MTV Ruled the World- The Early Years of Music Video

by Greg Prato

  BOB PITTMAN: Before MTV, artists were not recognized. They didn't have Diamond Vision Screens back then, so if you went to Madison Square Garden, that person playing on stage, you had no idea what their face looked like, unless you were in the first ten rows. Maybe the first row. And the album covers were pretty abstract. You didn't have TV coverage of celebrities like you have today. So they walked down the street, and no one knew who they were. And we changed all that by showing their faces. One of the early ways we got the music industry behind us was the artists would go, "People said, 'I saw you on MTV.'" And Michael Jackson and Madonna — you've got to give them both credit — were the first two artists that truly understood this meant that the performing artist needed to be different. They needed to have a show, a dance, a face, a look, in addition to the music. And those two really ushered in a whole new definition of the "music star." You've got to remember, before that, it was the Eagles standing on stage in flannel shirts, singing the songs. Madonna put on a show. Michael Jackson put on a show. By today's standards, everybody puts on a show. But back then, they were real standouts from what everybody else was doing.

  LES GARLAND: Michael Jackson — may his soul rest in peace — was one of the nicest guys I've ever met in my life. He was the most gracious, grateful artist. It's funny. The first time I was ever with him was in his trailer, on the set of "Thriller." He went into this whole rap about how appreciative he was and how much he thanked us. And I was like, "Michael, this should be me speaking to you, thanking you. You are the biggest recording artist in the world. Look at what you've done for us." And I tell people, "Isn't it amazing what can happen when timing is perfect?" Here was the evolution of this new venue called MTV, as this star was evolving. Michael Jackson didn't start with "Billie Jean." That's what I tell people. "He had three or four number one albums. He'd released seven or eight albums before MTV. He was a huge star. He didn't start at MTV. He wasn't an overnight sensation. He was a big star already, who got even bigger." And he did — the biggest star of his time, period. Not even a question.

  BOB GIRALDI: I remember one time on the Pepsi commercial, when we were getting ready to go on, just before the accident happened. I was with the brothers in their dressing room. Evidently, Michael went to the bathroom. We're getting ready to get up to go put the finishing touches on make-up and wardrobe and go shoot...and we heard this blood-curdling scream — "AHHHHHH!" — coming from Michael. Everybody turned white and ran to the scream, and he was in the bathroom. I thought he was being accosted by somebody. We ran in, and what he had done is mistakenly dropped his glove into this sea of urine and was screaming hysterically. And then we realized that he was screaming because somebody didn't get it. [Laughs] We looked at each other and said, "Not on your life, brother!" A prop guy came to the rescue with a hanger and fished it out and dried it, and he went on to wear it.

  Prince

  BOOTSY COLLINS: Ah, man! Prince scared 'em for a minute because he was too close to their game. But they let him in, because they did not have much black artists to choose from. He gave off more than what they were funkin' for, and he fit in just like Sly and the Family Stone did back in their era. You got the mix in colors and the female/male thang going on, which was great.

  GERALD CASALE: Oh God, I love Prince. He's almost like the last man standing from the era, but he's the finest performer I've ever seen. And unlike Michael Jackson, he wrote all his own songs and plays guitar like a champ on top of it. He's just so powerful. I love everything he did.

  FEE WAYBILL: He was real, and he could really play. It just seemed like Michael Jackson was, I mean, obviously he was a great singer and dancer, but it just seemed so manufactured, so fake. The whole thing just seemed fake to me.

  TONI BASIL: Who would have ever thought that between he and Michael, he would have survived? When Prince came along, he was different than Michael. His dancing was different. And he didn't dance quite as much in his videos. But he seems to be the sole survivor.

  CHUCK D: I think Prince made MTV understand that, if MTV wasn't going to jump on it, Prince was going to make a movie. I think Prince also made people understand that it's not going to be the quality of the videos. You've got to understand the quality of the music. People were happy to see Prince in any configuration. Prince could have been up there in crayon, that's how good his music is.

  NINA BLACKWOOD: I heard about Prince way back, from a guitar player in Ohio. He was saying, "There's a guitar player in Minneapolis, who's really amazing." So finally when he broke, it was like, "Well, it's about time." He really is a musical genius.

