MTV began when I was eleven. It was my lifeline, my crack. I had always loved music and MTV was a station that played songs I couldn't hear on the radio. I couldn't get enough of it at first; I would watch it every day after I got home from school until my parents threatened to throw the television out the window. I experienced the same feeling when I discovered Napster back in the day. Only I couldn't load MTV on my Walkman.
When I was sixteen, MTV started something called 120 Minutes. It was two hours of alternative music (back then, it really was alternative music). I taped and watched 120 Minutes and Headbangers Ball until I was twenty-four or so. By then, I knew plenty of college radio stations, clubs, and people who shared the same musical tastes as I did, so I broke up with the two of them.
But they'll always hold a soft spot in my heart.
On Thursday night, I did a two-hour Twitter music show that showcased the type of music one would find on 120 Minutes back when we were still lovers: alternative hits of the 80s and early 90s. Here's the playlist if you're interested:
- Radio Free Europe by REM
- Take The Skinheads Bowling by Camper Van Beethoven
- Bikini Red by The Screaming Blue Messiahs
- Nothing Bad Ever Happens by Oingo Boingo
- Dear God by XTC
- Life Is Shit by The Dead Milkmen
- Tell That Girl To Shut Up by Transvision Vamp
- Kiss Them For Me by Siouxsie & The Banshees
- Pulling Mussels (From The Shell) by Squeeze
- I'm An Adult Now by The Pursuit Of Happiness
- Grey Cell Green by Ned's Atomic Dustbin
- Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head by They Might Be Giants
- That's A Lie by Too Much Joy
- Deep Blue by Fetchin' Bones
- Head On by The Jesus And Mary Chain
- Divine Thing by The Soup Dragons
- Five Stop Mother Superior Rain by The Flaming Lips
- Veronica by Elvis Costello
- Victoria by The Fall
- Turning Japanese by The Vapors
- Baby's Coming Back by Jellyfish
- Classic Girl by Jane's Addiction
- Here Comes Your Man by The Pixies
- Blue Sky Mine by Midnight Oil
- God Is A Bullet by Concrete Blonde
- Under The Milky Way by The Church
- Bizarre Love Triangle by New Order
- Girlfriend In A Coma by The Smiths
- What You Do To Me by Teenage Fanclub
- Kool Thing by Sonic Youth
- 68 Guns by The Alarm
- Birth, School, Work, Death by The Godfathers
Song of the day: Bikini Red by The Screaming Blue Messiahs
