Arts & Entertainment

I Want My MTV: Channel That Invented the Music Video Turns 30

How many songs are forever stuck in your head from endless nights spent watching music videos from long-forgotten bands like Golden Earring, Flock of Seagulls and Wall of Voodoo? Share your memories!

I wish I was in Tijuana
Eating barbecued iguana
I'd take requests on the telephone
I'm on a wavelength far from my home...


I'm on a Mexican radio
I'm on a Mexican woh-oh radio
I'm on a Mexican radio
I'm on a Mexican woh-oh radio

If these Wall of Voodoo lyrics mean ANYTHING to you, you are officially getting old and possibly turning into an 80s version of a hippie trying to explain Woodstock to a teenager.

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And you can thank MTV, turning 30 years old Monday, for making Mexican radio (briefly) famous along with so many other impossible-to-get-out-of-your head classics. (Phil Collins! ZZ Top!)

If you're about to call over your surly teen to share some of your musical history, even better! While he spins flawless digitally mixed tunes from his iPad, iPod, iTouch, iWhatever, you can try to tell him what a Luftballoon is.

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While you're at it, you might also explain that MTV marked a high point in the dawn of something called c-a-b-l-e TV, which workers actually physically installed, neighborhood-by-neighborhood, giving America 500 million channels instead of three, extending our boob tube watching hours to 24-7 and making us fat.

It's 2 am

The fear is gone

I'm sitting here waiting

 The gun's still warm...

Oh, Golden Earring, whatever happened to you? 

Apparently MTV (perhaps having a bout of denial about its advancing age?) doesn't have any big b-day bash planned, but VH1 Classic has a whole line-up of look-backs going on.


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