Tommy comments on MTV's 25th Anniversary

[Angiekay]

It was 25 years ago this week that MTV first went on the air, forever changing the relationship between music and television. Styx was one of the first bands featured on the new channel, when the video for "Rockin' The Paradise" aired in the first hour, and the clip for "The Best Of Times" came a little while later. Singer-guitarist Tommy Shaw said that even before MTV went live, Styx knew it would be an important new medium: "It was this brand-new, revolutionary thing, but I think we all understood that we wanted to be on it (chuckles), you know? We wanted to be a part of it. And even though videos were not that sophisticated at the time, we wanted to be a part of it, and thank goodness we were."


Shaw also said that as much as Styx wanted to be on MTV, making videos was a foreign experience for the guys: "We were just such fish out of water, some people more talented than others, and the video budgets were just insane to us -- you know, you could make albums for what some of these videos cost. As fun as it was to see yourself on television, every time it came time to do a video, it was a kind of a time of confusion for everyone, because you're trying to figure out how to be in the television business, and you really don't know anything about it."

[froy]

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It was 25 years ago this week that MTV first went on the air, forever changing the relationship between music and television. Styx was one of the first bands featured on the new channel, when the video for "Rockin' The Paradise" aired in the first hour, and the clip for "The Best Of Times" came a little while later. Singer-guitarist Tommy Shaw said that even before MTV went live, Styx knew it would be an important new medium:

And if Dennis Deyoung would not have been in the band that important medium would have been irrelevant.

And even though videos were not that sophisticated at the time, we wanted to be a part of it, and thank goodness we were."

WE were ?
They played Dennis /Styx songs Tommy.

you're trying to figure out how to be in the television business, and you really don't know anything about it.

That makes 2 things you dont know anything about

[jimmy19029]

I did watch the beginning of the MTV Anniversary rerun of the first day. Styx was played in the first hour. The first one to run was A.D. 1928/Rockin The Paradise. It aired right after REO's Take It On The Run.

During the day I also saw Best of Times and alot of videos I'd never seen before, or hadn't seen in a long time, from other artists, like Lee Ritenour, Robin Lane & the Chartbusters, P.H.D., etc. I think they're rerunning it this weekend...

[pinkfloyd1973]

I did watch the beginning of the MTV Anniversary rerun of the first day. Styx was played in the first hour. The first one to run was A.D. 1928/Rockin The Paradise. It aired right after REO's Take It On The Run.

During the day I also saw Best of Times and alot of videos I'd never seen before, or hadn't seen in a long time, from other artists, like Lee Ritenour, Robin Lane & the Chartbusters, P.H.D., etc. I think they're rerunning it this weekend...

Yeah, I watched it too, I watched a lot of the first day they showed on VH-1 Classics Tuesday and was surprosed how MUCH REO they played that day


Robin

[LordofDaRing]

I think I remember the first hour. Didn't it actually come on at midnight? I do remember buggels classic Video killed the radio star first out of the shoot. I remember another show called Video Concert Hall that had a heavy rotation of Borrowed time on it as well.