Manila - (1 August 2006) - August 1, 1981 marks a date in human history when music was not just being heard, it can also be seen.
Music and television fans all over the world recognize the logo of MTV or Music Television, the same way s anyone could recognize the “Big Blue’s” logo, IBM. The “Golden Arch” will always be McDonald’s and the “swoosh” is anything athletic which represents Nike.
It has been twenty five wonderful years since the big M and TV was merged to form Music Television and it marked the beginning of a new trend in the music industry that has become part and parcel of pop history.
It is unbelievable that my generation first saw moving images, a story board for the songs we simply listened on the radio.
My former partner who is a music buff since he was knee-high simply can’t get enough of his music and his videos, recognizing the latest R&B song release on the basis of first five notes after hearing it for the second time.
Both of us are almost a generation apart and when MTV was just starting the trend, my partner was still wetting his diapers at seven months of existence on this cruel world.
While Ronald Reagan, a newly elected U.S. President was preparing to quip his “evil empire” retort against the then Soviet Union and Iran’s Ayatollah Khomenei was over turning a once decadent Iranian Islamic society, America was once again creating history.
MTV is all about creating a new market, a particular niche market from the wider and varying taste of consumers.
Owing to the fact that after twenty five years, record artist must not only battle piracy of their songs who download their new releases, they must now also think of a video to support the success of their song or album release.
MTV first aired in the Philippines in the late eighties and well into the nineties as the country started to liberalize its broadcast industry and with the entry of cable television, the rest is as they say, a part of history.
In the early eighties, one could get to see video releases of Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” being aired as “filler” for time on local television stations or see an unknown Madonna wiggle herself through Venice aboard a gondola for her song, “Like a Virgin,” and this was part of a dance contest on then noontime program “Student Canteen.”
Music video in the Philippines was defined with the Brit invasion or more popularly called the “Euro Music” with the likes of Boy George in “Karma Chameleon.”
The public had no malice as to why a supposedly grown up all-prim and all-proper British gent was wearing a woman’s clothes.
Boy George and his Culture Club, their savvy danceable sound and cross dressing style brought about a new word into the culture in this part of the world, and people started to understand and associate “transvestite” as the term to describe Boy George and this is all thanks to music video.
Going to another George, the George Michael of the duo Wham was a teeny bopper delight with their sassy MTV for “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” and everyone felt sad as to why a woman would leave behind a cute guy such as George Michael.
Twenty years or so later, people finally understood why a girl would leave George Michael in that music video and why a man, a rest room in Los Angeles and L.A.’s finest would fit in another George Michael video that tells the once teen music television heartthrob, actually liked boys more than girls.
My generation grew up learning to dance and imitate the moves of Michael Jackson for “Thriller,” “Bad” and many others and watching these videos were the reference for the next school presentation.
I learned to do break dancing back then when I was slimmer, lighter and bones flexible while watching those videos and recording them or renting the tape which were being rented out in Betamax format.
Back in the eighties, Norwegian boy band A-ha wouldn’t have soared to their chart success from the perches of their fjords back home, if not for the then cutting edge production of blending comics themed animation and real life for their song, “Take on Me.”
Bits and pieces of the past and MTV is twenty five years old, pioneering a trend that is now mainstream in the lives of every music fan.
Much has also changed and nowadays, music videos are not just song with moving pictures but instead, they now include the lyrics that roll out underneath the screen for those who want to sing-a-long.
Music videos is also the first step for a favorite past time for many, karaoke.
Back then, singing the song “My Way” popularized by the great Frank Sinatra, was not an indicator of crimes or a purveyor of trouble resulting from fist fights, and stabbing among karaoke singers of that song in this country and this is all partly due to the popularity of MTV and what it has started - sing-along and the general love to sing.
Back then before MTV, a song was just a song, a cut from an album that is released on vinyl called a 45RPM that is played on juke boxes.
Nowadays a song release has a radio edit version that is used to promote the song on radio, an I-Pod edition for download versions and music video versions for TV play.
MTV was not immediately available on local television not until in 1991 when UHF channels started subscribing to MTV broadcasts direct from the United States.
The real story there, and possibly a trivia of sorts was that it wasn’t MTV who first aired regularly in the Philippines but instead, it was Channel [V], an Asian-based music channel that was created by a rival company of MTV that first aired the format or concept in the Philippines.
