[00:00:00]
Todd: All right, here we go. My name’s Todd Adams. And this is Cathy Adams. Welcome back to the very first episode slash the 818th episode of our new podcast slash old podcast Zen Pop Parenting. Yay us.
Cathy: Where’s the clapping? Where’s the clapping? Uh,
Todd: I need the clapping. Hold on, let me do the clapping. Sounds clapping.
Todd: I don’t know where the clapping is. No. Oh, there we go. Thank you. Thank you everybody.
Cathy: I’m trying to make this opening this [00:01:00] brand new podcast, like really smooth and perfect and I dunno if that’s gonna happen. ’cause Todd said welcome back. Well it is. Welcome back. Well, I guess it is. Welcome back, but it’s
Todd: 98% of the people out there have been listening to us at some point over the last 15 years.
Todd: True. So it is welcome back. It’s just welcome back to the new thing,
Cathy: to the, the revamped and modernized version of what Todd and I do well
Todd: and what we’re doing is Zen Pop parenting. Yes. No longer Zen Parenting Radio.
Cathy: No.
Todd: Um. Zen
Cathy: Parenting. Okay, listen, it’s always in us and we will be talking about Zen parenting.
Cathy: It’s in this podcast. We just wanted to have a different structure. So don’t worry if you love Zen parenting and you’re like, but I get all my parenting stuff from you, it’ll still be here.
Todd: So you might be asking yourself, what is this Zen pop parenting all about? Well, it’s funny you ask, uh, it’s Zen Pop Parenting is where Gen X pop culture meets real life reflection.
Cathy: So Zen Pop Parenting is about recognizing how pop culture can serve as [00:02:00] a mirror or a guide and a catalyst for growth and understanding. And today we are going to be talking about how MTV shaped our culture, gen X, and also how it shapes our parenting. It does, and our sense of self. So. Video killed the Radio Star was the very first song played on MTV Todd.
Cathy: Did you know that?
Todd: And that’s what we just played.
Cathy: Yes, we did. Uh, the Bugles, it actually a song that came out in 1977. Do the
Todd: Bugles have any other songs that I’ve heard of?
Cathy: No. Okay. Um, they have, not that I’m aware of. Like, you know, we could have this discussion, but I don’t think so. But MTV did not launch until 1981.
Cathy: That’s right. So even though the song was out there, but I thought, now tell me if I’m crazy here,
I will.
Cathy: But I thought using this whole MTV as our first, you know, Zen pop parenting and also that song. Is the first song on MTV and it talks about killing radio.
Todd: That’s right. And we are Zen [00:03:00] Parenting Radio.
Cathy: And now we’re Zen Pop Parenting. Parenting. So
Todd: there’s no more radio.
Cathy: Right. And while we love that and we will always have, and who knows, maybe sometime along the way we’ll just do kind of an old school throwback. You know? It’s not that we don’t like it, it’s just that podcasts guys, we gotta modernize.
Cathy: We’ve been doing this for 15 years. That’s right. And when we say Zen Parenting Radio, we have to explain, the reason we say radio is because we were doing podcasts before podcasts were a thing. So now we can just be up to speed. Um, we can talk about what we know best. We can talk about what Todd and I enjoy the most.
Cathy: And I feel like there’s a renewed energy and. A key, there’s a structure to this. That’s
Todd: right.
Cathy: This is not a willy-nilly conversation. No.
Todd: Kathy and I have been thinking about this for months, and it might, the structure might look different six months from now, but you gotta start where you’re starting.
Todd: We’re gonna start where we’re starting. Um, I know most people are listening, but I’m wearing my Zen parenting hat. Yes. I’m just tipping my hat to the old Zen Parenting Radio. I’m wearing my Star Wars shirt, uh, in reflection of pop culture, [00:04:00]
Cathy: and I am wearing my MTV shirt if you can see it. That’s right. I You’re on YouTube.
Cathy: That’s right. I’m wearing my MTV shirt. And Todd, and again, for those of you who’ve been listening for 15 years, or you know, less than that, I take longer, less than that. We’re not gonna be that different. It’s just the structure is gonna be a little different. And I think. Um, for those of you that e even if you don’t love pop culture, you’re gonna know the stuff we’re talking about.
Cathy: Mm-hmm. It did impact your life. It did create the culture we’re living in. This is a cultural studies course.
Todd: That’s right. Right. You’re welcome everybody. You’re
Cathy: welcome.
Todd: That’s what we’re doing.
Cathy: Okay,
Todd: so let’s get going. Um, so I’m going to, so our first category, it’s not really even a category, it’s setting the scene.
Todd: All right? Right. Let’s
Cathy: set the scene,
Todd: let’s set the scene, [00:05:00] let’s set. So that’s our sound effect for set the scene. Why do we choose this? Um, I. Great Showman video Kill, no video killed the radio star. MTV. Why did we use this as the very first one that we’re doing?
Cathy: Okay. So do you want me to start? Yeah, go ahead. So again, like I said, this song, uh, video killed the Radio Star, uh, came out in 1977, but then it was the first video played on MTV when MTV launched in 1981.
Cathy: Great. So that means that, um, I was in fifth grade, you were in fourth grade, whatever it may be. Um, and the like, just a little bit of history, is that the commercial background or the commercial success of this song? It did reach number one, um, on the national charts. It was big in the uk and again, um, the whole meaning of the song is the rise of video.
Cathy: Mm-hmm. So, which is kind of interesting too because um, you know, video is our dominant medium, obviously Sure. Because of TikTok and everything. But it’s also interesting because I’m finding in podcasting that. [00:06:00] Podcasts used to just be an audio meeting. Sure. Right. That was obviously what it was, and it still is, but I am finding in people are doing a lot more YouTube.
Cathy: Sure. They’re, they’re making it a video medium.
Sure.
Cathy: And Todd and I have been doing that for a long time too. If you don’t already follow our YouTube channel, you should go over there. Um, but in, you know, we always do clips that we share on social media and such, but it is interesting how we transition and how things go in cycles because, you know, when MTV started the ability to see.
