I Want My MTV

by Craig Marks

  I wanted our videos and our songs to appeal to guys and girls. And that exactly reflected my sexuality, actually.

  MATT MAHURIN: When I met with Michael Stipe to discuss “Orange Crush,” he said, “We don’t want to be in the video.” The band had a kind of androgyny, so maybe I picked up on that. It’s about a soldier going off to war, and there were things in the video that could be perceived as sexy. It had a youthful virility—the shirtless soldier with the dogtag, the military theme, the physicality. The VMA award it won was “Post-modern Video.” I’m fifty-one years old, and I still don’t know what post-modern means. But I’ve got the little Moonman to prove it.

  MICHAEL STIPE: Peter Buck hated doing music videos. He adopted a curmudgeonly “I’m miserable, and I don’t want to be here” attitude. That provided an interesting tension, because I was trying to do something different and cool, and there was Peter with his arms crossed, standing in the back and not really wanting to participate. It was an almost cartoonish persona, and he did not step out of character. At the end of “Stand,” he looks totally miserable. It’s hysterical.

  RANDY SKINNER: Peter always read books while R.E.M. was making videos.

  KEVIN GODLEY: Lou Reed didn’t want to be in his own video. We came up with the idea of creating an animatronic version of Lou for “No Money Down,” and having the robot lip-sync the song. We figured people wouldn’t quite suss what was going on. “Is that Lou Reed? He doesn’t look well.” We did three takes, then wondered what would happen if the robot started to tear its face off, but kept performing. It’s a bit Terminator, actually.

  TAMRA DAVIS: I went to Lou Reed’s dressing room at Radio City Music Hall, and I was nervous. He hadn’t done a music video in years. He was standing, I was sitting, and he’s like, “I’m not making this music video, fuck you.” He was just yelling at me. Screaming. I tried to stand up so I would be at eye level. I said, “Whatever you want to do, we’ll do.” He’s like, “I’ll give you two hours at a concert next week in Detroit.” He showed up on set wearing a shirt covered in swear words. I had a PA tape up every letter. I shot him live, doing “Busload of Faith” with a full band. Then I said, “I have fifteen minutes left. Would you do the song alone, just you and the guitar?” I set up two cameras, and it became an amazing video.

  PETER HOOK: Most music videos are so narcissistic. The singer has to be on-screen the most, etc. It is so fucking boring when people do that. If I was watching one of our videos and it had just been just Barney Sumner’s face, it would not entertain me.

  SINEAD O’CONNOR: The close-up of me singing “Nothing Compares 2 U” was supposed to be only one part of the video. But the song reminded me of my mother, who had died three years previously. Everyone thinks it’s about some bloke, but if you notice where I start crying, it’s at the lines, “All the flowers that you planted, mama, in the backyard / All died when you went away.” I made an emotional connection, which I was not expecting—it didn’t hit me when I was recording the song. It only kicked in when I was being filmed. So I was sitting there, thinking about me mother, and trying hard not to bawl my eyes out. I had one little tear. That became the whole video. But it wasn’t supposed to be. The video was massive, and it changed my career. What was funny, when the video won an award, John Maybury said, “Thank you to the plate of onions,” saying it was onions that made me cry.

  PETER HOOK: The American record company hated every video we ever made. That always cheered us up. Later on, we set some sort of record with “Regret” for spending the most amount of money on a video that featured the least amount of a group. That video cost something like £750,000 and we were in it for about twenty seconds. The record company went fucking berserk.

  DAVE NAVARRO: The record company put Jane’s Addiction together with a director who gave us his take on “Mountain Song,” and when we saw it, we were very unhappy. It didn’t represent us on any level. So we decided to reshoot it on our own. They ended up using black strips over the genitalia. The nudity was so brief that putting black bars over it called attention to the nudity. It was like shooting off a flare, saying, “There’s something edgy and dangerous in this.” So it worked to our advantage.

