How Michael Jackson and MTV Changed Our Lives

I remember the first time I saw MTV in early 1983. I was living in Los Angeles, and my friend Louise had just moved to San Francisco. We had met while working as Aeromexico reservations agents in New York City, and transferred to other cities with the same company. I had been in Los Angeles for three years already, and Louise had just moved to San Francisco. As airline industry employees, we were only a $30 roundtrip-ticket apart. Any weekend I could, I flew up to San Francisco, not only to explore the city, but because Louise had cable television and I didn't. We had a new obsession -- MTV! I couldn't believe I was watching a television channel called "Music Television". What was even more incredulous, was that we could sit with our eyes glued to the TV for hours on end, watching music videos.

Sometimes it seemed as if I had flown to San Francisco just to watch MTV. After dinner and sightseeing at Fisherman's Wharf or Chinatown, we hurried back to watch MTV. eeMusic became so visual. That year we watched the video for "Billie Jean" a thousand times. A few years later, I couldn't get enough of "Thriller" and "Beat It" videos. Everybody was trying to do the moon walk, and all the other Michael Jackson moves. Suddenly our pop stars became more than singers and guitar-pluckers. They had to move, act, and look good too. They made records in the recording studio and produced videos. And we could buy the videos, or record them, to watch on our own VCRs. Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, the Police, Prince, Queen, and hundreds of other eighties pop stars were born and immortalized on video. We listened to the hits on the radio and we watched them on TV. We saw pop stars' styles, their moves, their personalities. In 1984, I hosted a Halloween party in my new apartment, and my costume was Madonna. My friend Patty White's four-year-old son Alex idolized Michael Jackson and surprised us with his dead-on impersonation. It was adorable, until we took him to a Mets game and he entertained our little section of Shea Stadium with a performance of "Bad", complete with crotch-grabbing. I don't think that was something Patty was thrilled Alex picked up.

I wonder what my own 60s childhood would have been, if there had been MTV. We used to listen to our record albums, while we stared at the pictures from the album cover. What would the Beatles do with choreography? Would Mick have done the moon walk? Michael Jackson's videos, were as good as movies; they were real productions! Mourning Michael Jackson is also mourning the bygone era of MTV mania. And the days of 24/7 music videos hosted by VJs like Martha Quinn [remember her?] are over. MTV has music-themed programming nowadays, including its share of reality shows. I hardly ever watch it anymore. Would Michael Jackson have been such a phenomenon wthout MTV? Probably not, because video "killed the radio star". We wanted a whole package -- music, dancing, and costumes. Michael Jackson went solo at just the right time. He was MTV.