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INSIDE THE MTV AWARDS: THE MEDIA GLITZ

I have seen the future of video rock ’n’ roll...and it looks suspiciously like a bar mitzvah.

January 1, 1985
Toby Goldstein

I have seen the future of video rock ’n’ roll...and it looks suspiciously like a bar mitzvah. In fact, pert veejay Martha Quinn, in her pre-show remarks to the dressed-to-kill Radio City Music Hall audience, said that she felt like she was at a bar mitzvah. Only instead of the lucky teenager who would collect money from relatives after the ceremony, it was MTV raking in the loot: $100 per ticket in the orchestra, $17.50 for seats upstairs—paid for by record companies, advertisers, even, I was told, many of MTV’s own employees. Supposedly, from this whopping sum (Radio City holds over 6,000), the evening’s expenses were being paid...but no one at MTV had an answer as to where the leftovers would go. A MUSE benefit, this wasn’t.

So, from that vantage point of a rear orchestra seat that was a freebie (nominees, presenters and the press didn’t have to pay), what happened? In a nutshell, an interesting glimpse into the highly orchestrated and rarely innovative way those “live” television events really work. With the exception of Huey Lewis & The News’ unpretentious performance and a rendering by Tina Turner of “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” that earned a standing ovation, the audience didn’t even come close to the mobs of fans outside for generating real excitement.

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