  TODD RUNDGREN: Prince...a funny guy. He's always been an interesting guy. My first video experience with Prince was my first and only time I was a musical guest on Saturday Night Live. And even though I did my two numbers — this was in one of these "doldrums," where Jean Doumanian was producing the show [the 1980-1981 season]. It was when the show looked like it was going to go off the air, and the writing was so bad that they had to fill in the show with an extra musical guest. And Prince did — I can't remember what song it was. And they got him on there because they heard he was real flamboyant and was dressed in nothing but a long coat and tighty whities! Literally, little white underpants, and did the song. I had heard something of him, but I had never seen him play and thought it was hysterical. But Prince's whole thing became "costume epic." Michael Jackson's was mostly about the dancing. Prince's thing became more about the clothes and accoutrements...and simulated sex acts with various women. So, in that sense, Prince's thing was much less about the dancing and more about the gyrating and simulated sex.

  RICK SPRINGFIELD: I think his music brought more than his videos did. Once he got the "outrageous tag," I think everyone was looking to see what he would do next, outrageous-wise. I don't think his effect was as deep as Michael Jackson's, as far as what you could do with a video. I think it was, "Oh, he's the outrageous one" kind of thing. His music did that for him. He didn't really need the videos, but it was very powerful, because he's a great, visual presence, and he knew how to use them.

  PETE ANGELUS: Even before I saw some of those videos, I had seen some of his live performances, where he was opening for the Rolling Stones. And I remember thinking, "Incredible talent. And also, he's pushing the boundaries quite a bit." Which I always like and always respect. I thought he was pushing them creatively. Some people just push the boundaries to garner attention. But I thought he was an incredible artist, and an incredible MTV artist. He made a lot of impact on that channel. And it probably had a lot of impact on musicians to follow him.

  CARMINE APPICE: Prince's videos were great. I used to know Prince in those days. Before he made it, I used to stay at a house while I was getting divorced one time — that I had bought into — and it was owned by a woman who was involved in the management. So Prince used to be there. I'd walk in at any given time, and there would be Prince in my bed with Vanity. He was cutting the album 1999. That's the one that took off.

  GEDDY LEE: A guy with that strong a visual sense of himself is going to succeed on the small screen.

  RICKY BYRD: There were certain people that were just made for videos, because they were movie stars to begin with. Prince is just "a visual guy."

  ALAN HUNTER: He counter-balanced some of the more frivolous aspects of MTV. Stars like that are what made people stay up and watch late. So you had to sit through the occasional Debbie Gibson or Tiffany to get to a Prince. Or really, bands like the Barnes & Barnes stuff, which was more of the experimental side of MTV. Just interstitial. Kind of the glue between the really good artists, that had good songs and knew how to work the medium.

  EDDIE MONEY: He was a skinny little guy, Prince. Just like Michael — these little thin kids, who are very animated. I loved Prince's music. I've always been a big fan of his. I mean, for a kid from Minnesota, you'd think he would have come out of Chicago, L.A., or New York. I thought his videos were great. I thought Purple Rain was amazing. I heard he's not the easiest guy to get a
long with, but I've always had admiration for his music. I heard he's a real prick...but that's OK. [Laughs]

  PHIL COLLEN: Purple Rain was one of my favorite albums. I was the hugest Prince fan. Prince took the visual thing in a totally different kind of outlet with it, whereas we went along with the record company and video directors. It wasn't until later on that we started going, "This is what we want. We want it to represent this." But Prince, he got going with that pretty early. When you see the first few videos — which are pretty ordinary — then he had the whole concept for the Purple Rain album. It made that album. It was a "diamond album." The videos were a huge part of those massive albums — Pyromania, certainly Hysteria, and Purple Rain. It was one of the reasons why these bands sold so many copies, because of this extra outlet.

  GREG HAWKES: I don't remember much about Prince's videos, except for them being sort of "performance pieces," almost. I remember being a little disappointed at the movie. Just the overall story was a little trite. But I do remember going to see Prince at that club in Minneapolis [First Avenue], and he was great. The band was great. They were super tight. I was surprised when I actually saw him live was how much of an influence James Brown was on him, all the moves.

  STEWART COPELAND: I thought Purple Rain was the dumbest movie I ever saw, but that Prince is one of the greatest artists I've ever seen perform. One of the greatest performers, absolutely. That's how you do it.

