Slopfest #55 · 1981 · Vienna
Music Television, All Night
A new channel promised music videos all day and all night. We had one video and a lot of night.
Museum status: On permanent loan to a museum that has not been informed.
- Venue
- WUK, weeks after it opened
- Attendance
- 3,620
- Guest of honour
- David Bowie (watched the treasurer's music video 135 times and called it honest)
- Fun fact
- 1 video, 135 plays, 20 TVs, 1 treasurer
What happened
The committee had one music video, a four-minute clip of the treasurer lip-syncing to a Schlager, and played it on 20 televisions for nine hours. By hour three it was beautiful, by hour six sinister. David Bowie watched all 135 plays and called it honest. By dawn, guests could sing the treasurer's part but not the singer's.
“The medium is the message.”
Elsewhere in 1981
MTV launches in the United States, opening with the Buggles' 'Video Killed the Radio Star'.
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