Jacked: Rise Of The New Jack Sound
Gene’s Prerogative
Even though this six-part docucast is billed as the origin story of new jack swing, that late ’80s/early ’90s meshing of soulful vocals and hip-hop beats, this is really a chronicle of the group that started it all: Guy. Hardcore new-jack fans may be shocked to learn how integral former member Timmy Gatling was to the group: As host Taraji P. Henson tells it, Gatling founded the trio, teaming up with vocalist Aaron Hall and keyboard player Teddy Riley, who was already making a name for himself producing hits for Kool Moe Dee, Keith Sweat, and others. Unfortunately, Gatling got muscled out by manager/ex-con Gene Griffin before the first album dropped, replacing him with Hall’s brother Damion. As the fourth chapter of this saga divulges, the late Griffin maintained his role as manager/mentor even as he was pulling bully-boy moves like smacking the hell out of recently departed mogul Andre Harrell over publishing matters and taking credit for writing and producing Bobby Brown’s “My Prerogative,” an obvious Riley production. As one industry insider puts it, “You can consider him Suge before there was a Suge Knight.” [Craig D. Lindsey]
Last Podcast On The Left
Best Of: Cannibalism
Hosts Ben Kissel, Marcus Parks, and Henry Zebrowski pull no punches in this episode, launching straight into a discussion of eating human flesh. So… consider that a bit of a content warning. While chatting about tribal traditions, infamous Wisconsinite cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer, and other such upsetting yet fascinating examples of people eating people, the hosts employ their signature dark sense of humor to explore the topic at hand. Inspired by the gluttony of the holiday season, the trio revisit a number of their previous episodes, offering highlights from their catalogue of macabre commentary. Folks who are interested in the gruesome details of particularly grisly true crimes—especially if they prefer such material punctuated by riffing and character voices—are bound to like Last Podcast On The Left, and this episode might even be an ideal entry point, stuffed full of alternately chilling and comedic bits. If cannibalism is your cup of tea, then dive right in. [Jose Nateras]
Lolita Podcast
Volodya Takes America
Jamie Loftus’s Lolita Podcast is her second phenomenal new series of the year, the last being the hilarious My Year In Mensa. Fans of that podcast, though, be warned: her new one could not be more different. A sharp turn away from comedy (though still with Loftus’s dry sarcasm), Lolita Podcast seeks to untangle why Vladimir Nabokov’s most famous novel has taken on the place in American culture it has—especially given that the perception of the book is often the complete opposite of what the story aims to accomplish. “Volodya Comes to America” is the second episode, and it goes into Nabokov’s life, his philosophies, and how he got the novel published. Loftus speaks to experts on Nabokov to detail his immigration to the States, his tumultuous family life, and the absolutely sick burns he doled out to his contemporaries. The podcast doesn’t shy away from Nabokov’s deep misogyny, either; Loftus isn’t trying to convince you that Nabokov = good or Nabokov = bad, but instead, that Nabokov was a human, multifaceted as the rest of us. Given the subject matter, Lolita Podcast can be a difficult listen, but it’s a discomfort that feels necessary. [Wil Williams]
Podcast Killed The Video Star
Women Be WAP-PIN
Contrary to the memories of a lot of Gen Xers, the era in which MTV and VH1 filled their airtime mostly with music videos was surprisingly short. And yet, the golden age of massively influential videos that was launched by the networks in the ’80s never really ended—it just migrated from its humble cable origins to higher channel number cable hinterlands to the downloadable and streaming worlds of iTunes and YouTube. That fact isn’t lost on comedians and music video aficionados Oscar Montoya and Mano Agapion, who set out to compile their top 100 best videos list with the help of voting listeners in this insightful and irreverently funny new weekly series. Every Friday, the two self-proclaimed “qweirdos” present and break down three music videos (sometimes “gerrymandered” into a thematic bracket), then make their pitch to listeners for whom they should vote. Last week’s premiere episode pitted The Buggles’ “Video Killed The Radio Star” against Britney Spears’ “I’m A Slave 4 U” and “Describe” by Perfume Genius, sparking debate about what constitutes the high vs. mid Britney canon and how insanely great the “Video Killed” bridge is. This week, Agapion and Montoya discuss the queer appeal of Shirley Manson and get delightfully silly touring Cardi B’s “WAP” house. [Dan Jakes]
24 Comments
I’d like to see this video list all in one place. On the one hand, they have an episode covering “Bad Guy” and “Friday”, so I can’t take them seriously. On the other hand, they include Cibo Matto’s “I Know the Chicken”, for which they gain remarkable cred just for knowing.
