Video Killed The Radio Star

Teenage angst? Are you kidding me? I must be old because I didn't have a walkman, iPod, or ear pods. I HAD BOOMBOX AND MTV! I was alive for the very first MTV music video: Radio Killed The Radio Star! Try as I might, memories of my teen years are a blur. The brand new cable channel had excellent music and exciting visuals that always had the right mood for the moment. And oh. My. God. Like, for sure, Punk Rock and new wave were my shit! Adam Ant, Blondie, Joan Armatrading, Heart ( later, Stevie Nicks, solo), Rod Stewart, The Clash, The Talking Heads, Eurhythmics, Duran Duran, Twisted Sisters, Reo Speedwagon, (Genesis and later on Phil Collins, solo), Huey Lewis And The News, Eagles(later, Glen Frey, solo), Culture Club(then Boy George, solo), Wham! (then, George Michael, solo) and Journey. And a special shout out to Toni Basil's "Hey Mickey!" because I had a boyfriend named Rickey(close enough).

Then came MJ, aka Michael Jackson, who started a whole new revolution in music video production(shrieks in teenage girl's voice)! There was just too much good music to be sitting around moping. And the visuals were always so stunning. Total escapism for teens. Sorry to disappoint, but no teenage angst over here!

And who could forget the first-ever VJs: Hottie, Nina Blackwood; Sexy, Mark Goodman; the breeziest, JJ Jackson; the girl and guy next door, Martha Quinn and Alan Hunter. They kept it cranking with solid hits 24/7. I'm sure every teen with cable back then was sleep deprived for the first two years trying not to miss a single video.

Let me tell you about the first day of MTV. It was August 1, 1981. I had graduated up to a sophomore in high school. I went from a relatively small junior high to what seemed at the time like the largest high school ever. I was super popular at my little junior high and felt like I may become a nobody at this new school. I played basketball, and our team had won Parish Champions Girls Basketball! Go, Pathfinders! I had already made the Bruins Basketball team and made it onto the Colorguard squad. I think all the freshmen turned sophomores who went Bonnabel felt that trepidation. We were such a close-knit group; everybody knew everybody, but at Bonnabel, at least 500 people we did not know. While attending Bonnabel, it really seemed huge. (But, after graduation, I went off to college, I returned to visit my old teachers; then, the most intimidatingly large school in my small world seemed like a matchbox!)

Before that first day at big ol' Bonnabel and before I became a lifelong Bruin, I had to go to Colorguard camp at SLU in Lafayette, LA, and a Colorguard competition in Sevierville, TN. And, as soon as I got back to New Orleans, my best friend, Joe, and I spent the summer going to the hottest local New Wave band, The Cold, concerts. We basically stalked the band. Wherever they performed, we were there. In New Orleans, that wasn't hard to do. As great a city as it is, it's small areawise. We'd stand packed shoulder to shoulder like flopping sardines rockin' & reelin' & bouncin' with the smell of teen spirit permeating the cramped venues! Man, I would kill for a fraction of the energy I had back then. There was nothing better in the whole wide world! The only problem I had over that hot summer was which shade of purple I would wear.

Oh, and did I mention that while I had gone away to camp, my mom bought me a 1980 pastel green Ford Pinto with a white racing stripe for my 15th birthday! F*ckin' B*tchin'!!!! She got a great deal, and she bought it for me anyway, against my dad's advice. I didn't have my license yet because my 15th birthday wasn't until October. God, how I loved that car! But, for two months, I had to walk past it sitting there mocking me as I stood at the bus stop with the other "teen pedestrian peasants."

I couldn't wait to get my license and ride with the windows down and let the wind run through my nicely relaxed hair(thank goodness mom was a hairdresser). I thought of all the places Joe and I would go: Warehouse records to hang around to listen to free music, check out the bongs, and buy weed clips(we wouldn't use them, we just thought they were cool) and albums, the lake where we'd ride around and he'd hang out the window acting a plumb fool yelling at anyone we knew(me tooting the horn like a crazed maniac making sure he got maximum attention), guitar lessons every Wednesday, Ponchartrain Beach Amusement Park with the car loaded with friends, Basketball and Colorguard practices, Baskin & Robins, Pepperoni's Pizza after Friday Rock & Roll Skate night, the orthodontist each month for my adjustments(and every morning haphazardly hang my overhead gear on the rearview mirror as I pulled up into the school parking lot so no one but my closest friends would see me wearing that monstrosity), and of course, more The Cold concerts.

Well, a lot of that didn't happen because my mom had me running stupid errands every day after school AND on weekends!!!! I could not believe I was going to fewer concerts with a car than I did without it! I would ask myself, "How is this even happening?". I couldn't have been the only teen who hit a parked car the day after getting their license. I couldn't drive for the next 3 months for all the outings I'd planned for Joe and myself but, I could run all those stupid errands. How is that fair? If the phrase " WTF" were common back then, I'm sure I would have worn it TF out.

And yet again, my 1980 pastel green Ford Pinto with the white racing stripe sat in the driveway mocking me as I waited at the bus stop in the cold. I finally came to hate that freakin' car real quick. My mom was a total witch for the three months of my conditional grounding(I could run her errands and nothing more...total BS!); She made me retake Driver's Ed. I definitely felt the "We're Not Gonna Take It" song by Twisted Sister, but that didn't come out until 1983; those were my exact sentiments at the time.

Nope, there was no angst here. Ok, maybe I had a teensy weensy bit of teen angst. LOL. But I still had MTV!

Looking back on my teen years, I roll my eyes and think of what an entitled little brat I was. My mom was a complete saint! The proof of that is I'm still here.

*Please click the link for The Cold's YouTube video so you can get the experience of your life. You'll thank me later. It was the soundtrack of my 14-16-year-old life.