Friday, March 19, 2004
JJJ Signs Off
I'm kind of surprised how much the death of MTV's JJ Jackson is bumming me out. Maybe it's because MTV was so important to me back in the day. It's hard to remember a time when MTV even showed videos, much less was relevant and groundbreaking. But once upon a time, MTV was the shit. I remember the build-up to MTV coming to cable. I also remember that our cable company wasn't planning on picking it up. "I WANT MY MTV!" Turns out we missed the big debut, but we picked it up about 2-3 months after it started. It was fantastic. Being among the only people in my high shool that was listening to bands like Devo, Adam and the Ants, Siouxsie and the Banshees, MTV was a Godsend. No more struggling to stay awake for USA's Night Flight or be limited to the half-hour of HBO's "Video Jukebox". We had music all day long. Music by bands from around the world that would never get airplay in the states. Maybe if you were in a college town, but even the "college rock" scene hadn't come around yet. Live concerts, tour dates, music news....all before everything was so easily accessible on the internet. We take all that stuff for granted now. MTV was a music fan's dream.
The VJs had the coolest jobs in the world. They were each different, but incredibly endearing. JJJ always stuck me as the one who knew his stuff more than the others. You could tell he was a true music fan and was thrilled to be where he was. He didn't succumb to the bad haircuts or terrible fashion choices some of the others made, although I seem to remember an awful jacket or two. (Not that I should talk. I used to try to dress like Alan Hunter.)
Then they all got fired and MTV turned to hell. Instead of being trend-setting forerunners, they became the bane of good music. It all became about style and selling records. They're now worse than the record companies. That's rather ironic, since they rarely show videos anymore anyway. hrmph.
Anyway - we're gonna miss ya JJJ.
The VJs had the coolest jobs in the world. They were each different, but incredibly endearing. JJJ always stuck me as the one who knew his stuff more than the others. You could tell he was a true music fan and was thrilled to be where he was. He didn't succumb to the bad haircuts or terrible fashion choices some of the others made, although I seem to remember an awful jacket or two. (Not that I should talk. I used to try to dress like Alan Hunter.)
Then they all got fired and MTV turned to hell. Instead of being trend-setting forerunners, they became the bane of good music. It all became about style and selling records. They're now worse than the record companies. That's rather ironic, since they rarely show videos anymore anyway. hrmph.
Anyway - we're gonna miss ya JJJ.