Cathy: You know, these people that you have only been listening to on the radio, like you’ve been, you know, hearing them in your ears and all of a sudden you’re seeing who they are. Yeah. It was pretty incredible. Yeah. And mind blowing. Do you remember
Todd: well, yeah. And I, maybe we’ll talk about this. Um, and I wanna set the scene a set the scene a little bit differently Please.
Todd: But before we do that, a lot of people who were really popular on the radio in the seventies, the minute TV [00:07:00] happened Sure. And we saw what they looked like. Yeah. They were cast aside. You know, I’m thinking of like the seventies Christopher Cross. Yeah. It’s just, you know, nontypical attractiveness. Mm-hmm.
Todd: Got cast aside and it all went for like the George Michaels, who was a beautiful man,
Cathy: Kenny Loggins, all these people of these Yellow Rock people. Oh, whoa. Kenny Loggins. Attractive
Todd: man. Sweetie, let’s back up. He,
Cathy: and he became a kind of a more MTV guy, but if you remember some of the videos that Kenny Loggins had, it wasn’t him.
Cathy: No, it was clips from the movies. Danger zone, danger zone. So there was just a lot of like yacht rock artists who were not good looking.
Todd: No.
Cathy: Now Todd, one thing, no, you wanted to set more this,
Todd: so just historically Uhhuh Ronald Reagan as president. Okay. Lady Die and Prince Charles got married that year.
Todd: Really? At least according to my calculation. Okay. IBM’s first personal computer, Raiders have lost Arc and Donkey Kong came out.
Cathy: Oh, I love that. Did
Todd: you like Donkey Kong?
Cathy: I did. I was pretty good [00:08:00] at it.
Todd: And you and your dad went to see Raiders? I think we sure
Cathy: did. He took me to that movie way before anybody knew it was popular.
Cathy: I loved that. Like I had never heard of it. My dad’s like, I heard. It’s good. Your dad
Todd: was on the inside track. Inside track. Thanks John. Um, take a guess of what the median, uh, cost is for a new house in 1981. Take a random wild guess. Uh,
Cathy: $30,000,
Todd: $78,000. Uh, I went way too low. Yeah. Um, gallon gas is a buck and a quarter.
Todd: A new car, 7,200 and a movie ticket. $2 and 78 cents I tuition at Harvard. $7,500 a year.
Cathy: Wow.
Todd: Yeah. So there you go.
Cathy: So. Obviously because of these cost differentials, it, it really sets a scene for, it was a very different time.
Mm-hmm.
Cathy: And it was a, you know, I think what’s kind of exciting to me about talking about the beginning of MTV or how MTV affected us is this changed everything.
Cathy: And that’s kind of what, and when I say everything, I mean the way that, uh, you know, changed our generation, gen X, it changed the [00:09:00] way culture looked at people. It changed the way we were connected globally. Um, it was the beginning of, um, us having a better understanding of what people around the world were like and what we could look like.
Cathy: Mm-hmm. And what we could be like. There was so much, not just the innovation of MTV itself, but being able to see recording artists, you know, like. I’m just, I know we’re gonna go through all the categories, so I’m not gonna try and step on the category, but don’t
Todd: step on the category,
Cathy: sorry. But like someone like Adam Ant, who I would kind of listen to on the radio, and then all of a sudden I get to see Adam Ant.
Cathy: Mm-hmm. I’m like, he is a really attractive man. Right? Like, this is all the sudden, and, and again, why this is connecting to us specifically, um, gen Xers, and you can relate to this regardless of your generation, is that it’s, it’s coming of age. You know, like we were like just getting into, you know, recognizing who we’re attracted to and you know, yeah.
Cathy: We wanted to show up as he’s a good looking [00:10:00] guy. I didn’t know that. Oh my God. And he was my first concert too, so there was a lot of like, you know, shifting for me. Sure. So,
Todd: um, so are we gonna go to remember when? Let’s do it. All right. So here’s our, remember when music,
remember when.
You couldn’t wait
Todd: to leave
Cathy: me. Love me. Not leave me.
Todd: I, I wish we put that longer so we could hear Neil come in, but that’s all right. I know. So this is where I wanna start with, remember when. Okay. ’cause I’m sure you want to start a completely different, I just need, if there’s anybody younger listening to this, what we had to do to acquire music, right?
Todd: Oh my God. My first memory of listening to music was on what we like to call the phonograph. You mean the The Rucker player? The turntable. The turntable, yeah. Um, and then eight tracks or four tracks came out for a bit. Eight tracks were around even. And it was like this box, and you’d press down on the button and it would advance to the next [00:11:00] track.
Todd: And then cassette tapes came up. You would’ve to go
Cathy: boom bump. Yeah. Like shove it in and out. Yeah. And then
Todd: cassettes, cassette tapes showed up. Yeah. That’s great. Which was amazing. And then we got our boom boxes where we could listen to the radio and walk around with it and well, we could press record.
Todd: True. Listening to, I remember staying home from sick, same at school. And you said staying home from sick, staying home from school, sick. And I would hope to hear a certain song, press record. And that would be the way Same. We would acquire music. And you know, kids these days, kids these days so spoiled.
Todd: They can just pick up their phone, listen to whatever they want, whenever they want. Whatever version they want, they got it. Good.
Cathy: They can, they have access to anything they’ve ever heard ever.
Todd: Yeah.
Cathy: And I’m talking like acoustic that you happen to hear at a small club in Boston. Yeah. You could like YouTube it or you could, you know, find it maybe if they, if they posted it on Spotify and all of a sudden you can hear that song.
Cathy: And we, to Todd’s point, we were just getting radio edits and, you know, something that I, um. You know, [00:12:00] speak ad nauseum about with my girls is there are songs from middle school and elementary school that I only know the words from a certain point on because I was late to start recording it so I didn’t get the first verse.
Cathy: So I can only sing from second verse on.
Todd: Mm-hmm. Um, and just kind of continuing my consumption of music experience. And then I remember I got you an MP three player. Oh. It was huge. It was like a Nike one. Huge. And I think it could hold 12 songs.