Not bad, but I prefer “Sugar Water” or “Birthday Cake” (Jet Set Radio Future!) by them.
I saw them live at a festival in 1996. I hadn’t heard of them, but I knew they were going to be there, and while watching MTV the night before, “Know Your Chicken” came on. It was a good festival. The weird part was chatting up their bass player and not discovering until the next day that it had been Sean Lennon.
Jamie Loftus is absolutely hilarious, and any love thrown her way is much deserved.
Every Friday, the two self-proclaimed “qweirdos”God dammit
Contrary to the memories of a lot of Gen Xers, the era in which MTV and VH1 filled their airtime mostly with music videos was surprisingly short.
The only think more astounding than how successful, relevant and genuinely revolutionary the channel was is how it barely held on to that status for a decade. I remember when I was very young my parents had MTV on all the time (They’ve got a photo of me as a toddler in a 5-gallon bucket watching Live Aid on a TV set up in the back yard, which is what passed for our summer vacation in 1985.) By the time I aged into MTV’s (now much younger-skewing) demo, its influence was already on the wane. While music was still part of its identity, actual videos weren’t that important, what was important was if MTV could use your track to score their original programming. TRL and the boy band/Britney boom gave the network a jolt around the turn of the century, but by time time I was graduating high school it had really entered a skid it never came out of.
God, I just looked at MTV’s schedule right now: They’re airing Grown Ups followed by Grown Ups 2, a showing of We’re the Millers, a new episode of The Challenge* at 8 and then it’s Ridiculousness for I believe 17 straight hours. (*The Challenge, a show formerly known as Real World/Road Rules Challenge. Road Rules has been off the air for 13 years at this point. I looked up who was appearing on this season recently and found out that not only is MTV now pulling in talent from their UK reality shows, but also Survivor, Big Brother, and, what the Hell, just throw some pro wrestlers in there.)Anyhow, I love Oscar and Mano from other shows I’ve heard them on and clearly this topic speaks to me. I’ll definitely give theirs a listen.
Miz is an actual Real World alumni (the second New York season). Though IIRC he’s never actually participated in the Challenge series so much as hosted one or two seasons.
Just checked, Miz did appear in a few season of Challenge early on. If it were him, that would make sense (doubly so because he recently turned 40, which has to be the median age of Challenge viewers at this point.) It’s recently-cut WWE NXT wrestler Lio Rush.
I was a little more in the demo for MTV at its start — I was going into 7th grade when it debuted, and it was at a time when cable wasn’t anywhere near as ubiquitous as now.
I used to go to a friend’s house to watch MTV (and uncensored R-rated movies) and recall seeing the “Shock the Monkey” video the first time, and Tom Petty’s “You Got Lucky” — lord, those things seemed so damned cool then.
The thing that strikes me is how MTV’s influence spread so quickly. Friday Night Videos was a staple whenever I spent the night at a buddy’s house, as that was NBC’s attempt to get in on the action. and that was followed quickly by V66 (1985), which was the UHF channel in the Boston area that aired videos (remember when UHF was a thing at all!). V66 folded pretty quickly — within a year or so it was the Home Shopping Network. Anyhow I remember that in cultural sense MTV became ubiquitous among suburban teens in a way that it never was again, though I am happy to be corrected by a current suburban teen. Some of the cachet might have been that it was only available on cable at a time when cable TV was still not widespread. But I do recall that it seemed a lot more edgy then.
I watched MTV when they invented reality TV, and though I left off The Real World after
the Hawaii season I think? (The last I remember was Hawaii, but I
wasn’t sure if that was after Boston? Before? Whatever…) I turned it
on again years later and saw that they were hiring younger cast and
drifting into almost-porn. (In a way I am shocked that MTV hasn’t been
hit with massive lawsuits, given the kind of stuff I saw and
issues of informed consent). Maybe they have been?) At that point I was
like, let’s calculate the angle that we need to get over that shark. MTV is almost 40 years old. That’s about as old as the Big Three TV Networks when it went on the air. Christ, I am old.
