namkcuR
ONE love, blood, life
This is a long thread(although not as long as it looks because there are two long quick-read lists in it that take half the space). But I had to vent my nostalgia. And I felt B&C was a more appropriate place for this than ZS because I'm talking about a television network that used to be all about music.
VH1. It was originally MTV's little sister. While that may make the two networks sound like comrads, and while their ownership is one and the same, the reality is that VH1 was concieved as and always was the anti-MTV.
In the early days of 80s MTV, when they were still pretty much a music videos channel, Video Hits 1 - VH1 - was concieved essentially as 'MTV for older people'. Whereas MTV was only concerned with playing what was hip and popular on the given day, VH1's purpose was to play videos that would be desirable to the baby boomers(who were in their 20s and 30s at the time). So right from the very start, VH1 was essentially definied by the fact that it respected musical history, whereas MTV was a big celebration of today's fad.
That was the first era of VH1. Playing music videos geared towards those who were too old for MTV. It lasted from the beginning(1985) to 1994.
In 1994, VH1 started its fabled "VH1: Music First" format. While the first era was all about music videos, this era was all about programs talking ABOUT music and emphasizing the importance OF music. I believe this to be the single best era of any television music network in the history of television.
We all know these programs.
Behind The Music
Everybody knows BTM. Series was great because it educated a younger generation about a whole bunch of older artists, as well as a few newer ones - just look at this list of episodes(this isn't all of them):
Fleetwood Mac
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Teddy Pandergrass
Billy Joel
Lillith Fair
Andy Gibb
Jim Croce
The Carpenters
Sonny Bono
The Mamas And The Papas
Meat Loaf
Gladys Knight
Willie Nelson
Jerry Lee Lewis
Rick Jamse
David Crosby
Selena
Jefferson Airplane/Starship
Ozzy Osbourne
Ted Nugent
Joe Cocker
Frank Sinatra
Studio 54
Keith Moon
Bonnie Raitt
Culture Club
Robbie Robertson
Def Leppard
Tony Orlando
Gloria Estefan
Jan And Dean
Harry Chapin
Gloria Gaynor
Madonna
1968
Steppenwolf
John Denver
Blondie
Stevie Nicks
Metallica
Lionel Richie
Rick Springfield
KC And The Sunshine Band
REM
Motley Crue
David Cassidy
Bette Midler
Leif Garrett
Heart
The Day The Music Died
Depeche Mode
Grand Funk Railroad
Iggy Pop
Duran Duran
Cher
Julian Lennon
Alice Cooper
Black Crowes
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Marianne Faithfull
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Eric Burdon & The Animals
Donna Summer
Lenny Kravitz
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Poison
Quiet Riot
Natalie Cole
Melissa Etheridge
Woodstock
Bay City Rollers
Donny & Marie
Peter Tosh
Bad Company
Glen Campbell
Sting
Alan Freed
Thin Lizzy
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Dr. Dre
Barry White
Alanis Morissette
Genesis
1999
The Partridge Family
Michael Hutchence
Celine Dion
Russell Simmons
Quincy Jones
Run DMC
Tina Turner
Elton John
Oasis
No Doubt
The Police
The Go-Go's
AC/DC
The Monkees
Public Enemy
The Bangles
Peter Frampton
Styx
Ice-T
Cat Stevens
Chicago
Badfinger
Brian Setzer
Huey Lewis & The News
Journey
Doobie Brothers
Rod Stewart
Billy Idol
Megadeth
The Notorious B.I.G.
Neil Diamond
Pat Benatar
REO Speedwagon
Twisted Sister
Judas Priest
Sinead O'Connor
Sublime
Hall & Oates
Foreigner
Bob Marley
Aerosmith
Cyndi Lauper
Guns'N'Roses
VH1 Legends
Companion series to BTM - this was for those bands who had had a more significant historical impact on music.
Although BTM was VH1's flagship show during those years, this one was better. This is one of THE greatest, most entertaining, inspiring, best put together rockumentary series' I have EVER had the pleasure of viewing. I can only hope they're all put on DVD one of these days.
Episodes include:
The Who
Grateful Dead
Marvin Gaye
Eric Clapton
The Doors
U2
David Bowie
Johnny Cash
Tina Turner
Curtis Mayfield
Aretha Franklin
Elton John
John Fogerty
B.B. King
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Queen
Bruce Springsteen
Janis Joplin
Led Zeppelin
John Lennon
The Pretenders
George Clinton
The Clash
Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young
Neil Young
Bee Gees
Jimi Hendrix
Sam Cooke
Pink Floyd & Syd Barrett
Kiss
Michael Jackson
Pop-Up Video
This was a fad in and of itself for a while there in the late 90s. Music videos with fact tidbits sprinkled about. It doesn't sound great but it works brilliantly.
Storytellers
Sort of similar to MTV's Unplugged(one of the only music programs in MTV's history that remains relevant to this day), except that the performers told the stories behind the songs before or even while playing them. Great, great series.
Where Are They Now?
You know, where they'd catch up with your favorite has-beens from past decades.