The first direct broadcast of MTV in the Philippines started on October of 1997 when local UHF television station Studio 23 became the official carrier of the world’s most popular all-music TV broadcast.
Less than a decade later and Studio 23 built its own brand of Music Television with MYX and it is number one in terms of viewer ship, trashing the original MTV which now airs on another UHF channel.
MTV nowadays is different from what we knew before.
MTV in the Philippines is now “localized” as MTV Pilipinas, designed to cater to the taste of Filipino music fans.
What was then purely carrying American music, MTV has branched out all over the world and franchised its format and formula to promote the local music industry of their host countries.
Belonging to a generation who grew to love MTV (and I was not even a teener yet when we first saw music videos), the changes and the evolution could be so overwhelming.
MTV brought the antics of two stupid teen-age boys with stupid names such as “Beavis and Butthead,” showed non-stop dancing of kids in bikinis on “The Grind” and established the likes of Mike Casem as one of the faces of MTV.
Twice in my life I became a part of MTV and the first was in 1995 when I was hosting this protest concert against the French Nuclear testing in the South Pacific. The second time around was two years later when we covered for MTV then airing on Studio 23 their "Live and Loud" party at the old Mars Disco.
It was fun! It was damn memorable! Damn I'm old!
The music and videos of MTV has also changed and maybe “more improved” in terms of presentation after twenty five years.
What was once then a teen-ager’s must see on television is no longer a teener but is now a yuppie at the age of twenty five.
Things change, people change and as for me, a little dose of MTV inspired presentation with the likes of Avril Lavigne, Norah Jones, Craig David, Rivermaya and Bamboo is quite too much for me to remember all together when back then it was all about Madonna, Lionel Ritchie, U2, Tears for Fears or Michael Jackson who was as black as asphalt back then.
Nowadays, its just Frank Sinatra, Mat Monro, Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Joni James, Mahalia Jackson or Paul Williams for me and the ever reliable radio where I don’t need to strain my eyes. Instead, just get the calming retrospect of a by-gone era of which I wish I lived in through the music of that generation.
Music and television fans all over the world recognize the logo of MTV or Music Television, the same way s anyone could recognize the “Big Blue’s” logo, IBM. The “Golden Arch” will always be McDonald’s and the “swoosh” is anything athletic which represents Nike.
It has been twenty five wonderful years since the big M and TV was merged to form Music Television and it marked the beginning of a new trend in the music industry that has become part and parcel of pop history.
It is unbelievable that my generation first saw moving images, a story board for the songs we simply listened on the radio.
My former partner who is a music buff since he was knee-high simply can’t get enough of his music and his videos, recognizing the latest R&B song release on the basis of first five notes after hearing it for the second time.
Both of us are almost a generation apart and when MTV was just starting the trend, my partner was still wetting his diapers at seven months of existence on this cruel world.
While Ronald Reagan, a newly elected U.S. President was preparing to quip his “evil empire” retort against the then Soviet Union and Iran’s Ayatollah Khomenei was over turning a once decadent Iranian Islamic society, America was once again creating history.
MTV is all about creating a new market, a particular niche market from the wider and varying taste of consumers.
Owing to the fact that after twenty five years, record artist must not only battle piracy of their songs who download their new releases, they must now also think of a video to support the success of their song or album release.
MTV first aired in the Philippines in the late eighties and well into the nineties as the country started to liberalize its broadcast industry and with the entry of cable television, the rest is as they say, a part of history.
In the early eighties, one could get to see video releases of Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” being aired as “filler” for time on local television stations or see an unknown Madonna wiggle herself through Venice aboard a gondola for her song, “Like a Virgin,” and this was part of a dance contest on then noontime program “Student Canteen.”
Music video in the Philippines was defined with the Brit invasion or more popularly called the “Euro Music” with the likes of Boy George in “Karma Chameleon.”
The public had no malice as to why a supposedly grown up all-prim and all-proper British gent was wearing a woman’s clothes.
Boy George and his Culture Club, their savvy danceable sound and cross dressing style brought about a new word into the culture in this part of the world, and people started to understand and associate “transvestite” as the term to describe Boy George and this is all thanks to music video.
