You wrote: <<<MTV hardly played black artists.>>> I saw this interview recently: <<<David Bowie Criticizes MTV for Not Playing Videos by Black Artists | MTV News>> [this video] It blew me away. He is so on point!
Bowie questions MTV about excluding black artists.
No black singers or bands you'll notice... Worth watching: "David Bowie Criticizes MTV for Not Playing Videos by Black Artists | MTV News" [this video]
>Be very wary of survivor bias when looking back in time, especially when there is a risk of nostalgia. Case in point: MTV of the 80s would play little to no black music. There's a famous 1983 interview bit of David Bowie where he asked the MTV VJ why they play no black music, and the VJ waffles a bit on the white suburban market. That does not sound very subversive to me. Here's the excerpt: [this video]
1983 Bowie interview excerpt about MTV avoiding black music.
You can see MTV’s “string of black faces” rationalizing in the Bowie interview: [this video] Wikipedia’s article whitewashes the actual history. We were watching MTV and smoking weed in those Reagan’s America days. — In fairness the US music industry had the race music chart which became the R&B chart to keep black musicians off the pop chart and Elvis’s controversy was singing black music…and consequently being played on white radio stations to white kids.
Shows MTV rationalizing its lack of black artists.
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