Cathy: Yep. Oh, I remember.
Todd: And it was a huge deal. Um, and then,
Cathy: which wasn’t that crazy.
Cathy: I mean, we can look at that and be like, oh my God, there’s nothing on it. But a mixtape is sometimes only like eight songs on one side, eight on the other. Right. So having 12 wasn’t not great.
Todd: Right.
Cathy: It was still good.
Todd: Um, and then I remember I had a CD player that had, um, you know, a portable CD player, which is Yeah.
Todd: Disc man. But I couldn’t run with it because it would bounce around. It would skip. So then that’s when the MP three player came out and you know, the one I got you was good for like three months and then all of a sudden technology, you know, [00:13:00] outdated, uh, an MP three player, and then we, all of a sudden Steve Jobs and the Apple people, uh, allowed us to, what was the, what was the, the iPod?
Todd: It was an iPod. Mm-hmm. It wasn’t a phone, it was just something that held music. Yep. And they were tiny, teeny. Yeah. They’re tiny. They were so small and they had that little circle thing that you could scroll through with your thumb. Yeah. Which I thought was so cool. So anyways,
Cathy: yeah. I actually found one in J C’s room a while ago.
Cathy: Did you? I was like, oh my gosh, I wonder what’s on here? Um, hilarious. Yeah. And then it became our phones. And so we now have access to music in such a different way. So you can understand why for our culture, or I should say for our generation, MTV was another way to access music. Okay. So it’s like, it wasn’t, you know, basically we had the radio.
Mm-hmm.
Cathy: You know, and maybe, and my whole thing, as Todd knows, ’cause I discuss all the time, was solid gold. So my way of getting music and being able to see an artist, if I was lucky, was to watch the show Solid Gold. And Solid Gold had, I think it was like they had [00:14:00] different hosts, but like Marilyn Oo was a host and I don’t know, I don’t remember who everybody was, was this Marilyn?
Cathy: Oo, the solid gold dancer was counting down this week. Dion Warwick just follow you.
I was trying to find the theme from Caddy Shack. I’m All right by Kenny Loggins is number 10, and then there’s just a bunch
Todd: of people dancing for like 30 seconds. So
Cathy: the solid Gold Dancers would just for, so they had like, I don’t know, 12 dancers.
Cathy: And so they would do, you know, number 10 and there’d be three dancers up on a stage dancing to that song. And then they’d say, okay, number nine. And then there’d be two of the dancers, you know, over in a corner. And I mean, they would dance to the slowest songs, you know, like
Todd: mm-hmm.
Cathy: You know, they would, they had all the, and then little
Todd: Betty Davis eyes, little Betty
Cathy: Davis eyes a little, you know, some, you know, take a look at me now.
Cathy: Um, and they would then. Sometimes you bring on a recording artist and they would never sing live. They would only like lips sync. [00:15:00] Mm. But again, I’m still seeing this person I’ve been listening to on the radio. Why would they sing live? Because it was a show. It was TV and th that just wasn’t, wasn’t their jam, their dominant need.
Cathy: Yeah. And so that was of the beginning for me. So you can only imagine, um, you know, and, and Todd and I are just gonna try and be avatars for our generation. Like, I know not everybody was as into it as I was or as in, into it as Todd was. But we’re gonna talk about it as culturally. Yeah. What it was like, and we may be like the biggest fans, but it really does affect how we became who we are.
Cathy: Right. You know what I mean? Um, so just a little bit of, uh, remembering when I, I
Todd: remember when, go ahead sweetie.
Cathy: That’s Barbara, everybody. Just in case she didn’t know. Um, I actually don’t remember. 1981. MTV. Okay. I don’t really remember until seventh grade, which was two years later. I’m not saying I didn’t watch it because I’m sure knowing Kathy, you may not have had [00:16:00] cable.
Cathy: Right. Maybe, maybe I didn’t have cable yet. Maybe that’s it. ’cause Manisha was just telling me, I just had, um, brunch with Manisha and we were talking about this and she was like, her mom said to her, you have a choice. You can either have cable and watch MTV or get a cat. And she chose a cat. So then she would go over to other people’s houses and watch MTV.
Cathy: Yeah. Two
Todd: birds, one
Cathy: stone. I was literally staring at her like, you didn’t have MTV in your, because again, this is my best friend from high school, so I don’t really remember middle school. I don’t remember her experience then. Yeah. But I’m like, you didn’t have it. Yeah. Like I do. I wouldn’t have known how to survive.
Cathy: Like, I, I, at, at a certain point, I think starting more around sixth or seventh grade, it became like a parent to me. Sure. Um, MTV. But anyway, so Tad. Here were the first 10 songs ever played. Yeah. On MTV. You ready? Ready number one video killed the Radio Star. Yeah, we already, that was our intro. You guys know what that is?
Cathy: By the [00:17:00] bugles number two. And I kinda love this. You better run by Pat Benatar, my girl.
Todd: You know, they spent like days kind of thinking of what’s gonna be first and second and third.
Cathy: I mean she is so MTV friendly. She was so good. Mm-hmm. And attractive and she was huge. Yeah. You know, like hit Me With Your Best Shot.
Cathy: Came out around like third or fourth grade whenever that was. Very early eighties. And she was, she’s perfect. And then we had Rod Stewart.
Mm-hmm.
Cathy: She won’t dance with me, which I don’t know that song. Never
Todd: heard of it.
Cathy: Um, then we had the who? You better. You bet.
Cathy: Ooh. And then we had a song called Little, little Susie’s on the Up, which that’s a Tesla song to me.
Todd: Little Susie is on the up,
Cathy: and I don’t know how does that mean? I didn’t know. That, that was a song before Tesla, but it was, and then the [00:18:00] next one was Cliff Richard. We don’t talk anymore, which I do remember.
Cathy: Well, never heard of it. Well, and then after that, the Pretenders Brass in pocket. Okay. Totally makes sense. Uh, number eight, uh, Todd Run, uh, run Grin, time heals. And just a little pop culture info. Little Todd. He, that is who Liv Tyler thought her dad was, but it turns out her dad was Steven Tyler. Oh, just a little info.
