Los 80

You probably don’t know the title, but if you grew up in the 80′s, you probably recognize the tune. It is just a few guitar chords with bass and some basic drum beats…27 seconds in total.

Butthose 27 seconds define my generation. The song I am describing, of course, was the intro song to MTV (Music Television)– played every 30 minutes, 24 hours a day, for about 15 years from 1981 to the mid1990′s.

MTV is known these days as the television station that used to play music videos…well, back in the 80′s, MTV played lots of them. Michael Jackson was the King of Pop because of MTV.Madonna pushed the limits of decency there. One-hit-wonders like Tommy Tutone and Men Without Hats competed with Bruce Springsteen and Def Leopard for air time. Irish, Swedish, German and Australianbands received significant airplay. There were Friday Night Video Fights and the video game show, Remote Control.

As pre-teens and teenagers growing up in the 80′s, MTV was our cultural dial, ourmanual for what was cool. Corey Hart taught us to pop our shirt collars. Poison and Van Halen videos made hair gel and hairspray cool–for guys. Run DMC and Public Enemy video clips mainstreamed urbanculture in America. Cindy Lauper videos made it ok for girls to party like the guys–30 years before Pink. Motley Crue and ZZ Top showed us some of the sex and drugs that accompanied rock ‘n roll.MTV also taught us about world events in a much cooler way than any Dan Rather news broadcast could. Band Aid gave us hints that Africa was in trouble. Live Aid cemented this understanding. Videosshowed footage of revolutions in Central America and religious clashes in Ireland. MTV taught us about the Cold War better than any history teacher ever could (except for the current staff atSturgis, of course!). The Scorpions even provided the soundtrack when the Berlin Wall came down in ’89.

We saw exotic getaways in the Caribbean and lavish Hollywood lifestyles of the excessively rich....