MTV Ruled the World: The Early Years of Music Video

by Greg Prato

There have been few times in modern music history that an instant shift in how we listen to — and view — music has occurred. However, the launch of MTV on August 1, 1981, was certainly one such occurrence. Instantly, music fans were now “listening with their eyes” rather than relying solely on their ears. 'MTV Ruled the The Early Years of Music Video' is the first book to focus solely on the channel’s important building-block years, specifically from the channel’s launch to when MTV’s original group of VJs left the channel. Comprised of over 70 all-new interviews ("Weird Al" Yankovic, Daryl Hall, John Oates, Joe Elliott, Phil Collen, Rob Halford, Stewart Copeland, Rick Springfield, Jerry Casale, Geddy Lee, Ann Wilson, Chuck D, Alan Hunter, Nina Blackwood, etc.), the book is not only an eye-opening account of the early years of MTV, but also of the music industry, important music developments/events, and the “Big ‘80s” in general.

Genres: Music, Audiobook, Pop Culture

476 pages, Paperback

First published December 2, 2010

About the author

Greg Prato is a Long Island, New York-based journalist, whose writing has appeared in such renowned publications as Rolling Stone. He is the author of several popular books, 'A Devil on One Shoulder and an Angel on the Other: The Story of Shannon Hoon and Blind Melon,' 'Touched by Magic: The Tommy Bolin Story,' 'Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music, 'No Schlock . . . Just Rock!,' 'The Eric Carr Story,' 'MTV Ruled the World: The Early Years of Music Video,' 'Sack Exchange: The Definitive Oral History of the 1980s New York Jets,' 'Too High to Die: Meet the Meat Puppets,' 'Dynasty: The Oral History of the New York Islanders, 1972-1984,' and 'The Faith No More & Mr. Bungle Companion.'

Reviews

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book about the early years of MTV. I've always been interested in the topic despite never actually getting the real MTV on my television (I'm Canadian). But I loved MuchMusic growing up which was the same general idea (and has unfortunately continued to be the same idea as things have gotten less and less about music). Anyway this book was very interesting and what I really liked about it was the amount of differing opinions and perspectives presented on most sub-topics. The author talked to one of the creators, early executives, a cameraman for the VJ segments, a couple original VJs, other early MTV crew, and many different artists and industry people around at the time. What I like was not all of these people were MTV stars or even liked/watched MTV at all (Jello Biafra being a notable example of this). I thought this gave a nice balanced perspective on the early history. The only thing that really slowed this book down was the middle part. It was all about different bigger artists videos (e.g. Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson etc). A lot of it was a bunch of the same crap you always hear about these artists and their videos - stuff that's been rehashed time and time again. Yawn. There was some insider info on videos there but very little. If the author had skipped over that section or at least made it a little shorter the book would have been 5 stars. Still recommended if you're interested though!

[Jon Chaisson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting music bio of the early days of the cable channel that, at one time, was one of the most important and influential outlets for music in the country. [Speaking as someone who was a mad fan of it since the early 80s, btw.]

My only complaint about this book is that there really wasn't much of a main theme going on; it felt more like a virtual round table of reminiscing insiders and musicians, and the flow was really loose and without much direction. A few voices here felt very out of place (Frank Stallone, brother of Sly and singer of minor hit "Far from Over", plays the Things Were Better In My Day card repeatedly, and Jello Biafra of Dead Kennedys just sounds embarrassingly cranky and antagonistic), but most everyone else had a lot of interesting things to say, even if the end result feels unrevised and incomplete.

That said, this one felt a bit like a swing and a miss. Enjoyable but not the best work I've read about the channel. I think Craig Marks' "I Want My MTV" works better in this format.

[Aria · Rating 1 out of 5]

It might be fine, I really don't know. I know the narrator for the audiobook was not the appropriate choice to engage the listener. Thus, the dnf shelf.