I was in more-or-less their target demographic at their debut — in high school, far more interested in “new wave” and dawning ‘80s pop than I’d ever been in the music of the ‘70s, and starting to keep hours that nicely synced with a 24 hour format (which was itself a novelty at the time). Around the 20 year mark, as they were slowly ushering the original “VJ”s to the exit, and emphasizing their own programming over videos, I was employed, basically losing interest, and found other places to park my TV while I was doing whatever I was doing.
I was 10 when MTV started. I remember in my preteens and teen years just sitting there and watching videos. I had a babysitter that liked to do the thing David Byrne does in Once In A Lifetime. She would stand next to the TV and do it with him. I would go to my friend’s house after school and we would just watch vidoes. We watched Live Aid together, but in our own houses—we stayed on the phone together for most of it (I have no idea how my mom didn’t kick my ass for that. I mean, we had call waiting, but still.) I discovered The Waitresses and Romeo Void through MTV (neither of which I followed closely, but they both made me realize I liked music that wasn’t on the radio.) I still love I Know What Boys Like and they play it on 1st Wave on Sirius XM sometimes. I remember scheduling time to watch world premier videos (the biggest one for me was Wild Boys by Duran Duran and no one ever plays that song anymore.) And interviews of my favorite bands. I remember watching The Steve Miller Band in concert on MTV in the early days. (I loved Abracadabra.)And watching The Young Ones and Monty Python on Sunday nights. I graduated high school in 1988 and I didn’t watch it a lot after that. I wasn’t really into the non-music stuff they had (although I did like Remote Control) and really wasn’t interested in The Real World. Also, my favorite VJs were leaving and it just wasn’t the same. I like Downtown Julie Brown (and occasionally listen to her on 90s on 90) but she’s no Martha Quinn or Nina Blackwood.
The Real World hasn’t aired on MTV proper in almost four years. They had that Atlanta season on Facebook Watch a couple of years ago.
Wow, didn’t realize Real World had also faded away. I know it had devolved from “Diverse young people interacting with one another” to “Hot-tempered horny idiots share a house stocked with free alcohol,” which seems like a surefire bet for “reality” TV in 2020.
I have to point out that pro-wrestlers were in there from near the beginning, since Cindi Lauper’s branding team-up with Lou Albano in the wake of the “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” video, and the “Rock ‘n’ Wrestling” era.
#iwantmycowboytv
Someone had to say it and I’m glad it was me saying it again right after you did #iwantmycowboytv
I’d argue to my death that MTV’s golden age was 1981-1997. The writing was on the wall with regards to the downfall when MTV moved to their Time Square HQ and phased out Kennedy and the 90s era guys and replaced them with Carson Daley but the rot didn’t set in and set in FAST, until 1998. As the video quality went downhill ASAP and MTV refused to give airtime to anything that wasn’t teenybopper, rap-rock, rap, you still had Daria/Real World/Road Rules/Jackass though Real World went downhill after the first New Orleans season and Road Rules with the Australian season being it’s peak; by 2002 both Jackass and Daria were off the air and MTV was DOA for a LOT of it’s original first-second generation audience.
Contrary to the memories of a lot of Gen Xers, the era in which MTV
and VH1 filled their airtime mostly with music videos was surprisingly
short.No, we know it was short, but the time in question happened to be our formative years. The same thing can be said of the sudden explosion of video arcades in the late 1970s and their death (in the US, at least) in the early 1990s. Again, just a bit over a decade, but it was our decade.
For those who want MTV how “it used to be”, there’s MTV Live who shows music programming, most of it music videos, 24/7.
And the original VJs are on 80s on 8 on Sirius XM (you can find Downtown Julie Brown on 90s on 9.)
MYTV had about a dozen good years and then I still watched Headbanger’s Ball and 120 Minutes long after I stopped watching anything else.The Real World was the real sea change.
MTV came on the air three days before my 11th birthday and was my first real experience with popular music.
VH1 was the video savior in the 90’s after the Real World when it rarely showed videos. Pop-up video and the like were great.