Looking back at my generation, I realize it is not a secret that the fairly new phenomenon of Music Television had a major impact on my formative years. So before you start calculating the years, let me categorize myself as a typical (though fairly late) Generation X, who was just about to turn 13 when our block (somewhere in southern Germany) was finally connected to the local cable TV service, in December of 1991. By that time I was of course quite familiar with music videos, but on our regular public TV channels you barely got to see any, if at all. So you can imagine the sheer luxury it brought to the world of a teenager, to be able to switch to a TV channel, where we could see music videos non stop! Indeed, that was even before MTV started having all sorts of other music programs that ended up competing with the music videos.
Enjoying the Highest Form of Art
From that time on I could never say there was nothing on TV. Actually, it made me realize how dull programming had been up to that point. I would come home from school, switch on MTV, and enjoy one five-minute clip after the next. The sound was one thing, and sure enough, some I liked more than others, but then there were all the visuals. They offered a mix of impressions, from the musicians performing their songs, to elaborate stories, usually on the weird side, which needed to be put into perspective, discussed with friends, and found an interpretation for.
This era left a deep impression on me, which these days manifests itself in memories expressed commonly with sentences starting with "when we first got MTV..." And most often, it was not so much the music, or the performance, that grabbed my attention, but the videos. So let me share three of my most favorite clips from that time with you here.
The KLF - Justified & Ancient
Back then I didn't know anything about this highly eccentric music group, and I haven't read The Illuminatus! Trilogy, a book with a strong effect on their art. What captivated me, however, was the rich and cryptic imagery in this video. The African dancers, the crowned female singer on this pyramid-like platform of sorts, the hooded characters that looked like really bad impressions of... I don't know, mastodons(?), and the overwhelming information in text and video form all around the main screen, conveying seemingly nonsense. My impression was, there HAD to be something about this band! And true enough, there indeed was, but it took me many years before that story reached me. What remained until then, was the strong notion, that the Ancients must have been truly Justified, after all they were singing about the fabled Mu-Mu Land.
R.E.M. - Losing My Religion
From the bright and colorful to the dark and sepia stained, and from the mystical and mythical to the religious themed video, it is apparently not a distant jump. Both clips were equally captivating to my imagination, and I kept puzzling about both of them equally. While R.E.M. had a more serious and pensive mood, it also dealt with the supernatural, the unexplainable, or much rather, the way too obvious, which we were simply unwilling to accept, with our limited minds. At least, these are the ideas the symbol of the falling angel raised in me, especially seeing the humans taking his hair, sticking fingers into his open wound, and trying to make iron copies of his wings. Anyway, just like the previous video, this one would make me stop whatever I was doing, so I could devote those few minutes to fully appreciating this great song.
Guns N' Roses - November Rain
Finally, as my third favorite music video from that era, I want to include a piece of stereotypical Hollywood romance story, ultimately becoming one of the most expensive music videos of all time. The front man of a famous rock group is getting married. In the world of booze, drugs, and dangerous rock there is a place for love after all... Or is there? First, the ring-bearer fails his duty, ending up with a fashion ring from one of his band mates as a replacement. Then, he probably puts some evil magic spell on the event, when he walks out of the church to rock out in the desert. At the reception tragedy strikes in form of a lightning, killing the bride, and nobody catching the bouquet. Finally, the subsequent funeral brings our mourning groom back into his world of drugs and alcohol. Was it the story, the deep irony in it, or the marking imagery, that made this video so well liked by me? In any case, it became a sort of standard I would use to measure other clips, which most of them would never reach.
Well, that's it, for this week's #threetunetuesday , a bit of nostalgic revisit of the time we first got MTV. Do you have any similar memories? Maybe a different year, or different videos? Maybe not even MTV but one of the other TV stations playing music videos? I would be excited to know. If you would like to see other music related posts, please visit my Monday Music series.