MTV went on the air in 1981 and immediately rewrote the musical map. It’s easy to see how round-the-clock music videos made stars of talented people with outlandish personalities, like Michael Jackson and Madonna. I thought it would be more interesting to see what MTV did for a band with loads of talent but no personality. That band would be Dire Straits.
You probably remember their first album, released in 1978, if only for their Top 10 single “Sultans of Swing.” Guitarist Mark Knopfler wrote offbeat songs in an observational style somewhere between Bruce Springsteen and Bob Seger; he and his bandmates could play pop, jazz, and country. Their follow-up, Communiqué (1979), was less of the same, but it established the Dire Straits pattern:
- The good songs were on the odd-numbered albums.
- All of their albums sold well in their native UK.
- Dire Straits made hard rock for people who liked soft rock. If you wanted something tougher than The Doobie Brothers or more authentic than Steely Dan, Dire Straits was the band for you.
Dire Straits’ third album, Making Movies (1980), was easily the band’s best and one of the best albums of the decade. And I say this as someone who doesn’t like soft rock or Knopfler’s voice. “Skateway” and “Romeo and Juliet” are lovely and haunting, and as for “Les Boys,” how often do you stumble across a song about German transvestites?
That ain’t workin’…that’s the way you do it
Because Dire Straits had a profitable history, their label, Warner Bros., was willing to bankroll a venture into the New World of music videos. And they didn’t just slap something together to fill the sudden demand for content, either. The videos for “Skateway” and “Romeo and Juliet,” particularly the former, remain stylish and interesting 30 years later.
Dire Straits was still selling records and MTV was still running their videos in 1985 when they released Brothers in Arms. This was the band’s commercial blockbuster (though the album runs out of gas well before it’s over), and I’m convinced they had MTV to thank. Their big hit, “Money For Nothing,” was perfect for MTV. It had a killer guitar line, you could pick up all the words on the first listen, it was an anti-MTV song for the snobs in the audience, and the insanely popular Sting sang the falsetto “I want my MTV” to the tune of The Police’s “Don’t Stand So Close to Me.” (In my mind, attaching Sting to a project means burn before listening, but in 1985 he was a god.)
The “Money for Nothing” video is as fun as it ever was; the computer animation looks like the distant past’s vision of the far future. You just have to overlook the matching 20 Minute Workout sweat bands the boys are wearing.
Success isn’t just being in the right place at the right time. Even if the planets line up for you, you have to recognize that they’ve done so. And you must possess the skill and the desire to produce a positive outcome. Even though the Dire Straits express ran right off the rails after Brothers in Arms, let’s give them credit. When opportunity knocked, they gave her a big old smooch.
Now look at them yo-yo’s: A few of Dire Straits’ contemporaries
Elvis Costello debuted about the same time as Dire Straits, with My Aim Is True (1977). But Costello was unable to use MTV the way Dire Straits did. (Whether he wanted to is another question.) By 1981 he’d released five albums on four labels and the four of them together didn’t have the resources of Warner Bros. His biggest hit, “Veronica” (in collaboration with Paul McCartney), was six years off. His early albums had a smallish following and he had an undeserved punk reputation.
Costello is far more talented than Knopfler, which is saying a lot. Lots of people are better than Coldplay. Not many are better than Mark Knopfler. Costello’s songs were too angry and angular to fit in the sanitized environment of the early MTV. Plus you can’t categorize Elvis Costello. That to me is a virtue but I don’t run my own network.
The B-52s
Regular readers and people who put up with me socially know that I love this band. They produced two dance-club faves in 1979 and ’80: The B-52s and Wild Planet. Like Costello, their only Top 10 hits, “Love Shack” and “Roam,” were years away.
In 1981 The B-52s were too weird for MTV, which is a weird concept now. When Special D and I saw them in 2007, people brought their grandchildren. Warner Bros. was behind The B-52s but apparently they saw no need to pay for fancy videos early on, even though this is the band that gave us “Rock Lobster,” the greatest song ever recorded.
The Talking Heads
The Talking Heads had four albums in play by 1981, but like The B-52s they were viewed as weird. (Here’s how to tell the difference between the two bands: Talking Heads are Rene Magritte. The B-52s are an inebriated Norman Rockwell.)
Talking Heads’ sole foray into the top of the charts, “Burning Down the House,” appeared in 1983. That song had an elaborate – and boring – video. The most interesting artists sometimes made the least-interesting videos. Talking Heads were one example; David Bowie was another.
The Pretenders
A tough woman singing about sex? Not in 1981!
The Allies
The Allies were a Seattle band that made their own video and won MTV’s “Basement Tapes” competition in 1982. “Emma Peel” is a little creaky now but was amazing then, given its backwoods origins. Also, I was almost in it. Unfortunately, the band lacked the material to follow up on this success, even though they sound very similar to our next contestants, The Romantics.
The Romantics
The Romantics are a rare example of a band that succeeded despite MTV. These power poppers had a hit in 1980 with “That’s What I Like About You.” The video was the laziest kind, a performance, and frankly, these guys are not visually appetizing. The Romantics had another hit in 1983, “Talking In Your Sleep,” but the video, in true MTV tradition, is too stupid to be believed. (If you don’t believe anything could be that stupid, watch the first 25 seconds.)
That’s my idiosyncratic tour of the protoplasmic MTV. Money for nothin’…chicks for free.
Goodbye: Gil Scott-Heron, 1949-2011
I wish MTV had existed in an earlier time. They wouldn’t have touched Gil Scott-Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” with a barge pole, but what a video that song would’ve made! Rest in peace.
Run-DMSteve 
Yes, MTV redefined music, but more for the directors then the musicians. Very quickly MTV became the juke box of the house. It played nonstop, commercial free music (in the beginning), 24/7. If there was a good video, you’d stop and watch, otherwise it was great cutting pop radio playing in the background, exposing you to music you wouldn’t come across through your normal channels. Like Dire Straits. But it was the music not the video. It was the likes of John Landis, Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Spike Jonze, Anton Corbijn, David Fincher, and dozens of others that MTV made careers for.
Same for Elvis Costello, B-52’s, Talking Heads, Pretenders, etc. Their music made them famous. MTV was famous, ‘cause MIchael Jackson was famous, ‘cause the directors made his image iconic. Everyone else tagged along for the exposer.
It was bands like Ah-Ha that were the true beneficiaries of the video medium. A song like “Take On Me” was lost on the radio, but with it’s artistic breakthrough look, that song is still know by 18 year olds today.
Though, to emphasize your point, The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy did a video of Gil Scott-Heron-esk song called Television Drug Of The Nation in the early ’90’s, long after MTV was relevant or interesting and has disappeared ever since.
I mostly agree with you, and thanks for bringing this up, as I hadn’t considered this at all. Looking back on early MTV, it does look as if the channel did more to launch movie directors than musicians. I guess you have to figure out how to compare the impact of Do the Right Thing vs. Thriller and Brothers in Arms vs. Adaptation. I would say that MTV launched both about equally. As for “Take on Me”…I still love the hair!
Steven Bryan Bieler-So you “don’t like Knopfler’s voice.” Next you’ll be writing that Bobby Dylan can’t sing and never could!!! Try riding an exercise bike steadily at 13.6 MPH and give “Sultans of Swing” (the entire 11 minute live version) another listen. Or stand knee deep in the Pacific Ocean waters digging that most succulent of Clams “Siliqua Patula” at 5:30 AM with that song looping through your head. Maybe that sort of baptism would change your perception??
OK……perhaps music appreciation is subjective, to some degree?!?
Bobby Dylan can’t sing and never could.