I was watching one of my many MTV DVDs I converted from VHS and on my birthday (with some really rare stuff mixed in with older classics and new songs at the time like "Jump" which was only out for about 1 week) in 1984 here's a sample of what was shown that day:

-commercials

Kim Wilde-Kids in America
Joe Jackson-Steppin' Out
Heaven-Rock School

-JJ Jackson/commercials

Pat Benatar-I'm Gonna Follow You

MTV rocket

John Cougar Mellencamp-Pink Houses
Rolling Stones-Waiting on a Friend
The Fixx-One Thing Leads to Another
Don Felder-Bad Girls

-JJ Jackson/commercials

Men at Work-Who Can it Be Now?
Culture Club-Church of the Poisoned Mind
Pretenders-Middle of the Road
REO Speedwagon-Keep on Lovin' You

-commercials

Donna Summer-She Works Hard for the Money
ABC-That Was Then, But This is Now
Cheap Trick-If You Want My Love

-JJ Jackson/commercials

Thompson Twins-Lies
Huey Lewis & the News-I Want a New Drug
Wall of Voodoo-Mexican Radio

MTV rocket

The Motels-Only the Lonely
ZZ Top-TV Dinners
INXS-The One Thing
Firefall-Runaway Love

-JJ Jackson/commercials

Van Halen-Jump
Mari Wilson-Just What I've Always Wanted
Peter Gabriel-Shock the Monkey
Aldo Nova-Monkey on Your Back

-commercials

Michael Des Barres & Holly Knight-Obsession
Big Country-In a Big Country
Elvis Costello & Attractions-Peace, Love and Understanding

-JJ Jackson/commercials

The Romantics-Talking in Your Sleep
Genesis-Mama

MTV rocket

Michael Jackson-Thriller
Ozzy Osbourne-Bark at the Moon

-JJ Jackson/commercials

Quarterflash-Take Me to Heart
Bruce Springsteen-Atlantic City
Yes-Owner of a Lonely Heart
Joan Jett & Blackhearts-French Song

Remember those days well, including the contest to win a pink house.

Thems was good days.

It's disappointing that Aldo Nova didn't capture the general public's attention for a longer period of time. The first two records are largely forgotten now but both are excellent records. I was always under the impression that "Subject...Aldo Nova" was a major flop but according to the RIAA's website it was certified gold (surprised the hell out of me). There didn't seem to be any buzz around that record (again, I think it's an excellent album) and he probably didn't help him by changing the sound with the third record. I have to admit the "Blood on the Bricks" album bored me to tears. Fans of good, straight forward, early 80's hard rock...first two Aldo Nova albums are well worth checking out.

Do all of yall know about the MTV 120 Minutes Archive? Weekly playlists from 1986 to 2013 (I contributed a bunch of shows myself).

Check it out, tons of incredible music to remember and explore:

http://120minutes.tylerc.com/

Lets see if I can get to 10 songs I like now, or remember liking way back when (no accounting for 10 year old taste)
Kids in America
Middle of the Road
Mexican Radio
Only the Lonely
In a Big Country
Talking in your Sleep
Bark at the Moon

Nope. And of that list, only Bark at the Moon is something I've seen performed live. Some of them I don't remember, and some of them I never knew at all. There's other acts here I liked, but not familiar with the songs in question.

Ah, it was all so long ago. Where does the time go?

Jason

I was going to comment on a topic related to this in my prior post, but since you bring up this good Montreal boy, it fits here too. After the first couple of years when Much Music got started in Canada, and you started to see more divergence between Canadian and US music, the differences in musical tastes became more apparent to me. Aldo Nova is a really good example of Canadian rock - straight ahead, 3 chord bar rock, with catchy hooks. Traces back to the Guess Who and BTO, and I thought that it's always played a bigger part in Canadian music than it did in the States popular music. Even up to a few years ago, you could tell a lot of differences between our nations' pop charts. Now though, I'm afraid Youtube has won overall, and a truly global market is emerging.

I also have a hard time knowing how popular some Canadian bands were in the States, since Canada had a 20% minimum broadcast requirement (CanCon rules) up until the mid-90's. So we got swamped in stuff that wasn't great. I still remember almost every word of every song on Trooper's Hot Shots album, simply from the radio of the day. And Aldo Nova's first 2 albums - especially Fanstasy - were huge.

