enz, Prince, Ultravox, Bon Jovi, and many others all received relatively equal play.

Although MTV itself faces a multitude of challenges in the present day, given the constantly shifting face of media and the ways in which the public consumes it, it lives on in these early music videos. Perhaps we won’t always have an MTV, but, honestly, maybe we never really deserved it.