Cathy: Number nine. REO Speedwagon. Take it on the run, which is a great song. Okay. And then the last one is Sticks Rock in the Paradise. Okay. So these were the first 10 songs, um, that, you know, were popular in MTV. And I will just share before we move on to the next category, my first obsession song. So this is, remember when.
Cathy: Okay. My first obsession song was Duran Duran, the Reflex.
Todd: Um, I think I have that here. Do you
Cathy: have it ready? I have it ready. Oh, good.[00:19:00]
Okay.
Cathy: I know every in my brain. I have every moment in this video, I could basically watch it in my brain. If I was Andy Dufrene and I was in a hole at Shaw Shawshank, I would just think about Duran Duran the reflex.
Todd: What did you, how did you describe that? Like your favorite song? What did you, what did you describe?
Todd: Well, it
Cathy: was two things. Number one, I loved the song. So Duran Duran huge. Right? I loved the song. But number two, all of them were really attractive. Mm-hmm. And again, it’s a coming of age thing where I’m like, look at these men. Now what’s interesting is they were also very, they were from the uk, they were a little more flamboyant.
Cathy: They were wearing makeup. Mm-hmm.
Which
Cathy: was kind of different. Sure. You know, that’s not, I grew up with a lot of guys who were, you know, playing baseball and football and it was a very, um,
Todd: yeah, very different small town kind of community masculinity. Right.
Cathy: And so that was new. And this is what I mean about shifting for us, is that this is something I [00:20:00] had not seen.
Cathy: Yeah. I had not been exposed. So, and what
Todd: about this song, sweetie? It was a good MTV song, isn’t it?
Cathy: Yeah. But much later.
Todd: Oh, it is? Well,
Cathy: what did Relax come Out? Does it have a date on it?
Todd: Uh, it doesn’t. I always liked the song,
Cathy: that video. Can you see that video in your mind? Frankie goes to Hollywood.
Todd: I’m looking at it now.
Todd: I don’t ever remember seeing it.
Cathy: Yeah. Um, so yes, but that is a perfect video song, right? Yeah. Lots of like, and that’s the thing is like, how much did you know, Todd already mentioned that so many of the artists were kind of cut out of the world of music because they could know they weren’t so video friendly.
Cathy: Yeah. And then how did that change music? Mm-hmm. You know, how did music end up being. Maybe created for a visual medium instead of just for, because it was good lyrics.
Todd: We didn’t plan for this, but I, I just thought of one video that they didn’t spend a lot of money in the production aspect [00:21:00] of it. Uhhuh, remember I had the, is it I had the tiger where they’re back, back up on the plastic bags.
Cathy: It’s our favorite. It’s literally plastic bags.
Todd: Yeah. I just don’t know what that was all about.
Cathy: Well, and this is the thing, I mean, I’m gonna get into, I let’s go to the next one because I’ve got some info about that.
Todd: Oh, there’s a little bit of production. They’re like
Cathy: little,
Todd: but basically they’ll be, they’re in front of a bunch of trash packs.
Todd: Okay. Are we go to the next category, next
Cathy: category.
Todd: Uh, do you wanna name it or are we just gonna play it? It’s
Cathy: called Random facts. Everybody
Pounds. Jerry, do you know the human head weights eight pounds. One
Cathy: more time.
Jerry, do you know the human head weights eight pounds?
Todd: That’s a random fact.
Cathy: That’s a random fact.
Cathy: Thank you. Um, what’s his, oh, what’s his name in the movie?
Todd: Um. I don’t know. It’s isn’t, it’s a
Cathy: cute little name.
Todd: Lipinski isn’t his real name. Jonathan
Cathy: Lipinski’s the actor, but his name in the movie is, we gotta know his name. Just call
Todd: him Doug. Who cares?
Cathy: Not Doug. It’s like a cute little name. It’s Doug Roy.
Cathy: Ray. Ray. It’s Ray Sweet Ray. Okay. Sweet [00:22:00] Ray. Okay, so random facts. Did you wanna start or do you want me?
Todd: Um, let’s see. Random facts. Uh, 1983, Michael Jackson breaks barriers with Billie Jean. That’s a random fact,
Cathy: right? But let’s dive into that more. Okay, go ahead. Okay. Because the truth is that. When MTV started in 1981, they were not playing any black artists.
Cathy: Mm-hmm. So there was a barrier mm-hmm. For, um, people of color who were, who had pop music. And so there is this really, really great interview that, uh, David Bowie did. It must have been in 81 or 82, somewhere around there with Mark Goodman, who’s one of the VJs, and I’ll go through that, where he calls them out, like, you’re not playing the black artists.
Cathy: Yeah. Like it, it was, you know, um. It was obvious. Obviously they kept, they kept playing the same people over and over and over again.
Todd: I, I kind of wanna play it for you, but I don’t know exactly where he says it. So, well,
Cathy: why don’t you go ahead and look at that, and I’m just gonna share a few random [00:23:00] facts.
Cathy: Okay. The first is a random fact from MTV. Okay. When we are listening to radio, we had DJs, disc jockeys, that’s what they were called. Once we got MTV, we had VJs video jockeys. That was kind of a, you know, that was a new language that was new for us. And there were 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 VJs. And I’m gonna give everybody a second to think if they can come up with them in their minds.
Cathy: Just, do you have like a little jeopardy clock or something like that?
Todd: Well, I don’t wanna blow our, our trivia thing. Oh, good. Good, good,
Cathy: good. So I’m just gonna give you, we’ll take one deep breath. See if you can come up with the VJs in your mind.
Todd: Mm-hmm.
Cathy: Okay. Todd, how about you? Do you wanna, do you wanna play?
Cathy: No. Okay. Number one, Martha Quinn.
Todd: Yeah, that lady, I remember her
Cathy: number two. Mark Goodman?
Todd: Yeah. Yeah, I, I remember that guy.
Cathy: Number three. Alan Hunter.
Todd: Yeah. Sorta
Cathy: number four. JJ Jackson? No, he died.