  We shot “Been Caught Stealing” in a supermarket in Venice, California. By that time, we had an aversion to being on MTV. We saw bands—Bullet Boys, for instance—who had a cool song and a cool video, and were enormous for a minute, then you never heard from them again. I wasn’t convinced there could be any longevity around an MTV band unless it was pop music. We were one of the first bands asked to do an Unplugged, and we turned it down. I think we upset some people over there. MTV would come to Lollapalooza and cover every band on the festival except us—and we were headlining! It started to feel like a power play, like, “Play ball with us or else.”

  FLEA, Red Hot Chili Peppers: Stéphane Sednaoui had made some videos we liked, so we met with him and he came up with a treatment for “Give It Away.” We didn’t really understand it. The only thing we got was that we were going to be painted silver. So he takes out a picture from a magazine—it was a picture of a girl lying on a rock. He goes, “You see zis? Zis picture of zis girl on zee rock?” We’re like, “Yeah.” He goes, “It’s not like zis.” We made another video with Stéphane for “Breaking the Girl,” also in Joshua Tree. Stéphane got real mad at the crew at one point. He was frustrated and he yelled, “Everybody! Get in your position!” But with his French accent, it sounded like “Get in your fuzzy sham.” Our drummer Chad’s e-mail address is still Fuzzy Sham.

  ANTON CORBIJN: For Depeche Mode’s Music for the Masses, the videos had been in black and white, so for Violator I decided we’d go to color. On “Personal Jesus,” I took a sexual approach, and shot in a little brothel in the south of Spain. There was one shot I had to take out, the horse’s tail. The record company said it was too suggestive of sex with an animal. Nobody objected to the brothel.

  It was a massive hit in America and I got more offers, but I was very focused on Depeche. On “Enjoy the Silence,” I had this idea of a king with a deck chair, walking all around the world and finding peace. They didn’t like the idea and asked me to think of another one. I couldn’t. They said, “Just make it, then.” We shot in Portugal, Switzerland, Scotland, and a garage studio in London, over somebody’s house. There’s a lyric, “Words are very unnecessary,” and it’s the only line Dave sings.

  It was really cheap. I filmed everything, we didn’t use lighting, we had one girl for makeup, a producer to help me carry stuff, and Dave Gahan. Four people. Tiny budget, but the video was massive. Massive. It did a lot for Depeche Mode.

  I re-created the video in 2008 with Coldplay. Chris Martin had written “Viva La Vida” about “Enjoy the Silence”—it was his favorite video, so he wrote the song about a king without a kingdom. I re-created the video with Chris dressed as a king. I got the same outfit as we did with Dave Gahan. Then the song became so big that EMI dismissed the video; they said I made Coldplay look like an indie band, and they wanted them to be seen as the biggest band in the world. They commissioned some American guy [Hype Williams] to make another video for the song. Oh, it’s dreadful.

  Chapter 32

  “MARTHA WAS HEARTBROKEN”

  MTV FINDS A NEW, MOUTHIER SQUAD OF VJs

  ABC, CBS, AND NBC HAD ALWAYS BEEN IN THE BUSIness of making stars, but when a show became a hit, and the stars were indispensible, the networks had to pay whatever it cost to keep them. At MTV, the network was the star. Bands and videos were popular for a few months, then dismissed as new ones came along. The one constant was the VJs, and in order for the network to evolve and grow, executives felt they needed not only new talent, but someone respectable. The second wave of VJs—notably Downtown Julie Brown, a brash, foul-mouthed British fashion plate and disco dancing champion, and Adam Curry, an opinionated, confident, fluffy-maned American raised in the Netherlands—brought ample egos with them, creating conflicts that hadn’t previously existed at the network. For a new
s anchor, MTV turned to Rolling Stone writer Kurt Loder, an unlikely choice. Loder was disdainful of MTV, which he made clear by shoehorning digs into his articles, whether he was interviewing Bruce Springsteen or writing reviews of Cyndi Lauper (“more than just MTV overnight wonder”) or Huey Lewis and the News (“mere MTV fodder”). In February 1988, this opponent of MTV became an employee of MTV, to the displeasure of VJs on their way out of the network, as well as those who’d recently arrived.

  STEVE LEEDS, MTV executive: Tom Freston once said to me, “VJs are like fruits and vegetables—they’re perishable, and you have to know when to toss them out.” So one of the not-fun things I had to do was find new VJs.

