Tag: MTV

‘120 Minutes’ Rewind: Depeche Mode meets MTV contest winner in London — 1991

‘120 Minutes’ Rewind: Depeche Mode meets MTV contest winner in London — 1991

For this week’s “120 Minutes” Rewind, we travel back to June 23, 1991, for an episode built around MTV’s “120 Minutes Naked Power Grab” contest, which offered one lucky viewer the chance to be “president” of Mute Records for a week. Here’s 12 minutes of footage from the episode featuring the winner and DM.

‘120 Minutes’ Rewind: Killing Joke’s Jaz Coleman testifies under the ‘120 X-Ray’ — 1989

‘120 Minutes’ Rewind: Killing Joke’s Jaz Coleman testifies under the ‘120 X-Ray’ — 1989

For this week’s “120 Minutes” Rewind, we present one of the show’s odder moments, a “120 X-Ray” segment on Killing Joke from 1989 that features Jaz Coleman testifying against the “frivolous nature of materialism” — he actually appears to be reading from a prepared statement .

‘120 Minutes’ Rewind: ‘120 X-Ray’ segment on Miracle Legion — March 1989

‘120 Minutes’ Rewind: ‘120 X-Ray’ segment on Miracle Legion — March 1989

For this week’s “120 Minutes” Rewind, we’ve landed on a just-uploaded “120 X Ray” segment chronically under-appreciated college-rock heroes Miracle Legion, a band that host Dave Kendall refers to as “one of the hardest working but still unrecognized bands in alternative music.”

‘120 Minutes’ Rewind: Mojo Nixon plays ‘Debbie Gibson is Pregnant…’ — March 1989

‘120 Minutes’ Rewind: Mojo Nixon plays ‘Debbie Gibson is Pregnant…’ — March 1989

For this week’s “120 Minutes” Rewind, we offer up this classic performance by Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper of their 1989 single “Debbie Gibson is Pregnant With My Two-Headed Love Child,” the video for which MTV refused to play, apparently out of fear of offending the teen queen.

Watch 12 vintage MTV ‘Rock the Vote’ promos with R.E.M., Red Hot Chili Peppers, Madonna

Watch 12 vintage MTV ‘Rock the Vote’ promos with R.E.M., Red Hot Chili Peppers, Madonna

For a generation raised by MTV — particularly in the late ’80s and early ’90s — they were ubiquitous: those 30-second “Rock the Vote” promos featuring stars ranging from R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe to Anthony Keidis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Madonna imploring viewers to register to vote and cast their ballots.

‘120 Minutes’ Rewind: Original MTV VJ Alan Hunter hosts early episode — Sept. 28, 1986

‘120 Minutes’ Rewind: Original MTV VJ Alan Hunter hosts early episode — Sept. 28, 1986

For this week’s installment of “120 Minutes” Rewind, we take a look at one of the early shows via this seven-and-a-half-minute reel of Alan Hunter’s hosting segments from the episode that aired on Sept. 28, 1986. The opening features a skit of sorts with Dave Kendall prepping Hunter for the night’s broadcast.

‘120 Minutes’ Rewind: The The’s Matt Johnson talks to Kevin Seal — June 11, 1989

‘120 Minutes’ Rewind: The The’s Matt Johnson talks to Kevin Seal — June 11, 1989

For this week’s installment of “120 Minutes” Rewind we re-visit the Kevin Seal era for a 1989 interview with Matt Johnson of The The, who discusses his band’s then-new album ‘Mind Bomb,’ his decision to assemble an actual band, professional boxing and the student uprising in China.

Vintage Video: The Sugarcubes live at Auburn University in 1988 — full 50-minute set

Vintage Video: The Sugarcubes live at Auburn University in 1988 — full 50-minute set

In October 1988, an MTV-packaged “new music” tour featuring Living Colour, The Godfathers and The Sugarcubes hit Alabama’s Auburn University, where the music-video network filmed the latter band’s 50-minute, 14-song set for a special that aired during the “second 60” of “120 Minutes” on Christmas of that same year.

‘120 Minutes’ Rewind: Sonic Youth in studio with Dave Kendall — summer 1990

‘120 Minutes’ Rewind: Sonic Youth in studio with Dave Kendall — summer 1990

For this week’s ‘120 Minutes Rewind,’ we offer up a clip of unusually good video quality, a nine-minute reel from summer 1990 that saw Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore and drummer Steve Shelley sitting down to talk about the band’s just-released ‘Goo’ album with host Dave Kendall.

Vintage Video: Public Image Ltd., X, OMD, Simple Minds, INXS on ‘American Bandstand’

Vintage Video: Public Image Ltd., X, OMD, Simple Minds, INXS on ‘American Bandstand’

Dick Clark, who died Wednesday at age 82, and ‘American Bandstand’ played an important role in the ’80s, too, helping bring the burgeoning New Wave and college rock scenes to mainstream America at a time when the still-nascent MTV wasn’t universally available on American cable networks.

Video: Watch the return of ‘120 Minutes’

Video: Watch the return of ‘120 Minutes’

Saturday night, following an eight-year absence, MTV’s iconic alternative-music show ‘120 Minutes’ returned with a new format and a familiar face: late-’90s host Matt Pinfield. The whole show is now online; watch it here.

Milestones: MTV debuts 30 years ago today; watch first full hour of music videos

Milestones: MTV debuts 30 years ago today; watch first full hour of music videos

This is a little more mainstream than what we usually cover, but it’s hard to deny the significance: Thirty years ago today, on Aug. 1, 1981, MTV went on the air (‘Ladies and gentlemen, rock ‘n’ roll…’), changing the course of music in the ’80s and beyond.

Milestones: Daniel Ash is 54 today; watch Love and Rockets’ ‘120 Minutes’ promo

Milestones: Daniel Ash is 54 today; watch Love and Rockets’ ‘120 Minutes’ promo

Daniel Ash — he of ’80s darkwave trifecta Bauhaus, Tones on Tail and Love and Rockets — turns 54 today, and to mark the occasion, we present this little nugget: It’s a promo for MTV’s ‘120 Minutes’ featuring a cue-card reading Ash and his Love and Rockets bandmates David J and Kevin Haskins that aired sometime around 1986.