Todd: Oh,
Cathy: number five. Nina Blackwood.
Todd: That’s a lady that sounds like she smoked cigarettes her whole life. Yeah,
Cathy: and the thing [00:24:00] about the VJs is they are such pop culture icons that they are still around.
Cathy: And if you have XM Serious Radio, they are hosts on some radio station. I think it’s the eighties station. Yeah. So we hear their voices. But Nina Blackwood, she’s just her voice. I wish we would’ve had that ready for them because her voice is incredible.
Todd: Well, maybe I can get that. But first, can I play this, a little bit of this David Bowie thing?
Todd: Please
Cathy: go
Todd: ahead. I’d like to ask you something,
you know. Alright. Um, it, it occurred to me having watched MTV over the last few months, um, that it’s, it’s, it’s got, it’s a solid enterprise with, and it’s got a lot going for it. I’m just flawed by the fact that there’s so many, so few black artists featured on it.
Why is that? I think that we’re trying to move in that direction. We wanna
Todd: play artists that seem to be doing music that fits into, it’s a four and a half minute clip, so I’m not gonna play it all. Do you want to hear anymore?
Cathy: No, but I just love the Bowie brings it up. Right, right. You know, like, it’s something that obviously, as we said, I didn’t really get into, um, MTV the way I, at least for my memory bank [00:25:00] until seventh grade and by then Billie Jean had come out.
Cathy: So I never had that, you know, awareness at, at such a young age. But part of the reason, just again, random facts, part of the reason that MTV was playing so many British stars, like British, you know, rock stars, is because. In the uk they had already created videos, like that was a part of their system. Okay.
Cathy: So they were ready to go. You know, they had a, where in the US We didn’t know.
Todd: We didn’t know. We weren’t doing that stuff.
Cathy: And so we, we were like slow to adopt videos in our country. And so
Todd: You wanna hear Nina? Yeah.
Cathy: It’s
in part by Fruit Corners. Fruit bars at today’s head and shoulder. Oh, it’s, oh, she sounds
Todd: great.
Todd: It’s from 1985 Philadelphia.
Our Gary
Todd: Hold. I wanna, I want to hear from, I think this is her now.
There she is now on various platforms. Hear that music.
Todd: Oh, I don’t know what’s guys about to say, so I’m not gonna say, I’m not gonna play it, but just,
Cathy: [00:26:00] just be careful. Yeah. Yeah. Todd Todd is an excellent producer, but sometimes he doesn’t know what he’s bringing up, which is cool.
Todd: Most of the time. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.
Cathy: So, Todd, so a few, like I said, MTV needed to fill their airtime really fast. Yeah. At the US was not ready for it, so they turned to all the British videos. Yeah. So these were the bands that became huge because of these first couple years where they had to fill it in.
Cathy: Okay. Ready? Yeah. Duran Duran. Yeah. Who? We already said the police. Oh yeah. They were ready. Yep. Um, do you remember, don’t stand so close to me and I, do you remember those videos? The a Rhythmics?
Todd: Yep.
Cathy: Uh, Bowie, who We already said Culture Club. Yeah. Boy George. Uh, Phil Collins and Genesis. Uh, the vapors. Do you remember the vapers, who that is?
Cathy: Do you remember the song Turning Japanese? No. Which is so not pc. No. But yeah, they had a song called Turning Japanese, um, split Ends.
Todd: Okay.
Cathy: Um, they had a song called I Got You. Which I used to love. Uh, this That’s a perfect song that would come on the eighties station. I got
Todd: split ends.
Cathy: Okay, go ahead.[00:27:00]
Todd: Sounds very British,
Cathy: doesn’t it? And this is like a perfect song that like Todd and I’ll be driving somewhere. We’ll have the 80 station on this’ll come on. I’ll go, you know this. And the reason I say that is ’cause it was on MTV all the time. You know what? So like, it’s hard for me to understand that you don’t, but I know you,
Todd: I wasn’t watching MTV like you were.
Todd: I
Cathy: know. And then we had, um, uh, a Flock of Eagles.
Todd: Love those guys. Actually, I don’t,
Cathy: do you?
Todd: No, I don’t
Cathy: Bow. Wow. Wow.
Cathy: Made popular again by, uh, la la land. Um, okay. Um, so Bow. Wow. Wow. We already said them. Um, Gary Newman, who has, that’s on cars. Mm-hmm. And then haircut 100, which I think they only had love plus one. Um, did you pull that one up?
Todd: No, I did not.
Cathy: And then finally, uh, Thomas Dolby, uh, she blinded me [00:28:00] with sex. Oh yeah, I got that guy.
Cathy: Queue
Todd: up.
Todd: I feel like we should do a podcast on what this song’s about. She blinded me with science. What is he, what are they talking about?
Cathy: Okay. This is the, the part of my like favorite thing to talk about when I think about MTV and Gen X. We were so weird.
Yeah.
Cathy: Like what is that? Yeah. And there are so many songs like that, like, you know, just so many strange iterations.
Cathy: And I love it because that’s kind of what I mean, it’s expanded our awareness. Like that we would be at a seventh grade dance and dance to that song. Do you know what I mean? Right. Like what’s going on? Um, but it was because of the visual medium. He was hilarious. You remember that video?
Todd: Uh, no, I don’t, but I believe you.
Todd: At its core, the song is a satirical love story where the narrator is overwhelmed and fascinated by a woman, possibly a stereotypical mad scientist whose beauty and [00:29:00] intellect blinds him metaphorically. Good
Cathy: heavens, miss Sakamoto, you’re beautiful with
Todd: science. It’s full of playful metaphors, making it seem like he’s go losing control of his senses.
Todd: As though love itself were a scientific phenomenon, he can’t explain. Hmm. So now I can fall asleep tonight ’cause I know what that song’s about. You understand Thomas Dolby? Yes. At his core. Yeah. Alright, anything else about random facts? Well, I was gonna kind of go through kind of a timeline of the eighties and 90, like the most important moments.
