BEHIND THE SCENES AT MTV

BEHIND THE SCENES AT MTV

It's hard to believe, but MTV will five years old later this year. When the then-fledgling music video channel began broadcasting on August 1, 1981, few could've predicted how successful the channel would be. "There was no such thing as a music video channel before then," says Jay Sykes, one of MTV's first executives. "We defined it." Indeed they did. Music video has become almost synonomous with MTV, although there are, in fact, a growing number of other similar programs-and even a new video channel, "Hit video USA." But whether they’ll become as firmly entrenched in the public’s mind as MTV remains to be seen.

MTV’s success is due to a number of factors. “We don’t tell our viewers what th£y want; they tell us what they want." says another executive. And MTV does research their audience extensively “We found that our audience had grown up with music and had grown up with television and those two interests had never come together before MTV," says Bob Pittman, another MTV mastermind, "We saw an audience that lived in a music culture. They were enthusiastic about music, they took music seriously, they didn’t view it as frivolous entertainment.’’

Of course, the concept of the “veejay"—the TV equivalent of the radio deejay—proved highly successful. The initial bunch (M: Goodman, J.J. Jackson, Nina Blackwood, and the perky and popular Martha Quinn), later joir by Alan Hunter, became celebrii in their own right. Their enthusi; and sense of humor is often contagious.

But MTV is more than their veejays, and even more than the usic videos the veejays show.

'wis an attitude. Their “guest eejays”—a regular feature every * uescfay night at 10:00— have been li me of the most popular and zany ■ople: around. Where else could ou s&e Boy George, Cyndi Lauper, lu k Hogan, Julian Lennon, Weird f /ankovic and even Liberace (!) talk about their favorite clips? The Friday Night Video Fights—seen weekly at 10:00—have given viewers a chance to join in on the video fun by voting in a “showdown” between two hot acts. Other popular features include the Top 20 Video Countdown, the Saturday concerts and “Basement Tapes”—which gives musicians who still haven’t landed that major recording contract a chance to have their video seen on national TV and compete for great prizes.

In addition to all this, MTV has had numerous contests for the viewers. Their ‘‘One Night Stand” feature has sent many lucky viewers to concerts by top acts like Fleetwood Mac, Men At Woik and Journey and back home again -all within 24 hours! Their ‘‘Lost Weekend With Van Halen' gave one viewer (and a friend) two days with Van Halen, complete with luxury hotel accomodations, a limousine, spending money and more! Their annual MTV Music Video Awards Show has become a much-watched extravaganza, and at their New Year's Eve Rock ’n’ Roll ■ Ball, they not only entertained the audience with live performances by the likes of Sta?ship and the Hooters, they actually gave away $1 million to one lucky contestant!

Here, ROCK-SHOTS takes you behind the scenes at this most capturing the irreverent many have come to love. anyone's bound to show when they do anything's happen!

Is it any wonder that more people, in the words Straits' best-selling song, saying. “I Want My MTV”