Jason

I love the Subject: Aldo Nova album,but remember...this was a semi-concept album and utilized a lot of new technology at the time which put off fans of the debut album.

Subject did go Gold and "Monkey on Your Back" was all over MTV (and a Top 15 Rock Radio hit), but it was a strange, heavy song and not a good single.
I saw the band on tour that year open for Rainbow in Philly and they went pretty well (not with everyone).

The Rock Candy remasters of the first two albums sound amazing and there's tons of liner notes and interviews with Aldo.

The man was brilliant but fell prey to 80s excess, record label battles and too much musical experimentation (and man, did Twitch suck ass by which point he was forced to use outside writers).

I like almost everything on this playlist still aside from a few things.

It's amazing how they could go from "Thriller" to "Bark at the Moon" to "French Song" to a crappy Firefall tune.

And let me tell ya, that Don Felder video is sooooo embarrassing it's great!

It looks like David Bowie taking MTV to task hadn't yet had much effect -- Thriller was the only video by a black artist that got shown with any regularity for some time.

Not even close to true Steve.

As one of the biggest MTV junkies/collectors I have loads of proof from 1981 on up that MTV were showing black artists before MJ.

Prince, Phil Lynott, The Busboys, The Specials, Fun Boy Three, Jon Butcher Axis, Joan Armatrading, Stevie Wonder, The Selecter and more were in regular rotation.

That is a complete myth.

Did they not show R&B, Dance and Soul videos, that's true. But MTV began as a Rock channel.

I'm not saying MTV wasn't heavily geared in a certain way, but it's just not true that black artists weren't on there.

As a Thin Lizzy fanatic I can tell you they played Phil Lynott's "Yellow Pearl" heavily.

What about Bowie's assertion that most of the above artists were shown in the middle of the night rather than during peak hours?

I was only 13 years old-I could only watch in peak hours!

And, I have the tapes converted to DVD to prove it.

Shit, Hendrix was on there a lot and that's how I discovered Fishbone too.

And Mr. Bowie became an MTV spokesman in 1983, so I guess he was OK with it...

Canadian rock always got a ton of respect where I'm at...but I'm in Wisconsin which is basically right next door.

The only rock artist that I can think of right off-hand that has kind of been forgotten is The Guess Who. They were a bit before my time...but when I was a 10 year old if I'd go over the a friend's house and check out his older brother's album collection...there would always be at least one The Guess Who album in there. But I really hear much about them anymore around here.

BTO very popular on classic rock radio. Unfortunately they just play the same two BTO songs over and over and over.

Rush...well those guys are big everywhere but I got the impression from reading interviews with the band members that the midwest had an even greater appreciation for them.

Triumph. Fight the Good Fight, Lay It on the Line, Magic Power...all still standards in this area.

April Wine. Harder...Faster and The Nature of the Beast are considered absolute classics around here. A very special band for me as they are the first "official" band I ever saw live (opened for Nazareth).

Loverboy still gets played around here. First two albums only through (which I would agree with as I like those two albums and think everything they did after that sucked). I seem to remember Turn Me Loose getting a bunch of attention locally before seeing them on the national charts but I could be mistaken about that.

Aldo Nova's Fantasy and Red Riders' Lunatic Fringe still highly regarded around here...although you'll never hear a peep about any other songs in those artist's catalogs.

I actually like 10 of those songs, also!

Imagine my reaction when I came home from Germany in 1983 (obviously time before this threads dating) and seeing MTV for the first time. I never even heard about it when I was stationed overseas. The first thing I saw on there was the US Festival show.

MTV was cool until around 1990 and the attack of grunge and rap.... then constant BS that had nothing to do with music.

It really started when Remote Control first aired around 1987 and they began adding more and more shows.

Even the 90's was still mostly music, but by 1997 it was becoming apparent they were changing for the worse.

I cannot believe they have the audacity to still have the VMAs when they don't even play music anymore.

Even the groups I wasn't fond of (or didn't follow) had pretty good songs.

I miss those days.

Top 40 music was far more diverse back during the actual 1980's than one might surmise from the playlists of 21st century "All-80's" radio stations.

"agree" & I'll add "unreality shows" to your list.

Prince especially got a ton of airplay once they lifted the "whites only" policy. (which based on everything I've read, did exist in the early days)

Again Geff, that is NOT true about a "whites only" policy.

Read the books.

And please explain how one of the 5 VJs was BLACK!