Todd: But I don’t know if I’m gonna step on any of cat. So let me just do the main ones. Do main ones? Yeah. So Madonna’s like a Virgin 1984. I do remember that, of course. ’cause that was MTV awards, right? Right. And she kind of, she rolled around in a wedding dress. She rolled around my 1985 live aid. Huge. 1986. Um, 120 minutes starts, which I never really watched.
Todd: Did you watch 121?
Cathy: Sometimes It wasn’t my favorite.
Todd: Uh, 1987 MTV cribs and spring break.
Cathy: Yeah. I remember cribs. I
Todd: remember liking that because there was a lot of girls in bikinis. Oh, I understood. Spring break. Understood. Uh, 1989. [00:30:00] Yo. MTV raps. Yep. Uh, 1992. Pedro Zamora. Yeah, the real world. He had aids. He did 1993.
Todd: Nirvana’s Unplugged. Huge. Um, let’s see. I don’t know what year Beavs and Butthead showed up. I might play a little bit of that. Um, Todd
Cathy: and I bonded over that in the. At that time of our lives, we did, we both liked it.
Todd: So those are just a few. So you wanna go to the WTF moments?
Cathy: Um, sure. But I was gonna say something about all of those changes.
Cathy: So just because Todd mentioned all those things, cribs 120 minutes, you know, all these, the changes and, and you know, yo MTV wraps is, the other thing is for those of us who lived in small towns who were only getting like radio music or country music or whatever, again, it’s expanding. It’s like to be able to have access and to see so many rap artists and so many alternative artists and to have access to songs that we may not, you know, you and I had XRT growing up in Chicago and that gave us [00:31:00] kind of a, you know, a vibe of alternative music.
Cathy: Sure. Um, and obviously there were some rap stations, but I feel like it was MTV that really, because what was it for me? Run DMC and Aerosmith. Yeah. Right. So that’s when you have this, the first visual medium for me at least, and then again, expanded us. I really, this is this podcast, Zen Pop Parenting is a love letter to Gen Xers.
Cathy: Like, there you go. I want you guys to understand how important our generation is and was and why we are the way we are with our kids like that. And we’re gonna get to that. Believe me, the, the moments are coming, but we’re just getting through the basics.
Todd: All right. All right.
Cathy: Ready for number four?
Todd: Um, yes. And the category is WTF, and this is what we decided to play.
Boy, that escalated quickly. I mean, that really got outta hand fast.
Todd: It jumped up a notch. It did, didn’t it? It did, didn’t it? Um, [00:32:00] so WTF moments. So what do you got for the WTF moments?
Cathy: Um, you know, I actually already stepped on one, I said the Bowie interview.
Cathy: Yeah. I thought it it not what the, what not WTF in a bad way, but in a good way. Like he was saying WTF to them. Mm-hmm. Um, let’s see, the blah, blah, blah. That’s a little more about race, which I think we already covered. Um, let’s see. You know what everything I put in here was about race. I said a few black artists had videos, labels didn’t fund them.
Cathy: Um, pressure was changing things. The turning point, point came in CBS when CBS records president, uh, threatened to pull all CBS artists from MTV if they didn’t play Michael Jackson’s, Billie Jean.
Mm.
Cathy: So the industry came to, you know, and said, you have to play this or else we’re pulling everybody else. So his video, Billie Jean, aired in 1983, massive hit and it broke the racial barrier.
Cathy: And once he. Came through Michael Jackson. Then we had Prince Lionel, Richie, Whitney, [00:33:00] Houston, so many others. But it, you know, they gained more visibility. Um, but it did take public pressure. Yeah. You know, which it often does when it comes to our country.
Todd: Um, I’m gonna play three WTF moments for me. I don’t know how good they’re gonna be, but I’m gonna play ’em anyways.
Todd: Um, um.
Hi Courtney.
Todd: You know what this is? That’s Courtney. Everybody’s favorite.
Cathy: Come on up. Should we let her come up? Yeah. No, don’t please. Courtney loves, yeah.
Todd: What was she doing?
Courtney’s coming
Todd: up. So she’s getting interviewed by, uh, Kurt Loader. Kurt Load’s interviewing Madonna. Okay. Oh, she’s, and Courtney’s like, uh, they’re on some like elevated perch I totally remember.
Todd: And she’s like chucking stuff up there, Uhhuh. And then they invite her up and it’s just a bad awkward, and Madonna
Cathy: does not want Courtney love out there. No, she doesn’t at all. Uhuh,
Todd: which is really kind of hilarious.
Cathy: Okay. I was just watching something the other day, Todd. And I was meant to ask you about it.
Cathy: People were, it was something about love triangles from music history. Sure. And they said one of the [00:34:00] triangles was Kurt Courtney and Billy. Yeah. So, but Billy and Courtney wrote music together, but, but they didn’t have an affair, did
Todd: they? They were sort of seeing each other before. I actually just watched something on this last night.
Todd: No way. Which is crazy. Um, so Courtney and Billy had a little bit of a flame going on. Ah, and then, um, Courtney wanted to kind of hang with Billy Corgan, and Billy’s like, you know what, I’m not into this. So she literally, like Kurt happened to be playing in Chicago at the time. Okay. And so she’s like, well, screw you, Billy.
Todd: I’m gonna go see this other band. And that was the beginning of their kinship.
Cathy: So just to clarify, and by the way, you guys were talking about Billy Corgan from the Smashing Pumpkins, Kurt, uh, Kurt Cobain from Nirvana and Courtney Love from whole. And so. Is it true that Billy wrote most of Whole’s album?
Todd: I don’t know.
Todd: I know that he helped her with some things, but Billy [00:35:00] bless his heart, uh, tends to exaggerate. Yeah, just make himself kind of important. Okay. Love you Billy. But
Cathy: alright. That was definitely a Wt f moment moment. So that’s a
Todd: WTF. This is a WTF moment. Um,
so thank you so much for giving me a chance to win a VMA award.
I,
yo Taylor Oh Taylor, I, I’m really happy for you. I’m gonna let you finish Kanye to have one of the best videos of all time.
