On this day 24 years ago (June 3, 1983)...
Andy P. Jung
http://www.tbs.com/ ).
Happy (would have been) 24th Birthday Night Tracks!
I just wish that MTV and its related networks didn't have such a monopoly on
music videos.
Hey TBS, why not bring back classic Night Tracks shows since there are no
basic cable channels airing '80s music videos? It'll be a virtual guarantee
to become a ratings hit since TBS is in many more households than VH1
Classic. What does Time Warner have to lose ("loose" for the misspellers out
there)?
Check out my Night Tracks fan tribute web site!
Hear The Bangles and Dino give Birthday wishes to Night Tracks.
http://www.jungworld.com/night-tracks/
I'm also reminiscing the technological marvels in the past 24 years. Here's
just a brief history.
Shortly after Night Tracks premiere the home video game industry would soon
crash.
We purchased our first VCR in May 1985 just in time for Night Tracks' second
birthday.
Shortly after that, the debut of the original 8 bit Nintendo Entertainment
System (NES) revived the home video game industry and Night Tracks even had
a NES contest giveaway in February 1989.
Night Tracks has reached its peak and continued through the end of the '80s.
http://www.jungworld.com/night-tracks/ntrdd.htm
Unfortunately, Night Tracks started going downhill in August of 1989 when
they started airing movies under the Night Flicks banner.
In the Spring of 1991 about 1/3 of the show became Alternative. This was
also when we bought our first IBM compatible 386sx-16Mhz PC in March 1991
and signed on to Prodigy Classic and CompuServe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prodigy_%28ISP%29
Night Tracks was cancelled after its last episode aired on Saturday, May 30,
1992 only after eight months of becoming an all Alternative format music
video show.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Tracks
Now I can only relive what I have saved in my Night Tracks video collection
for a few more years. Analog videotapes don't last forever and I'll
eventually have to transfer them to DVD soon so I can continue reliving
Night Tracks for the next half dozen or so (give or take a few) decades.
http://www.jungworld.com/night-tracks/ntvideo.htm
You can also view some of the videos here. If you were barely old enough to
remember and your parents let you stay up late at night you could even
remember the original Night Tracks theme music from 1983 to 1985. Click on
"Playlists" for more Night Tracks music videos and relive that wonderful
era.
http://www.youtube.com/NightTracks
--
Andy P. Jung
Metairie, Louisiana U.S.A.
(on the Western side of the 17th Street Canal)
http://www.JungWorld.com/
To reply via e-mail, please visit my web site.
Andy P. Jung
electrochrome
What a blast.
There's a reason why TBS doesn't bring it back, though. The financial
climate in the music and film industry has changed radically since the
early 1980s. Back then, if a band wanted to use samples of anything,
LPs of James Brown, CDs from other bands, even dialogue lifted
straight from classic Star Trek episodes (listen to the Information
Society song "Pure Energy" for lots of those), the band had to pay
either nothing, or just about nothing. A lot of music videos were
stitched together with clips from older black-and-white films from the
20s and 30s, and nobody thought anything of it. The bands didn't have
to pay a dime. For example, the Iron Maiden music video "Run For the
Hills" was a mash-up of old films from the 1930s, and the band didn't
have to pay a cent in rights to re-use that old footage. Nobody raised
a stink. Nobody cared.
Fast forward to today. Nowadays, if a band uses even one single video
clip from anywhere else in one of their music videos, they have to pay
through the nose. Not only that, the better their song sells, the more
they have to pay. This has made it uneconomical to use samples of
other pop songs or video clips in pop songs and pop music videos.
Worse still, the rights costs for re-using or re-showing old music
videos as a whole have gone through the roof. The re-issue of many old
TV shows is being held up because the rights costs for including the
pop songs of the 70s and 80s (which back when the show were made cost
nothing or nearly nothing) are today so astronomical that it's not
worth re-issuing the DVD. Either that, or, as in the case of WKRP in
Cincinnati, the background music must be entirely remastered and
replaced in order to avoid paying fabulous sums for the rights to
replay the songs.
So things are _very_ different today than they were in the 80s. Back
then, record labels actually _paid_ superstations like TBS to
broadcast the music videos of the 80s because it was *free*
*advertising!* Today, the record labels _demand_ enormous amounts of
money for the rights to rebroadcast old music videos.
Today, it would probably cost millions of dollars just for each three-
hour block of NIght Tracks music vudeis for the right to rebroadcast
those videos. And to put 'em out of dvd--! Wow. That would cost tens
of millions, maybe hundreds of millions.
Video killed the radio star...but entertainment lawyers and the RIAA
killed the Night Tracks-type music video shows on the over-the-air
superstations. What a shame.
Andy P. Jung
news:1180878172.8...@r19g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
Yeah, the same goes for my other favorite show Quantum Leap. Lots of
original music had to be replaced due to what you just mentioned and it made
many US fans furious. I said US because Region 2 DVDs have the music intact.
> So things are _very_ different today than they were in the 80s. Back
> then, record labels actually _paid_ superstations like TBS to
> broadcast the music videos of the 80s because it was *free*
> *advertising!* Today, the record labels _demand_ enormous amounts of
> money for the rights to rebroadcast old music videos.
You have confirmed my suspicions about why there are no basic cable stations
airing '80s music videos today even though there are more cable stations
than ever. And you wonder why today's music just suck so bad compared to the
'80s and record companies won't consider going back to the '80s revenue
model when they used to give music videos away.
TBS is now owned by Time Warner (one of the Big 4 record companies). They
could consider just reviving Night Tracks with just videos initially from
Warner Music Group. They wouldn't charge themselves, would they? Then when
Night Tracks still becomes a hit the other 3 record companies would also
want to join in.
> Today, it would probably cost millions of dollars just for each three-
> hour block of NIght Tracks music videos for the right to rebroadcast
> those videos. And to put 'em out of dvd--! Wow. That would cost tens
> of millions, maybe hundreds of millions.
>
> Video killed the radio star...but entertainment lawyers and the RIAA
> killed the Night Tracks-type music video shows on the over-the-air
> superstations. What a shame.
Yes indeed what a shame.
spam@starband.net Deke
"Andy P. Jung" <nu...@null.invalid> wrote in message
news:IGu8i.3516$NU1...@newsfe13.lga...
> ...Night Tracks premiered on SuperStation WTBS (now known as TBS
> http://www.tbs.com/ ).
> Happy (would have been) 24th Birthday Night Tracks!
> I just wish that MTV and its related networks didn't have such a monopoly
on
> music videos.
>
I wish VH1 would bring back a modern version of New Visions. It featured
videos from jazz, new age, little known guitarists, and generaly videos that
generally didnt fit into any specific category. While I still have alot of
the old NV shows on tape, it would nice to have a new outlet for music other
than top forty.
Deke
fadeToblack
> "Andy P. Jung" <n...@null.invalid> wrote in messagenews:IGu8i.3516$NU1...@newsfe13.lga...> ...Night Tracks premiered on SuperStation WTBS (now known as TBS
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480235/
hey Deke I've added some cool guest host shows to my NV collection
but you have the only shows in Stereo.
1-86 - Phillip Glass Host 77 min with guest Susan Vega
1-19-87 - Bill Evans Host 2hr (uncut w commercials
2-15-87 - Gary Burton Host 2hr w guest Makoto Ozone w
commercials
3-8-87 - Carlos Alomar Host 2hr w guest David Van Tieghem
(uncut
4-10-87 - Larry Fast Host 1hr 51m
1-88 - Phillip Glass Host 1hr 51m