Thank you to the one-hit wonders, Hall of Famers, MTV alumni, lifelong bizz-ers, cue-card-reading VJs, madcap directors, long-suffering producers, and briefly famous extras who shared their memories and insights with us. Thanks to John Lack, for starting MTV. A tip of the hat to Joni Abbott, Ted Demme, J.J. Jackson, and Ken Ober, MTV fixtures who were recalled lovingly by all who knew them.
A list that acknowledged everyone whose assistance we appreciate would be a separate book in itself. These are some of the people who were especially generous in helping us: Bill Adler, Jennifer Ballantyne, Lisa Barbaris, Angela Barkan, Michelle Bega, Brian Bumbery, Sharon Cho, Ed Christman, Tom Cording, Dennis Dennehy, Sarah Weinstein Dennison, Gayle Fine, Paul Freundlich, Billy F. Gibbons, Carrie Gordon, Randy Haecker, Ambrosia Healy, Robert Hilburn, Darren Hill, C.C. Hirsch, Anne Kreamer, Jolyn Matsumuro, Michelle McDevitt, Claire Mercuri, Jim Merlis, Fachtna O'Ceallaigh, Mitch Schneider, Gina Schulman, and Jill Siegel. Warm thanks to MTV's Jeannie Kedas, who replied without fail to each and every one of our beseeching e-mails.
A very special thank-you to the MTV and music executives who provided not only their recollections, but personal photographs, as well as many invaluable introductions: Jeff Ayeroff, Peter Baron, Ken R. Clark, Adam Curry, Amy Finnerty, Tom Freston, Les Garland, Doug Herzog, Abbey Konowitch, Rick Krim, Judy McGrath, Bob Pittman, Fred Seibert, and John Sykes.
We ruthlessly exploited our uncomplaining interns: Rituleen Dhingra, Janay Meertens-Deans, Meghan O'Connor, Adam Olivo, Eric Sandler, and Rachel Yecco; Aaron Gonsher and Joe Jasko especially distinguished themselves with uncompensated toil. We hope they have long editorial careers and assign us lucrative work in our sunset years.
Dorian Lynskey sent encouragement and insight from England. Elizabeth Goo d-man and Rob Kemp helped us organize an overgrowth of research.
Judythe Cohen was stellar with the tedious task of transcribing our audio files. Trinitie Kedrowski of Kedrowski Transcriptions was as quick as she was accurate, and Luke McCormick and Cory Merrill added timely assistance as well.
There were several books we found useful in our research:
Inside MTV,
by R. Serge Denisoff;
MTV: The Making of a Revolution
, by Tom McGrath;
MTV Uncensored
, an authorized history created by MTV;
The Rolling Stone Book of Rock Video
, by Michael Shore;
Dancing in the Distraction Factory: Music Television and Popular Culture
, by Andrew Goodwin;
Money for Nothing: A History of the Music Video from the Beatles to the White Stripes
, by Saul Austerlitz; and
Sound and Vision: The Music Video Reader
, edited by Simon Frith, Andrew Goodwin, and Lawrence Grossberg.
Our ideals for writing an oral history came from reading two great ones:
Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, as Told By Its Stars, Writers, and Guests
by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller, and
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
, by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain.
We also made prodigious use of the Web site MVDB.com, a remarkably comprehensive and accurate database of music-video information compiled by the saintly Alex S. Garcia.
A note on sourcing: All quotes in the book come from interviews conducted by Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum. The main introduction and some chapter introductions incorporate a few quotes from other sourcesâwe've denoted those quotes by placing them in the past tense (“Keith Richards said”) rather than the present tense (“Janet Jackson says”).
The writing of this book was made easier by some products we love: Apple Computers, Diet Coke, DropBox, Facebook, Gmail, LinkedIn, Scrivener, Skype, Valium, Wellbutrin, YouSendIt, and YouTube. We don't know how Charles Dickens survived without them.
From Craig Marks: Thanks to my employers and coworkers at
Billboard
magazine and Popdust, who pretended not to notice while I YouTubed early-'80s new wave videos at my desk. Thanks to my friends and fellow music journalists, whose ideas about and knowledge of videos I blithely ransacked and whose support for this book was incalculably fortifying. And I'm indebted to René Steinke, who selflessly put my needs, and our son's, ahead of her own over and over and over again. I can only hope that this book is one one-hundredth as good as her next one is sure to be.