Cathy: Ouch. Ouch. We actually have a, uh, a very. Big, um, decal of Taylor Swift in our podcast office. She’s gonna show
Todd: up on this, uh, this new podcast quite often. Yeah. And then my last WTF, which is a sad one, but a real one, and
Kurt Loder with an MTV News Special report.
On a very sad day, Kurt Cobain, the leader of one of rock’s most gifted and promising bands. Nirvana is dead, and this is the story as we know it so far. Cobain’s Body was found in a house in Seattle on Friday morning. Do you remember
Todd: where you worked,
sweetie? Absolutely. [00:36:00] Shotgun blast.
Todd: I was at college, but I don’t remember exactly where I was.
Todd: I wasn’t a huge Nirvana fan at the time, so it affected other people around me more than it did, uh, affect me.
Cathy: I would say I was a Nirvana fan that Nirvana Unplugged was probably the album, the Disc I had. From that year that I listened to the most. Yeah, I mean, now speaking, I’m not the biggest Nirvana fan.
Cathy: I just mean at the time they were pretty big for us. I was a year out of college and, um, I, I honestly, I, I feel like I was at home 4 54 Belmont in Chicago. Um, but then that night we went to see the samples. Um, it’s a band that we used to listen to in college and the lead singer of the samples dedicated, nothing lasts for long to.
Cathy: Kurt.
Todd: Mm-hmm. And everyone was crying. I’m sure there was a lot of that going on. Yeah.
Cathy: It was very sad. It, it felt very, I remember, you know, and this is the whole point of you saying, do you remember where you were? Is I remember thinking, I will always remember where I was. Mm-hmm. You know, [00:37:00] just like everything, you know, anything that’s complete.
Cathy: Just like I remember where I was when Princess Diana got in the car accident, or, you know, any of these very shocking things. You’re like, it’s ingrained in my brain.
Mm-hmm.
Cathy: Um, so yeah. So are we ready to, uh,
Todd: yeah. We ready to shift to the next thing? So you know
Cathy: what you’re gonna play now, right?
Todd: Tell me if I’m wrong.
Cathy: Here’s our Zen parenting music. It’s not gone everybody Don’t be sad. We’re
Todd: still here.
Cathy: We’re still here.
Todd: Um, okay, so where are we? This is gonna be more your category Okay. Slash hours. So
Cathy: Zen Parenting music, because we’re gonna start, and this is actually, this is really the category is this is called Rolling In the Deep.
Cathy: Oh, okay.
Todd: Do I play it?
Cathy: Yes.
Cathy: So let’s do a little rolling in the deep. Okay.
Cathy: So just a few thoughts. Like, I’m already like sprinkling all this in here as a, as far as how much it affected us at a, [00:38:00] as a generation, but just remembering that MTV didn’t just entertain us Gen Xers, you know, and again, I’m sure lots of boomers were watching MTV too. I just like to give MTV to us mm-hmm.
Cathy: Because we were the ones who were most affected by it. Um, it raised us emotionally. Okay. Um, these are some of the things that really came through as far as, you know, creating our generation. We became fluent in being ironic. Um, we became more skeptical of authority. We became more desiring of originality.
Cathy: Um, and this was, this is the biggest part for me because, and I think again, Todd will attest to this, it gave us a lifelong soundtrack for processing our lives. Mm. Okay. So what do I do all the time when I hear a song?
Todd: Tell me what grade you were in when you heard it.
Cathy: Correct. And I’ll be, and I remember the video and I remember where I [00:39:00] was and who I was with.
Cathy: So MTV and, and music. Overall, I think any generation can relate to this as far as music is the soundtrack of our lives. Duh. But there’s something about how, for us, it just got taken up a notch where we could see it. Uh, it made, you know, hearing it, seeing it, having this new medium, it really ingrained music into our lives.
Cathy: It became the way that we told our stories. Mm-hmm. Um, we had, you know, it in introduced, these are just some other things. Introduced a lot more creativity. I think a lot more people got invested in, you know, maybe being, not just being musical artists. Making videos. Yep. You know what I mean? We became more of a, a visual, medium kind of generation.
Cathy: Like we When did you get your first video recorder? Was that college?
Todd: Uh, yeah, my dad gave it to me. I was in college.
Cathy: Yeah. And it was a really nice one. Oh yeah. Like, it was like a handheld, because when I was in high school, my friend and I used to, um, go to like the local rental place and we would [00:40:00] rent a video recorder that we had to put on our shoulder mm-hmm.
Cathy: Because it was so heavy. Oh yeah. But we just wanted to make videos. Yeah. You know, like everybody else. And so it, you know, it became that. So it was MTV was an identity mirror, you know, it kind of reflected back our style, you know, our, um, her attitude. Like I just think about how. Even, you know, and this kind of goes into fashion a little bit, but you know, think about Cyndi Lauper and what she looked like and that she had yellow hair and that she had like things that didn’t match.
Cathy: And that I remember being like, can we do that? Like I, again, I was, so, where I grew up was, so it’s not about conservative in politics, it was just so basic.
Mm-hmm.
Cathy: And then to look at other women, like I said, pat Benatar was like my idol when she, when I was really young. Like I loved her. But then to be able to see Madonna and I remember being like, she doesn’t look like she’s showering a lot and she’s wearing a lot of rubber bracelets and she’s [00:41:00] wearing like lace things in her hair.
Cathy: And then all of a sudden you would go to Fox Valley Mall and you could buy those things. Yeah. And you could look like Madonna. And we, you know, there was just a lot of like changing it. It grew. It, our creativity expanded, our individuality, expanded our, my way of looking at women expanded. Um, you know, like, it just became, it just felt like more was possible.
Todd: I just asked, uh, Che, GPT to give me some generalizations about Gen X. ’cause that’s who we are, right? Okay. Uh, we’re independent and self-reliant. We talk about ourselves as latchkey kids. Yeah. We’re cynical, but realistic. Very much so. Uh, gen X came of age during political scandals, economic uncertainty, uncertainty, blah, blah, blah, technology bridge.