  MARK GOODMAN: Bob Pittman was about keeping the VJs down. He didn’t want us to get too famous, he didn’t want us getting other TV shows, or films. He wouldn’t allow it. There were huge fights about this. People were contacting us to do commercials and things—all the things you saw the second round of VJs doing—and Bob wouldn’t permit it. Bob’s thing was always, MTV is the star, and if MTV is big, you’re big.

  JOHN SYKES: When I got oversight of the VJs, I told Mark he had to get his hair cut. He had really big hair. I said, “Mark, big hair is over.” And he said, “I can’t cut my hair. It’s my signature.” So I said, “Go wherever you want, I’ll pay, I’ll fly you anywhere, just get your hair cut. You look like the guy from Welcome Back, Kotter.”

  So one day, I’m in my office and I get a call from Mark: “John, I want you to talk to somebody.” And this guy says, “Hello? This is José Eber.” Jose Eber was famous, he was Cher’s haircutter in Beverly Hills. And José says to me, “I cannot cut this man’s hair. It is beautiful.” I said, “Look, José, just do something with his hair.” And he goes, “I will try, but you are ruining a masterpiece.”

  NINA BLACKWOOD: You could feel the corporate reins tightening. They sent us all to a voice coach, which was good. And they got more restrictive with what we could say on the air. We were no longer allowed to announce which VJ was coming up next. They didn’t want us to become stars. We were approached for lucrative commercial and endorsement deals. But our contracts prohibited any outside work. We were signed exclusively.

  Procter & Gamble wanted me for a skin product. Merv Griffin wanted to do a music show and was dead set on having me host. MTV gave us the go-ahead. We shot the pilot, then my manager got a call reversing the decision. I could have broken my contract, of course. But the thing was, we all loved MTV.

  MARTHA QUINN: I was offered a gig at The Today Show to do music reporting, in addition to MTV. Bob Pittman wouldn’t let me do it. I thought, That’s okay, MTV wants me to be theirs. I thought I was going to be Mrs. MTV my whole life. He was the great Bob Pittman, the legendary Bob Pittman. Whatever Pittman wanted, I would do. Pittman über alles.

  ALAN HUNTER: I had an offer to be in a movie called Girls Just Want to Have Fun, and Bob said, “Alan, I’m happy for you, but I don’t think this is the right opportunity . . .” I was trying to interject: “Er . . . Uh . . . Bob . . .” He did not want the five originals to get too big for our britches. By this time, doing my job didn’t make me nervous anymore. And one night, I definitely transgressed. I went out partying and used whatever stimuli I needed to stay awake. At about 7 A.M., I thought, I’ve got to go on the air in an hour. I’ll just stay up! I wasn’t even coming down at the time. The director saw I was sniffing and wheezing and sweating. I was practically incoherent. They kept saying, “You’re doing great. Just read the teleprompter.” We weren’t working the hardest job ever. We weren’t rocket scientists.

  DOUG HERZOG, MTV executive: At that point, MTV News was basically the VJs ripping out articles from Billboard and reading them. Then it started evolving. Our genius promo department came up with the MTV News open, with the graphic and the bass line from Megadeth’s “Peace Sells.”

  DAVE MUSTAINE: MTV scammed me. They never paid for using the bass line from “Peace Sells” as the MTV News theme. I wrote that music.

  DOUG HERZOG: A lot of the more credible rock stars—the Springsteens and Bonos—did not want to talk to VJs. They had reps as lightweights. Martha was a good interviewer, but Alan was not a big music-head, J.J. was seen as past his prime, and Nina, who was totally into music, had an airhead rep. Linda Corradina, who succeeded me as news director, had the idea to bring in Kurt Loder, who was writing for Rolling Stone.

  ALAN HUNTER: When I saw Kurt, I said, “Joined the enemy, did ya?”

  NINA BLACKWOOD: Kurt Loder, who slimed us in Rolling Stone, took a job at MTV. There was no upward growth for the VJs. I was ready to leave, and then contract time came and my contract was not renewed. I wasn’t going to renew it anyway. I took a deal from Paramount to do two shows, Entertainment Tonight and Solid Gold, and did a deal for a syndicated radio show as well. MTV had me under a gag order, and they put out a press release saying my exit was solely their decision. They said that they had declined to renew my contract and J.J.’s contract. That was painful.

