I kinda am, just thinking about it. I'd put the blame on VCR, but I haven't had one in years. That little girl is rising 40.
It was the summer after high school and we didn't actually watch that much TV, certainly not cable (my parents only gave up their vast Mediterranean console set with the built-in stereo a couple of years later, seduced by the prospect of remote controls). Still, it was all in the air - VJs, Pat Benatar, the ubiquitous astronaut planting the flag: MTV. By fall, we were watching, in the dorms, as the prospect of a mass market polished the few remaining rough edges off what started punk, turned New Wave, and then became telegenic New Romantic. Within a year the Buggles would have been much too weird for MTV, but nevertheless, they were first.
Now MTV seems as dead as the dodo, and all my music lives up in a cloud. Who could have known? We thought we'd gone too far, and it turned out we'd hardly just begun...
The Buggles, of course, was the brainchild of Trevor Horn, who soon became the prolific and acclaimed producer of classic albums by ABC, Art of Noise, Grace Jones, Pet Shop Boys, Seal, etc..
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I feel older by the minute.
Feeling very old. MTV doesn't even show ANYTHING of value anymore.
ReplyDelete