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Before MTV...

Snowbunny Sorcerer

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...how did you guys view music videos in the U.K.?

according to Wikipedia, MTV first because available in Europe in 1987, so how did you get to view all the Thriller era music videos?

MTV first became available in the UK when MTV Europe launched on August 1, 1987. During 1997, part of MTV Networks Europe's localization strategy MTV planned to launch three stand-alone regionalized channels for Germany, Italy, and the UK, alongside MTV Europe.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV_(British_and_Irish_TV_channel)#1987%E2%80%932001
 
Snowbunny Sorcerer;4301778 said:
...how did you guys view music videos in the U.K.?

according to Wikipedia, MTV first because available in Europe in 1987, so how did you get to view all the Thriller era music videos?
Click to expand...

Not sure about the UK specifically, but here in Europe, we had our own music TV shows, of course. :)

In Germany, Thriller premiered in January 1984 in a show called “Formel Eins” (Formula One), according to their website:

https://www.formel-eins.tv/michael-jackson-mit-diesen-clips-revolutionierte-mj-das-musikvideo-thriller/

I remember watching it, but I had to look up where and when it was. But, yes, Formel Eins was what everyone was watching at the time. :)

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TCi2hgLe754" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
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the main show we had was 'top of the pops' on the bbc. Michael used to perform on there with his brothers. however, once his solo career took off, he stopped. they would either play his videos, or play the song and have studio dancers such as 'legs & co', perform routines to them. sometimes the videos were edited due to length or questionable content. for example, the knife fight was edited out of 'beat it', and so was the scene in 'billie jean' where Michael gets into the bed.

in the early days satellite television was expensive. most people didn't have it. there were only 3 channels on mainstream tv. coincidently, channel 4 launched the same year that the 'thriller' film did. they were the ones to debut it I believe, on a show called the tube at midnight. 'thriller' was rated 15.

other than that, we would record the videos onto vhs tapes :)
 
Itv used to have the chart show on a saturday morning aswell. That started in the mid 80' but TOTP was the main big show around since the 1960s
 
the debut of 'thriller' on uk television. the disclaimer added more mystery and anticipation to what we were about to see..
 
I saw the thriller video the first time on vhs. There were only 2 tv stations and they didn't play any music videos. I loved MTV when it arrived I could watch it all day as a kid with the vhs ready to record any MJ song that would come by.

I loved other videos too like "sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel, Lullaby by The Cure, Bjork's Human Behavior, Smashing Pumpkins' 1979 and Tonight Tonight, Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden.

Gradually it stopped broadcasting music videos and I got confused lol
 
In the early days of private (non-publically-financed) cable / satellite TV channels, West-Germany had a music channel called "Musicbox" since 1984. When "MTV Europe" came on in 1987 it turned into a non-music TV channel "Tele 5". https://de.qwe.wiki/wiki/Music_Box_(TV_channel)
But as all of those early cable & satellite-only channels, they didn't have a big reach. Terrestrial free TV dominated over here.

"MTV Europe" turned into a pay-TV channel by July 1995, which I remember was quite a shock for me, since the HIStory video era had just started. So to keep my MTV, I had to walk the extra mile and buy a decoder and smartcard with subscription fee to still be able to see it via satellite TV.

mtv.jpg


Did anyone here from Europe do this as well? Maybe some cable TV providers in cities had the license included?

Other than MTV Europe, we didn't have any real music video shows in the 90s. There was a weekly show on RTL2 "BRAVO TV" (the TV version of the magazin - mostly showing music reports, charts with short clips of videos etc). And besides RTL premiering "Scream" during a late night show in 1995 and Pro 7 premiering "Ghosts" in 1997, regular TV channels didn't really show music videos.


edit...
I forgot, there was also a German music TV channel "VIVA" since 1993. But for some reason i didn't receive this via Astra satellite in those early years.
 
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JichaelMackson;4302046 said:
I loved MTV when it arrived I could watch it all day as a kid with the vhs ready to record any MJ song that would come by. [&#8230;]

Gradually it stopped broadcasting music videos and I got confused lol
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Wasn&#8217;t that the most annoying thing that had ever happened for music on TV? MTV literally destroyed all local music TV programs that we previously had when they took over Europe &#8211; and once they&#8217;ve accomplished this, they f***ing quit playing music videos! :laughing:
 
MTV sucks now in my opinion. it was suppose to be a music channel to show mostly music videos. nowadays they show trash tv and not even a music channel anymore. they also trying their hardest to take Michael out of everything. seriously this channel need to rebrand. everybody can watch music videos on youtube now etc. there's really no point of having music videos channels anymore. this is end of an era.
 
Electro said:
In the early days of private (non-publically-financed) cable / satellite TV channels, Germany had a music channel called "Musicbox" since 1984. When "MTV Europe" came on in 1987 it turned into a non-music TV channel "Tele 5". https://de.qwe.wiki/wiki/Music_Box_(TV_channel)
But as all of those early cable & satellite-only channels, they didn't have a big reach. Terrestrial free TV dominated over here.

"MTV Europe" turned into a pay-TV channel by July 1995, which I remember was quite a shock for me, since the HIStory video era had just started. So to keep my MTV, I had to walk the extra mile and buy a decoder and smartcard with subscription fee to still be able to see it via satellite TV.

mtv.jpg


Did anyone here from Europe do this as well? Maybe some cable TV providers in cities had the license included?

Other than MTV Europe, we didn't have any real music video shows in the 90s. There was a weekly show on RTL2 "BRAVO TV" (the TV version of the magazin - mostly showing music reports, charts with short clips of videos etc). And besides RTL premiering "Scream" during a late night show in 1995 and Pro 7 premiering "Ghosts" in 1997, regular TV channels didn't really show music videos.


edit...
I forgot, there was also a German music TV channel "VIVA" since 1993. But for some reason i didn't receive this via Astra satellite in those early years.
Click to expand...

Yeah in the uk we got mtv via sky satellite. I presume mtv came as part of the package we had as we wouldnt have paid extra for it. Back then you used to get most channels for one set price before sky started ripping ppl off and charging for all but the basics. Shove your card in to unscramble! We used to get alot of dodgy german channels aswell if you get my drift? but the perk was seeing wetten das and munich on sat 1
 
in this video of the 'late late breakfast show' with noel Edmunds, paul and linda McCartney discuss and introduce the 'say say say' video. according to Wikipedia (not sure how reliable the source is), this was the first time that the video made it's debut on uk television. apparently the song had already been released and was falling down the chart. the video was designed to boost sales - which it did. highest position being number 2 on the official chart. interesting to observe that 'say say say' was already acknowledged for being more of a short film than a video. 'thriller' was just around the corner.. discussion starts at around 3:43
 
In Ireland before MTV music videos were shown on various main stream tv programs. The music industry would use them as promotion for the albums and songs, so they would be sent to the various TV networks, as part of the press release.

Parts of Ireland had cable and satellite access to UK stations so we would watch Top of The Pops on Thursday prime time as well as the various youth programs between 3.30pm and 5.30pm during the week and between 9am and 12pm on Saturdays.

Irish TV also had after school children and teenage programs and a Saturday morning program.

I first saw Thriller when it was released on the Irish tv childrens program called Anything Goes. It was on tv from 1980 to 1986 and was a 3 hour youth tv program with sections on music, visits from public figures, competitions, filmed items, and cartoons.
 
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