From Rob Tannenbaum: Thanks to Gabriela Shelley, for encouragement, for making me laugh, for leaving me alone, and for timing the birth of our child to follow book publication by three months; to my parents, Mort and Sydelle, who would have kvelled; to my aunt and uncle, Sylvia and Julian Ander, for, respectively, cooking brisket whenever I ask and finding a good red wine to accompany it; to my brother, Rick, and his family, for love, support, advice, and assistance; and to Steve Randall and Jimmy Jellinek, for not pointing out that watching videos had become way more important to me than some of my other contractual responsibilities.
Cast of Characters
PAULA ABDUL
is a choreographer and singer who won four Video Music Awards in 1989 for the David Fincherâdirected “Straight Up.” She is currently a judge on Fox's
The X Factor
.
BRYAN ADAMS
had many hit singles in the 1980s, including “Cuts Like a Knife,” “Run to You,” “Heaven,” and “Summer of'69.”
BILL ADLER
worked as the director of publicity for Def Jam Recordings and Rush Artist Management from 1984 to 1990.
STEVEN ADLER
was the drummer for Guns N' Roses from 1985 to 1990.
BRUCE ALLEN
has managed Bryan Adams for many years and also represented Loverboy in the 1980s.
JOEY ALLEN
is the lead guitarist of Warrant.
PETE ANGELUS
conceived and directed the Van Halen videos “Hot for Teacher” and “Jump,” managed David Lee Roth from 1985 to 1990, and conceived/directed Roth's “California Girls” and “Just a Gigolo” videos. He has managed the Black Crowes since 1990.
ADAM ANT
gained popularity as the leader of the new wave group Adam & the Ants and later as a solo artist and actor.
MICHAEL ANTHONY
played bass in Van Halen, of which he was a founding and longtime member. He now plays in Chickenfoot with Sammy Hagar.
MIKE ARMSTRONG
was a writer on
Remote Control.
DANIÃLE ARNAUD
is a French-born model who starred in ZZ Top's three most famous videos. She represents painters and photographers in the San Diego area.
MEIERT AVIS
is an Irish music-video and commercial director who's worked with U2 and Bruce Springsteen.
JEFF AYEROFF
was the creative director of Warner Bros. Records and the co-chairman of Virgin Records America. Now semiretired in Kauai, Hawaii, he's the copresident of Shangri-La Music.
B-REAL
is a founding member of the California rap group Cypress Hill, who debuted in 1991.
SEBASTIAN BACH
was the front man for the hard rock band Skid Row from 1987 to 1996.
STEVE BACKER
was a promotion executive for Epic Records. He is currently a managing partner at One Haven Music Publishing.
TOM BAILEY
led the new wave band Thompson Twins from 1977 until 1993. He has several current bands and also writes film scores.
CAROLYN BAKER
was MTV's original head of talent and acquisitions. She is the CEO of Carolyn B. Baker & Associates, a philanthropy consulting firm.
JOHNNY BARBIS
is a former record executive. He manages Elton John.
DON BARNES
is the lead singer and a founding member of the Southern rock band .38 Special.
PETER BARON
was a video production executive for Arista Records and Geffen Records.
SIOBHAN BARRON
was a cofounder of Limelight Productions with her brother, Steve.
STEVE BARRON
is an Irish film director. His videos rank among the artform's best loved: Michael Jackson's “Billie Jean,” a-ha's “Take on Me,” and Dire Straits' “Money for Nothing,” among others. He was a cofounder of Limelight Productions.
TONI BASIL
is a singer, choreographer, director, and actor. She has been nominated for a Grammy, in the Long Form Video category, and an Emmy, and is best known for her worldwide number one hit “Mickey” from 1982.
SAMUEL BAYER
is a music-video and film director. His first video was Nirvana's “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
ALISA MARIE BELLETTINI
was the creator and executive producer of
House of Style
.
PAT BENATAR
has won four Grammy Awards and sold more than 22 million records in a career that has produced nineteen Top 40 singles.
