The LA Times perfectly summarized the state of MTV in 1988 writing 'No one shows kids a
good time like MTV. The 24-hour video channel offers so many crazy deejays, wild contests
and nutty promotions that, in MTV Land, it seems like Spring Break every day of the year.
What MTV’s savvy image makers don’t say is--there’s such a thing as having too much fun,
especially when that fun comes at the expense of important MTV advertisers.”
Canadian rocker Neil Young would find out the hard way that the network didn’t appreciate
their advertisers being made fun of and that’s what were going to explore in today’s video.
In 1988 Neil Young would release his 16th studio album This Note’s For You. Part of the album's
concept centered around the idea of commercialism and rock and roll, especially when it came to rock
n' roll tours, something of course he wasn't a fan of. Side note guys I’ve done a whole video on the
feud that erupted between the black crowes who got fired from opening for ZZ Top in the early 90's
after criticizing miller beer’s corporate sponsorship of that tour. The link is down below.
In 1988 Neil Young would release a video for the title track
The song would mention particular companies including coke, pespi and budweiser,
some of whom happened to advertised on mtv at the time. The video would also
take aim at well known musicians who promoted corporate products including, Whitney Houston,
Eric Clapton and Michael Jackson. There would be a spoof of the Eric Clapton’s Michelob ad,
and their would also be a spoof of the time michael jackson set his hair on fire during a
Pepsi dance routine, The video would also take aim at budlight's corporate mascot spudz mackenzie.
MTV was concerned about how their advertisers would react to the video at least according to
some reports, but MTV was caught in a difficult spot. It was difficult for MTV to justify
such a move since critics of the network pointed to sexually suggestive videos making
it through the channel's standards and practices department. Even the spokesperson for MTV had a
hard time defending the network's decision to ban Neil Young's video telling the lA Times
“I must admit I feel awkward defending our decision
because I happen to think it’s a fantastic video,” “Everyone in Programming loved it--it’s
spectacular and it’s very funny. But we had two corporate problems: First, our attorneys
advised us against playing it because its use of likenesses of Michael Jackson and Spuds MacKenzie
could leave us open to trademark infringement charges.,Even after that statement was put out
Neil Young's label Warner Records’ even offered to indemnify any claims against the network,
MTV still said no. The spokesman for MTVwould go on to say….“I agree that it’s a spoof,
which is what I argued with our Standards execs,” “But I lost the argument. Standards feels that if
we appeared inconsistent, other record companies would want exceptions down the road.” he'd say.
Young’s manager Elliot Roberts would tell the press at the time
“I think the whole thing is a disgrace,” “It tells me that the M in MTV stands for money , not music.
The shame of it all is that Neil had written a song talking about how advertisers are taking
control of the music--and now MTV has proven that corporate control of rock has gone further
than you could possibly imagine.” Neil Young’s camp and his label
did offer to change the video to remove any impersonators in it, but MTV still said no The
LA Times would report and i quote “It has been a long-standing MTV policy that the channel refuses
to air clips that depict--or contain lyrics-- that refer to specific commercial products. The intent
of the edict is to protect MTV from the glut of tacky product placements that clog so many
Hollywood films.” It would appear that mtv changed their reasoning for banning the music video and
the war of words between Neil Young’s camp and MTV also appears to have come from poor communication.
His manager would claim to the LATimes that he sent the song and the video script to the network
ahead of time and claimed it was approved. While MTV general manager approved it in principle,
he failed to talk to the network’s standards department .
The irony of the whole thing is that despite MTV’s ban Canadian music channel MuchMusic
ran the video and it proved to be a hit up north. MTV would soon change their minds and the video
got heavy airplay on the network. The icing on the cake was that the video would win the MTV
video music award for video of the year in 1989. It also went on to be nominated for a grammy the
same year for best concept video but lost to Weird Al’s spoof of the michael jackson song ‘Bad’.
Two years later Young would speak to the LA Times and talk about the video saying
“I can see now why they wouldn’t play it. . . . The video was making fun of a lot of things
that MTV does. . . . Sponsorship, using music to sell products. But I thought the video was
going to be so funny that everyone would love it. When MTV didn’t play it, I thought, ‘How
could I be so wrong?’ I was confused. Here I was this guy from the ‘60s in the ‘90s and wondering
how I fit in. I was a lost duck.” he'd say. Young would admit that his original idea for the
video had his band playing the song in a room with money falling from the ceiling until there was so
much money in the room, that you couldn’t see the band anymore. But famed director julien temple who
worked on the video came up with the concept of spoofing other artists, which Young loved.
That does it for today’s video guys thanks for watching. Be sure to hit the like button and ans
subscribe and we’ll see you again on rock n’ roll true stories. Take care.