About book I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story Of The Music Video Revolution (2011)
This is a truly fabulous book that chronicles the rise and fall of MTV in the words of the people who were actually involved. That includes executives (TV and music), VJs, artists, managers, and fans who became any of the above. It's a sort of an oral history, and it will make you look at MTV like you never have before. The authors do an excellent job of giving equal play to those who claim different versions of the same events, and trying to sort fact from fiction without overly imposing their own views on the words of the people they've interviewed. If you have any interest in television, music, music video or the eighties, this is definitely something you want to get your hands on as soon as possible! I didn't have access to MTV until 1996 (Much Music was Canadian equiv), but the book was still fascinating. It's not all MTV-specific - there are lots of fun anecdotes about specific bands, their videos, and the process that created them. One of the great things about oral histories is when people wildly disagree about how past events happened, and this book has plenty of examples. One MTV exec in particular ends up seeming like a huge bullshitter with an out of control ego.Highly recommended to anyone into 80s music or pop culture in general.
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Fascinating oral biography of the first ten years of MTV. Brought back a lot of memories.
—pleech
Entertaining but lack of narrative (it's just a bunch of interviews) stops it being great.
—luvmonster16
Good speedy read even with the extreme length.
—laaddy