DAVID BENJAMIN
is the former head of business affairs for CBS Records. He is currently a senior vice president at the Universal Music Group.
JAC BENSON
was a producer for
Yo! MTV Raps.
GEORGIA “JO” BERGMAN
is an executive at Warner Bros. Records, where she's worked since 1972. She was Warner Bros.' first director of video and television.
MARSHALL BERLE
managed the LA rock band Ratt and later cofounded Laugh .Com, a comedy record label.
JOHN BEUG
was a senior vice president of video production for Warner Bros. Records.
BIG DADDY KANE
is a Brooklyn-born rapper whose 1988 debut album was
Long Live the Kane
.
MICHAEL IAN BLACK
is a member of the State, the first comedy troupe with their own MTV series. He has starred in the TV shows
Ed
,
Viva Variety
,
Stella
, and
Michael & Michael Have Issues
, and the film
Wet Hot American Summer
.
NINA BLACKWOOD
was one of the five original MTV VJs. She hosts a daily show on Sirius XM Radio's '80s on 8 station.
REBECCA BLAKE
is a photographer and director. She directed three videos for Prince, including “Kiss.”
SUSAN BLOND
was vice president of media relations for Epic Records, where she worked with Michael Jackson.
JULIA BOLINO
was a model who appeared in the video for Robert Palmer's “Addicted to Love.” She currently owns a makeup service in London.
BOY GEORGE
is the lead singer of Culture Club.
DALE BOZZIO
became famous as the lead singer of the 1980s pop/new wave band Missing Persons.
GEORGE BRADT
worked at MTV from 1983 to 1988 as research analyst, supervisor of music scheduling, and associate producer, and later cofounded Kinetic Records.
MARCY BRAFMAN
was Fred Seibert's first hire at MTV, in March 1981. She is now a visual artist and set-design consultant.
RONALD “BUZZ” BRINDLE
joined MTV in 1981 as director of programming. Before and after his time there, he worked extensively in the radio industry.
BETH BRODAY
is a music-video and television producer.
BOBBIE BROWN
was Miss Louisiana Teen USA in 1987, a
Star Search
champion, and star of Warrant's “Cherry Pie” video.
BOBBY BROWN
is an R&B singer and a former member of New Edition.
JULIE BROWN
was a dancer on a British TV show before moving to New York at age twenty-six to work as an MTV VJ.
JERRY BRUCKHEIMER
has produced more than forty feature films, including
Top Gun
,
Beverly Hills Cop
,
Flashdance
, and three
Pirates of the Caribbean
films.
JIM BURNS
is a television producer who created
Unplugged
with Bob Small.
CLIFF BURNSTEIN
is the cofounder of Q Prime Management, whose clients include Def Leppard, Metallica, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
JONATHAN CAIN
is the keyboardist for the band Journey.
MARTY CALLNER
is a television and music-video director. He has filmed videos for Twisted Sister, Heart, Whitesnake, Aerosmith, and Cher, among many acts.
JOHN CANNELLI
was a senior vice president of talent and artist relations for MTV.
ANN CARLI
was senior vice president of artist development at Jive Records.
GERRY CASALE
is a video director and also a singer and founding member of Devo.
STEVE CASEY
was a founding programming executive for MTV. He is currently a radio consultant.
CHER
is a recording artist and actress. She has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, and an Emmy Award.
CHILLI
rose to fame as a member of the R&B singing group TLC. She later starred in the VH1 reality show
What Chilli Wants
.
CHUCK D
is a rapper and author. He helped create politically conscious hip-hop in the 1980s as the leader of Public Enemy.
KEN R. CLARK
was a production assistant to MTV's original five VJs, and later manager of on-air talent. He is currently a real-estate broker in Portland, Oregon.
TIM CLAWSON
was the head of production for Propaganda Films from 1988 to 1999. He is now an executive vice president at the Weinstein Company.
LISA COLEMAN
played keyboards for Prince's backing band, the Revolution, and was one half of the musical duo Wendy and Lisa, with Wendy Melvoin. She and Melvoin won an Emmy in 2010 for their theme to the TV show
Nurse Jackie
.