  ERIC BLOOM: Prince is my favorite. I'm just a huge fan of his. He's one of my favorite guitar players. A lot of people don't think of Prince as a musician. They think of him more as a frontman or "an act." But the guy can really play, besides his moves, besides the movies, besides anything else. When he's on SNL and he's playing guitar, it's breathtaking. That movie is rock history to me. It could be one of the best rock movies of all time. We were on tour in France, and somebody from the record company took me to see it at the premiere. It was kind of weird to see an American movie with French dubbing. Just fabulous. The only thing that I thought was odd about that movie was there were parts of the movie where people were down on his character, because, "Oh man, he's losing it. Listen to this song. His songs are crap." I'm like, "Are you crazy? These are great songs!" He's just a natural superstar.

  JELLO BIAFRA: I'm still pretty unfamiliar with him, overall. I mean, granted, at the time, I hated disco music so much that I didn't give funk a chance until recently. So finally, a writer/peer, Peter Belsito, who was about to interview me for an interview/compilation book he was making, decided one way to provoke me was to force me to see Purple Rain with him first. And all I got out of that was I kind of liked some of the songs, and he obviously was more than just a straight disco artist and an incredible performer. So I respected him for that. But it didn't make me run out and buy his albums.

  ANN WILSON: To me, his videos always seemed like cuts from Purple Rain, or maybe Purple Rain was just an extended rock video. I don't know. [Laughs] But he was another one, sort of like Madonna — the male version of Madonna — who just totally dominated the screen. His fashion sense, his personal beauty, his talent — everything just came right out. There are some people that are made to be on screen, and not in movies. I'm talking about who love the camera and who the camera loves. He was another one.

  DEBORA IYALL: I remember liking the narrative of "When Doves Cry." The father, the alienated son, the domestic violence alluded to, and all that. I thought that was touching, and it brought me a little closer to his music. And he did one which was pretty much all performance — "Little Red Corvette." I loved that.

  MIKE RENO: Prince — I couldn't really believe what was going on with this guy. I couldn't figure out what his deal was. I was always saying, "Who does he hang out with...guys or girls?" He was like "ambidextrous," if you get my drift. [Laughs] He was very extravagant, but I liked his songs. He was over-the-top, kind of like Little Richard. But his songs made me go, "But those songs are great." He wrote some really great rock songs. When I first came close to him, I realized he was kind of a small guy. You can't really tell when you watch someone on TV how tall they are. But what a little bundle of energy that guy is! You look up the word "talent," and you'll see Prince's picture right beside it.

  ALAN HUNTER: My first gig in Los Angeles was to go and hopefully interview Prince when he was playing the Palace...it might have been the Greek Theater. So I flew out one late afternoon, got to L.A. about 7:00, and went straight to the gig, where I got to meet the thirteen-year-old Drew Barrymore. She was backstage, along with the Go-Go's and a few other notables. I was interviewing all of them. But years later, I found out Drew Barrymore was hopped up on drugs. [Laughs] I never got to meet Prince. Prince is groundbreaking. Was so strong a personality that video was a medium made for him, and he knew exactly how to work an audience, just as he knew how to work the camera.

  ANGELO MOORE: It was pretty much the same thing with Michael Jackson, except Prince was more a little bit of a radical. Prince has enough R&B, funk, and soul, and Prince played pop music, as well. A lot of Prince's subject matter wasn't controversial. Now, some of his "rated X stuff," they didn't play. But Prince has enough of that pop, soul, R&B, and funk stuff to where he's not causing any waves when it comes to the American way and who America wants to say, "This person plays funk, and this one plays rock, and the different cultures that play this, and the genres of music that are being played." So Prince wasn't really causing any waves either. Now, you get a black radical on there — Gil Scott-Heron perhaps, somebody like that — that's going to be a little challenging to society. And then you might have a problem. Hell, you might not even see him...unless it's 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning!

  ORAN "JUICE" JONES: Prince is a phenomenon. I appreciate his work, and I appreciate his contribution. He's an incredible cat. His approach to music, his approach to art is amazing. It's just incredible. He doesn't really represent any segment of any particular group of people. He's just incredible. It's like Michael Jackson, James Brown...well maybe not James Brown, because he was really a representative of the people. But there are certain times in music, and they go beyond the scope of race and gender. They're just great. And I think Prince is one of those cats.