A show I don't remember the name of, but it was awesome
I don't remember what it was called, but the concept was music videos in a blender. You'd see a minute of this video, and then it would 'mix' into a minute of that video, and then that would mix into a minute of a third video, and so forth. It was really sweet.
Divas Live
Obviously not everybody's cup of tea, but still totally music related. The first one was the best, with Aretha Franklin, Gloria Estefan, Carole King, Celine Dion, Shania Twain, and Mariah Carey.
The List
Does anybody remember this show? It only lasted for one season but I looooooved it and really hope to get my hands on those episodes somehow.
It was where they'd get a group of 4-5 celebrities, sometimes all from the same show or band or whatever, and they'd sit in a circle and make top 5 lists(top 5 bands, top 5 rock songs, top 5 albums, top 5 pop songs, top 5 videos, top 5 this, top 5 that), and at the end the audience would get to vote on it. Fucking awesome show. Rob Gordon would have loved it.
"Movies That Rock"
They'd make biograhic, sometimes partially fictional, films about the lives and careers of classic artists.
100 Greatest...
These are still going on, but they started over a decade ago, during this era. They've done "100 Greatest Songs Of The 80s" and "100 Greatest Songs Of The 90s" recently, but back in the day it started with "Top 100 Artists", "Top 100 Albums", "Top 100 Songs", "Top 100 Heavy Metal Acts", "Top 100 One-Hit Wonders", etc etc.
God, this era of VH1 was so brilliant and timeless. They even aired old episodes of American Bandstand.
And to top it all of, one of the big things they always talked about during that era was the VH1 Save The Music foundation...they wanted to raise money and awareness to keep music programs from being taken out of schools.
SO, ANYWAY, in 2003 or so the ratings had lowerd and they changed their format to what it is today - reality shows(The Surreal Life, Celebrity Fit Club, Celebrity Rehab, America's Next Top Model) sprinkled with remnants of the old VH1(The 'I Love The...' Series among other things). This is still admittedly far better than the steaming pile of turd that is MTV's 'programming' nowadays, but still. You're more likely to catch repeats of old VH1 stuff on VH1 Classic, and even then, most of this stuff isn't there either because VH1 Classic is primarily a videos channel(nothing wrong with that). Although VH1 Classic has some nifty programming of its own - this new '60 Minutes: Classic' series is a great idea.
I'm really indifferent to MTV's decline over the years, because I really don't think they ever hit the peak that VH1 did in the 90s and early 00s. But VH1's decline depresses the hell out of me. VH1 really held on, almost a decade longer than MTV did, before selling out to the times.
But we always have the memory.
Sorry for this long, nostalgic thread.
VH1. It was originally MTV's little sister. While that may make the two networks sound like comrads, and while their ownership is one and the same, the reality is that VH1 was concieved as and always was the anti-MTV.
In the early days of 80s MTV, when they were still pretty much a music videos channel, Video Hits 1 - VH1 - was concieved essentially as 'MTV for older people'. Whereas MTV was only concerned with playing what was hip and popular on the given day, VH1's purpose was to play videos that would be desirable to the baby boomers(who were in their 20s and 30s at the time). So right from the very start, VH1 was essentially definied by the fact that it respected musical history, whereas MTV was a big celebration of today's fad.
That was the first era of VH1. Playing music videos geared towards those who were too old for MTV. It lasted from the beginning(1985) to 1994.
In 1994, VH1 started its fabled "VH1: Music First" format. While the first era was all about music videos, this era was all about programs talking ABOUT music and emphasizing the importance OF music. I believe this to be the single best era of any television music network in the history of television.
We all know these programs.
Behind The Music
Everybody knows BTM. Series was great because it educated a younger generation about a whole bunch of older artists, as well as a few newer ones - just look at this list of episodes(this isn't all of them):
Fleetwood Mac
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Teddy Pandergrass
Billy Joel
Lillith Fair
Andy Gibb
Jim Croce
The Carpenters
Sonny Bono
The Mamas And The Papas
Meat Loaf
Gladys Knight
Willie Nelson
Jerry Lee Lewis
Rick Jamse
David Crosby
Selena
Jefferson Airplane/Starship
Ozzy Osbourne
Ted Nugent
Joe Cocker
Frank Sinatra
Studio 54
Keith Moon
Bonnie Raitt
Culture Club
Robbie Robertson
Def Leppard
Tony Orlando
Gloria Estefan
Jan And Dean
Harry Chapin
Gloria Gaynor
Madonna
1968
Steppenwolf
John Denver
Blondie
Stevie Nicks
Metallica
Lionel Richie
Rick Springfield
KC And The Sunshine Band
REM
Motley Crue
David Cassidy
Bette Midler
Leif Garrett
Heart
The Day The Music Died
Depeche Mode
Grand Funk Railroad
Iggy Pop
Duran Duran
Cher
Julian Lennon
Alice Cooper
Black Crowes
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Marianne Faithfull
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Eric Burdon & The Animals
Donna Summer
Lenny Kravitz
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Poison
Quiet Riot
Natalie Cole
Melissa Etheridge
Woodstock
Bay City Rollers
Donny & Marie
Peter Tosh
Bad Company
Glen Campbell
Sting
Alan Freed
Thin Lizzy
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Dr. Dre
Barry White
Alanis Morissette
Genesis
1999
The Partridge Family
Michael Hutchence
Celine Dion
Russell Simmons
Quincy Jones
Run DMC
Tina Turner
Elton John
Oasis
No Doubt
The Police
The Go-Go's
AC/DC
The Monkees
Public Enemy
The Bangles
Peter Frampton
Styx
Ice-T
Cat Stevens
Chicago
Badfinger
Brian Setzer
Huey Lewis & The News
Journey
Doobie Brothers
Rod Stewart
Billy Idol
Megadeth
The Notorious B.I.G.
