2020 report on music video from 1980 - part 1 of 2

This is part 1 of 2. Part 2 is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9KRtuEttIQ

Back in 1980, the record industry was in turmoil - a place they seem to find themselves in on a regular basis. Featuring interviews with various record label executives on weather or not this new thing called "music video" would save the record business.

This pre-dated eMpTyVee, which didn't launch until August 1st, 1981.

Featuring clips from various artists including:

Kate Bush
Lene Lovich
Todd Rundgren
The Rolling Stones
Michael Nesmith
Rickie Lee Jones
Tom Petty
Fleetwood Mac
The Buggles
Meatloaf
Bruce Springsteen

It's amusing (although unintentionally so), and the hosts of the program really don't seem to grasp the relationship of music and video. And people under 20 might find those giant DVDs somewhat disturbing.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• music
• video
• history
• 1980
• unintentionally
• humorous

[Andregrindle]

To me the report,from about 5:17 to 6:03 in this case really illustrates the "freeze out" period after the whole disco sucks bit. The music industry was in a recession and if something had any funk,it was usually considered disco and disco was considered something that "sucked". In many ways paralell's what's happening today with a music industry in crisis and everyone trying to find something to blame it on.

[postingoldtapes]

@Andregrindle As they always have.

[JustLikeThatBird]

What's the band/song in that last video clip, with the "cartoon-like humor and sexual overtones?"

[postingoldtapes]

No idea. I recorded this off the air and was watching plenty of TV at the time, and I've never heard this song other than in this report. It sounds like "do rocks", but it could be any combination of words.

[razzking]

Postingoldtapes: You obscessive/compulsive or something? Anyway I'm GLAD you and others at YouTube as well as the Youtube "Establishment" (Yes, I'm an old coot too) are doing this. As a history major and history junky this is the best thing to happen to the study of history since history itself.

I just checked the Inflation Calculator. $25 in 1979 would be like $74.64.

[postingoldtapes]

No more than any other collector. It was something that made sense to record at the time, and I just kept it in the ever growing collection since. When I set up a YouTube account, I decided to share some of this stuff before it faded forever. For instance, I have about a hundred tapes of music video clips from the 1980s. I look through the lists, find something interesting, check that it's not already up, and digitize and upload it. It's the rare hobby that benefits others.

[CaptainWrong]

One of my favorite things is how people in the music industry still won't consider the possibility that the reason sales are slipping is that they just aren't releasing a product people want to buy. A few years after this report, it'd be home taping is killing the music industry, then DAT, then used CDs, then the internet.

Same old song and dance, yet everyone is unwilling to look in the mirror.

Great clip. Thanks.

[postingoldtapes]

Yes, exactly that. I have over 3000 VHS tapes, some of which date back to 1979 when I got my first VHS deck (top loading, mechanical transport, rotary tuner and no remote control other than a wired pause switch). Things sucked back then. Oh, and blank tapes cost $25. BLANK!

(Great. Now I feel like an old coot.)

[xenussister]

Damn, Part 2 was really interesting and YouTube took it down. :( 

[Frsng1]

@999manman I should have ussed a question mark as opposed to an exclamation point--but I did actually make a good point didn't I? LOL

[999manman]

@Frsng1 Touche` my friend!

[Frsng1]

@999manman You Tube!!

[Makkabee]

Promotional videos since THE SEVENTIES? That's not very well researched. There were plenty of promotional videos in the 60s (e.g. the Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever") shown on music programs like "American Bandstand." There were also filmed musical shorts done in a style we'd recognize as "music video" today that were shown before feature films back in the golden age of Hollywood. The laser disks were a new storage medium, but other than that this "news story" was old hat even then.