Going to another George, the George Michael of the duo Wham was a teeny bopper delight with their sassy MTV for “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” and everyone felt sad as to why a woman would leave behind a cute guy such as George Michael.
Twenty years or so later, people finally understood why a girl would leave George Michael in that music video and why a man, a rest room in Los Angeles and L.A.’s finest would fit in another George Michael video that tells the once teen music television heartthrob, actually liked boys more than girls.
My generation grew up learning to dance and imitate the moves of Michael Jackson for “Thriller,” “Bad” and many others and watching these videos were the reference for the next school presentation.
I learned to do break dancing back then when I was slimmer, lighter and bones flexible while watching those videos and recording them or renting the tape which were being rented out in Betamax format.
Back in the eighties, Norwegian boy band A-ha wouldn’t have soared to their chart success from the perches of their fjords back home, if not for the then cutting edge production of blending comics themed animation and real life for their song, “Take on Me.”
Bits and pieces of the past and MTV is twenty five years old, pioneering a trend that is now mainstream in the lives of every music fan.
Much has also changed and nowadays, music videos are not just song with moving pictures but instead, they now include the lyrics that roll out underneath the screen for those who want to sing-a-long.
Music videos is also the first step for a favorite past time for many, karaoke.
Back then, singing the song “My Way” popularized by the great Frank Sinatra, was not an indicator of crimes or a purveyor of trouble resulting from fist fights, and stabbing among karaoke singers of that song in this country and this is all partly due to the popularity of MTV and what it has started - sing-along and the general love to sing.
Back then before MTV, a song was just a song, a cut from an album that is released on vinyl called a 45RPM that is played on juke boxes.
Nowadays a song release has a radio edit version that is used to promote the song on radio, an I-Pod edition for download versions and music video versions for TV play.
MTV was not immediately available on local television not until in 1991 when UHF channels started subscribing to MTV broadcasts direct from the United States.
The real story there, and possibly a trivia of sorts was that it wasn’t MTV who first aired regularly in the Philippines but instead, it was Channel [V], an Asian-based music channel that was created by a rival company of MTV that first aired the format or concept in the Philippines.
The first direct broadcast of MTV in the Philippines started on October of 1997 when local UHF television station Studio 23 became the official carrier of the world’s most popular all-music TV broadcast.
Less than a decade later and Studio 23 built its own brand of Music Television with MYX and it is number one in terms of viewer ship, trashing the original MTV which now airs on another UHF channel.
MTV nowadays is different from what we knew before.
MTV in the Philippines is now “localized” as MTV Pilipinas, designed to cater to the taste of Filipino music fans.
What was then purely carrying American music, MTV has branched out all over the world and franchised its format and formula to promote the local music industry of their host countries.
Belonging to a generation who grew to love MTV (and I was not even a teener yet when we first saw music videos), the changes and the evolution could be so overwhelming.
MTV brought the antics of two stupid teen-age boys with stupid names such as “Beavis and Butthead,” showed non-stop dancing of kids in bikinis on “The Grind” and established the likes of Mike Casem as one of the faces of MTV.
Twice in my life I became a part of MTV and the first was in 1995 when I was hosting this protest concert against the French Nuclear testing in the South Pacific. The second time around was two years later when we covered for MTV then airing on Studio 23 their "Live and Loud" party at the old Mars Disco.
It was fun! It was damn memorable! Damn I'm old!
The music and videos of MTV has also changed and maybe “more improved” in terms of presentation after twenty five years.
What was once then a teen-ager’s must see on television is no longer a teener but is now a yuppie at the age of twenty five.
Things change, people change and as for me, a little dose of MTV inspired presentation with the likes of Avril Lavigne, Norah Jones, Craig David, Rivermaya and Bamboo is quite too much for me to remember all together when back then it was all about Madonna, Lionel Ritchie, U2, Tears for Fears or Michael Jackson who was as black as asphalt back then.
Nowadays, its just Frank Sinatra, Mat Monro, Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Joni James, Mahalia Jackson or Paul Williams for me and the ever reliable radio where I don’t need to strain my eyes. Instead, just get the calming retrospect of a by-gone era of which I wish I lived in through the music of that generation.
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1 comment:
I still remember when MTV was new too... and VH1 also the first dance party MTV show in LA hosted by richard blade. (who is still on the air in the states!!!)
Used to watch it as a kid in elemtary school.
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