Neil Diamond
Pat Benatar
REO Speedwagon
Twisted Sister
Judas Priest
Sinead O'Connor
Sublime
Hall & Oates
Foreigner
Bob Marley
Aerosmith
Cyndi Lauper
Guns'N'Roses
VH1 Legends
Companion series to BTM - this was for those bands who had had a more significant historical impact on music.
Although BTM was VH1's flagship show during those years, this one was better. This is one of THE greatest, most entertaining, inspiring, best put together rockumentary series' I have EVER had the pleasure of viewing. I can only hope they're all put on DVD one of these days.
Episodes include:
The Who
Grateful Dead
Marvin Gaye
Eric Clapton
The Doors
U2
David Bowie
Johnny Cash
Tina Turner
Curtis Mayfield
Aretha Franklin
Elton John
John Fogerty
B.B. King
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Queen
Bruce Springsteen
Janis Joplin
Led Zeppelin
John Lennon
The Pretenders
George Clinton
The Clash
Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young
Neil Young
Bee Gees
Jimi Hendrix
Sam Cooke
Pink Floyd & Syd Barrett
Kiss
Michael Jackson
Pop-Up Video
This was a fad in and of itself for a while there in the late 90s. Music videos with fact tidbits sprinkled about. It doesn't sound great but it works brilliantly.
Storytellers
Sort of similar to MTV's Unplugged(one of the only music programs in MTV's history that remains relevant to this day), except that the performers told the stories behind the songs before or even while playing them. Great, great series.
Where Are They Now?
You know, where they'd catch up with your favorite has-beens from past decades.
A show I don't remember the name of, but it was awesome
I don't remember what it was called, but the concept was music videos in a blender. You'd see a minute of this video, and then it would 'mix' into a minute of that video, and then that would mix into a minute of a third video, and so forth. It was really sweet.
Divas Live
Obviously not everybody's cup of tea, but still totally music related. The first one was the best, with Aretha Franklin, Gloria Estefan, Carole King, Celine Dion, Shania Twain, and Mariah Carey.
The List
Does anybody remember this show? It only lasted for one season but I looooooved it and really hope to get my hands on those episodes somehow.
It was where they'd get a group of 4-5 celebrities, sometimes all from the same show or band or whatever, and they'd sit in a circle and make top 5 lists(top 5 bands, top 5 rock songs, top 5 albums, top 5 pop songs, top 5 videos, top 5 this, top 5 that), and at the end the audience would get to vote on it. Fucking awesome show. Rob Gordon would have loved it.
"Movies That Rock"
They'd make biograhic, sometimes partially fictional, films about the lives and careers of classic artists.
100 Greatest...
These are still going on, but they started over a decade ago, during this era. They've done "100 Greatest Songs Of The 80s" and "100 Greatest Songs Of The 90s" recently, but back in the day it started with "Top 100 Artists", "Top 100 Albums", "Top 100 Songs", "Top 100 Heavy Metal Acts", "Top 100 One-Hit Wonders", etc etc.
God, this era of VH1 was so brilliant and timeless. They even aired old episodes of American Bandstand.
And to top it all of, one of the big things they always talked about during that era was the VH1 Save The Music foundation...they wanted to raise money and awareness to keep music programs from being taken out of schools.
SO, ANYWAY, in 2003 or so the ratings had lowerd and they changed their format to what it is today - reality shows(The Surreal Life, Celebrity Fit Club, Celebrity Rehab, America's Next Top Model) sprinkled with remnants of the old VH1(The 'I Love The...' Series among other things). This is still admittedly far better than the steaming pile of turd that is MTV's 'programming' nowadays, but still. You're more likely to catch repeats of old VH1 stuff on VH1 Classic, and even then, most of this stuff isn't there either because VH1 Classic is primarily a videos channel(nothing wrong with that). Although VH1 Classic has some nifty programming of its own - this new '60 Minutes: Classic' series is a great idea.
I'm really indifferent to MTV's decline over the years, because I really don't think they ever hit the peak that VH1 did in the 90s and early 00s. But VH1's decline depresses the hell out of me. VH1 really held on, almost a decade longer than MTV did, before selling out to the times.
But we always have the memory.
Sorry for this long, nostalgic thread.
Last edited:
i love the 90s is the shit.
We have it with Comcast Digital. It's glorious.