  KEN R. CLARK: Nina was the first to leave. That was shocking. Then J.J. was next.

  JULIE BROWN, MTV VJ: They gave me a dressing room and I started putting my stuff in there. Unfortunately, Nina hadn’t quite moved out. It was revolving doors—I walked in and she walked out.

  KEN R. CLARK: Julie Brown hit that place like a ton of bricks. She had an enormous, enormous personality. She was a loaded cannon. You didn’t know when it would go off or which direction it would be pointing. She was by far the most volatile VJ we ever had. At that point, I was manager of on-air talent. And the MTV executives’ mandate to me was “Keep her the hell away from us.”

  ADAM CURRY: I grew up in Holland, where there were only two TV stations, because it was all government-run. I was hosting the music show on Sunday night, presenting videos, and half the country watched it. I was a national celebrity. All the rock stars wanted to come to Amsterdam, of course: “Yay! Hookers and blow!” I spoke fluent English, so I could have a conversation with Mick Jagger or Boy George. Somehow a tape of what I was doing got to Steve Leeds. He called and said, “Would you like to work for us in New York?” Maybe six weeks later, I was on a plane.

  My first day was Halloween, 1987. From day one, I was a misfit in the organization. Carol Robinson, who ran the press department, arranged an interview with TV Guide. They go, “What do you think of Madonna?” And I go, “Well, she’s kind of a bitch.” Everyone at MTV shit themselves: “You can’t say that about Madonna!” They were not happy with me. But I was really good at being a VJ. I was fired many, many times, and they’d hire me back the next day.

  LOU STELLATO: The rumor was that Adam was paid a lot of money to come to America, because he was huge in Europe. He had a lot of confidence. I got along with Adam, but he could be a dick.

  VAN TOFFLER: MTV needed to send the signal that we would evolve, and not grow old with our audience. And that meant new talent, new faces, and new music. We said good-bye to a lot of musicians who were relevant in the early’80s, like A Flock of Seagulls.

  CAROLYNE HELDMAN, MTV VJ: I was the music director at a rock radio station in Aspen, Colorado, when I saw a full-page ad looking for MTV VJs. It said something like “Is rock n’ roll your life?” I was like, “I don’t know. Kinda? Maybe?” I didn’t even have MTV at the time. When I got there, Nina and J.J. had already left. Alan, being from the South, was super open and nice. Mark was very big-brothery to me. Martha was not overtly friendly or welcoming. I started in September, and she was let go in January.

  BETH McCARTHY: All the original VJs were getting fired. It was pretty traumatizing. Martha was heartbroken.

  ALAN HUNTER: When they let Martha go, we all thought the sky was falling.

  LOU STELLATO: Martha seemed to embody MTV. On her last segment, she said good-bye on camera, and Beth McCarthy was crying.

  MARTHA QUINN: I was devastated when MTV let me go. I thought I was going to be there forever. Sometimes people ask if I can see myself having an opportunity like that again
. That’s like asking Buzz Aldrin, “Can you ever top being in the first moon landing?”

  TABITHA SOREN: VJs came and went. I can’t even remember half of them.

  ALAN HUNTER: Mark and I said to each other, “Are we gonna be VJs for the rest of our lives?” I had another two years on my contract. Mark and I left of our own volition.

  MARK GOODMAN: Alan and I quit on the same day. Most people think the original VJs were fired, but Alan and I chose to go. They had hired Kurt Loder, and I knew Kurt would be doing a lot of the interviews I’d been doing. Which annoyed me, because whenever Kurt reviewed a record for Rolling Stone, he would find a way to slag off MTV. But when he was offered a job, it was, “What? You’re gonna pay me how much? I’m there!” And he never, ever, ever made great television.

  DAVE SIRULNICK, MTV executive: I’d been a segment producer at CNN, and I went to MTV to help develop and create The Week in Rock. Adam Curry and Carolyne Heldman became the hosts of the show, but we wanted somebody who could really add to the level of credibility.