MTV celebrates its 40th birthday this weekend, with Billboard and Stereogum looking back with a selection of the 40 best videos played on the very first day on the network. There were 116 videos played in the first 24 hours, with Stereogum and Billboard agreeing Talking Heads' 'Once in a Lifetime' and Blondie's 'Rapture' being the best.
"For decades, I have taught courses on nuclear weapons and the Cold War. Conveying what life was like with the everyday fear of immediate destruction, especially to younger students, has become more and more difficult over the years... But one medium from the Cold War, more than any other, gets through to my students: MTV, Music Television. When I show them videos from the age of glitter and spandex that are filled with images of nuclear destruction, they finally grasp how much the threat of instant and final war was woven into the daily life of young Americans" - Harvard professor Tom Nichols writes in the Atlantic about his latest addition to the curriculum. "In fact, messages about nuclear weapons, nuclear war, and the end of humanity, by some counts, appeared almost hourly on MTV, making nuclear destruction second only to sex as the most ubiquitous video theme flooding the eyes of America’s youth in the 1980s".
K-pop band BTS has clinched four trophies at this year's MTV Europe Music Awards, including the coveted Best Song prize with its latest hit 'Dynamite' and Best Virtual Live for its concert that was held online amid the new coronavirus pandemic. They also won Best Group and Biggest Fan, Variety reports. Lady Gaga was voted best artist, DJ Khaled won best video for the song 'Popstar', first-time EMA winner Yungblud took home the best push prize, while British group Little Mix won best pop.
Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga have been nominated in five categories each for this year's MTV Video Music Awards. In the Video of the Year category the nominees are: Eminem featuring Juice WRLD in 'Godzilla', Future featuring Drake in 'Life Is Good', Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande in 'Rain on Me', Taylor Swift with 'The Man', and The Weeknd with 'Blinding Lights'. There are also two new 2020 categories to reflect the pandemic - Best Music Video From Home and Best Quarantine Performance, MTV reports. There is a first: three women are nominated for best direction - Taylor Swift for 'The Man', Billie Eilish for 'xanny' and Hannah Lux Davis for Doja Cat’s 'Say So', which is the first time that three women, without help from a male co-director, have been nominated in this category in the same year.
The retro acoustic-electric 1959 Martin D-18E guitar played by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain in a rare acoustic concert has sold for a record $6 million, CNN reports. Cobain played the guitar during a legendary MTV Unplugged performance in 1993, just five months before he died. At $6.01m after fees, the guitar is the most expensive ever sold at auction. It was bought by Rode Microphones founder Peter Freedman who said "I didn't even buy it for me. I paid for it but I'm going to use it to highlight the plight of artists worldwide by touring it around and then I'm going to sell it and use the dough for that as well, later".
Liam Gallagher’s ‘MTV Unplugged’ album has become the first release in the series to hit the top of the Uk album charts since Nirvana in 1994. Gallagher’s ‘MTV Unplugged’ record is also the first live album to top the charts since George Michael’s ‘Symphonica’ in 2014, according to the Official UK Albums Chart. It is the biggest selling vinyl release of 2020 so far, with 10,000 of its 21,000 first-week sales comprised of vinyl purchases. By now, Gallagher has spent a combined total of nearly six months at Number One with 11 chart-topping albums from his solo career and as a part of Oasis.
The 1959 Martin D-18E guitar used by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain during the band’s famous MTV Unplugged in New York concert is for sale at an auction, with a starting estimate of $1m, CNN reports. The guitar featured in the grunge group’s performance in November 1993, five months before Cobain’s death at the age of 27. His guitar comes with the original hard-shell case, with three baggage claim ticket stubs still attached to the handle, along with an Alaska Airlines sticker affixed to the case. The storage compartment contains Cobain’s half-used pack of guitar strings, picks and a suede “stash bag”.
MTV is launching MTV Unplugged At Home today, stripped-down, acoustic sets from artists including Jewel, Finneas, Melissa Etheridge, Monsta X, Alessia Cara, Shaggy, Yungblud, and Wyclef Jean. The first episode, featuring Alessia Cara, airs Friday, April 3rd at 12:00 p.m. EST via MTV’s YouTube channel. NPR is taking a similar path with its beloved Tiny Desk series, having recently launched Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts. Early episodes have featured Michael McDonald and Margo Price performing mini sets from their homes.
Ariana Grande has seven nods at the global awards show, including bids for best artist, best song, best video, best pop and best live. Just behind with six noms for the 2019 MTV EMAs each are Shawn Mendes, Lil Nas X and Billie Eilish, with J Balvin racking up five and Taylor Swift and Lizzo […]
