I am first generation MTV. That of course means I’m in my 40s now (41 actually) and although I normally am not a sucker for nostalgia, I have fallen victim recently to the joys of streamed internet video and it’s seemingly infinite archive.
ILoveMusicVideo.net is one time hole of a place for such journeys. In this music directory, you can pull up videos seemingly from anywhere, anytime. Much of it points to YouTube, so it begs the question why not use YouTube and bypass the step? Well, ILoveMusicVideo.net lists videos by artists on a single, complete page that triggers your failing memory. For instance, I was looking for a video from The Specials, “A Message to Rudy”, and there on the list was another video from them I had totally forgotten about, “Ghost Town”. Also, ILoveMusicVideo.net pulls from data sources beyond YouTube, including last.fm, which has many songs in streamable format. Sometimes, it’s great to just hear a song again once or twice to tickle the nostalgia gland, so free streaming is fine (who needs to actually OWN a copy of Haircut 100 anyway?).
Now, to geek out further, I actually pre-date MTV a little bit. Around 1980, there was this cable show called Video Concert Hall. Now, you want to talk about crappy early music video production? You gotta see The Brothers Johnson lip-syncing to “Stomp” (one of the best funkotech songs EVER, imo). Or how about The Cramps doing “Garbage Man”. Talk about pure, unadulterated shyte! But, VCH really was responsible for introducing me to David Bowie (Ashes to Ashes), Genesis (Turn It On Again), and of course Gary Neuman.
One could say that without Video Concert Hall, I would have done better in school and never been inspired to make music. Inotherwords, it changed my life.
Unfortunately, in all of its vast, all-encompassing glory, places like ILoveMusicVideo.net and YouTube have still failed. I have yet to track down a clip of Spider doing “New Romance (It’s a Mystery)”. Until that happens, this whole internet thing will be deemed by me an abject failure…