Todd: So we grew up in the analog. Yeah. And then we moved into digital. Yeah. Uh, work-life balance advocates less career obsessed than boomers. Yeah. Uh, pop culture savvy. It talks about MTV and independent films. Um, so [00:42:00] anyways, those are just a few of the generalizations.
Cathy: And also in our generation, weirdness became kind of cool, you know, like people like Devo, you know, like they were strange or like Thomas Dolby or, you know, Kosar or Rmi Amadeus or Weird was kind of.
Cathy: Cool. Mm-hmm. You know, or at least we didn’t turn away from it, you know, it was, it was a part of mainstream. And then the whole idea of like a global youth culture, it’s part of the reason, at least for me, that when I’m looking at my daughter’s generation, I feel very connected to what they’re doing. I, I can’t say that I was a big activist.
Cathy: I think that would be a full on lie, but I was aware of what was going on. We knew about Rock the Vote because of MTV. We knew that we could get involved. We knew that we could speak up. There was, there was a shift, you know, we had Hands Across America. We had, you know, live aid. We had far made, like there was, um, we had, we Are the world.
Cathy: We had, um, you know, do they know it’s Christmas? [00:43:00] Like there was this shifting, and again, it was a visual medium. Yes, it was the songs, but we started to see we can make an impact.
Todd: Sweetie, did you say Devo?
Cathy: I did.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, that,
I think that’s Roth like from a long time ago.
Cathy: Oh my God. I love those two.
Todd: Yeah. So do I
Cathy: for the time. Yeah. Meaning now if I listen to ’em, they drive me crazy. Yeah. You know, and it’s repetitious and, but at the time it made me laugh because you know what they were doing, Todd? They were doing what we were doing That’s exactly right. Which was watching videos, making, making fun of it.
Cathy: And making fun of them. Yep. I could, I was nothing like Beavis and Butthead, but I could relate to them. And they wore their winger shirt. Don’t we
Todd: all have sweetie? First of all, they did not wear the winger shirt. Wore [00:44:00] the winger shirts. They saved that for like, their nerdy, nerdy buddy. Because Beavis would do a CD.
Todd: He always had ac, C, D, C. Okay. Right. And Butthead had, uh, or no, I, which one’s got the blonde hair?
Cathy: Uh,
Todd: Bevis. No. Yeah. Wait, Bevis is, Bevis is the, the blonde is blonde. Butthead. Yeah, Butthead is, so, Butthead is ac. CDC. Bevis is Metallica, I think. Okay. So,
Cathy: um, so this is gonna be the, this is a little quiz that I have for you.
Cathy: You ready? Ready. So. You know, the other thing that Mus or that MTV gave us, you know, this time was, it was a huge LA lasting imprint. Right. You know, and again, it’s how it built our brains and that certain songs still trigger very specific things. Okay. Okay. So some of it was really, again, rolling in the deep here.
Cathy: Some of it was about grief. Like, you know, there were certain videos that made us cry, like, think Man in the Mirror, you know, Michael Jackson or, um, you know, under Pressure, you know, Bowie and Queen. Like, certain things made us sad. Like, we’re like, wow, we’re [00:45:00] seeing something we haven’t seen. Um, and then some were just ingrained.
Cathy: So I’m just gonna say something to you. Yeah. And you tell me what you think of. Okay. White snake. Here I go again.
Todd: Uh, Tawny Cat.
Cathy: Exactly.
Todd: Uh, on the roof of the car.
Cathy: That’s all you say to me. Every time that song comes on, you’re like, Tawny. Catan. Yeah. Okay. Just that, that’s ingrained in your brain. That’s not from the radio song.
Cathy: No, that’s from her. Okay. So what do you think of when you hear Take on me?
Todd: Norwegian Aha. Cartoon awesome video,
Cathy: right? Something that’s still being replicated today. Yeah. The fact that Take on Me still has such a life. Um, the, uh, last month, the last of us, the show, uh, there was, uh, Bella Ramsey’s character actually plays Take On Me on her guitar.
Cathy: Like, it’s still so relevant to this generation, it’s just never lost its momentum.
Todd: Um, with that in mind, I just want to gift everybody. If you wanna listen to a wonderful version of it, version, version of it, stop
[00:46:00] Away.
Todd: It’s from like seven years ago. First of all, this Norwegian dude got better looking. 30 years later, they’re
Cathy: dead.
Cathy: Well, no, he was good looking intake on me too in the video. It’s just
Todd: a very good looking
Cathy: sorry. And
Todd: take, so I, I always like acoustic versions better than, um, regular electric guitar versions. But anyways, so.
Cathy: Okay. And then the last one, what do you think about when you hear hungry like the wolf?
Todd: Uh, the jungle lady.
Cathy: Yes. Yeah. And just the jungle atmosphere. And it makes me think
Todd: of Friday night videos.
Cathy: Yes. Yeah. But it, it was on MTV.
Todd: Sure. Do you know what I mean? What came, what came first? Friday night videos are MTV Friday night videos. Right?
Cathy: Yes. So, but there’s more, because like, the thing about hungry, like the wolf is, like you said, they’re in the jungle and he’s chasing someone and it happens to be a woman of color.
Cathy: Mm-hmm. Which is pretty cool. And, you know, the, you know, shifting for our culture too, where the woman that he’s like running after and chasing Yeah. It’s a biracial relationship. Right. Which is great. [00:47:00] You know, we’re like getting there. Um, and, but it’s very sexual Yeah. In nature too. So like there is a lot of, um, you know, the whole thing hungry like the wolf, you know?
Cathy: Yeah. The whole thing is that he’s chasing her and that it is, you know, pro provocative. Is that the word I’m looking for? I think that’s
Todd: a pretty good word for it. Yeah. Uhhuh. And it’s a really good video, right? Oh yeah.
Todd: Yeah, they spent a lot of money on this fat boy, and I’m sure they made it all back.
Cathy: That’s the thing, is not only did they spend a lot of money on it, but the other thing is that it was very, um,
Todd: artistic.
Cathy: Artistic, but it also pushed boundaries. Mm-hmm. Because, you know, there was a lot of heavy breathing and there was a lot of showing us very sexual type scenes.
Cathy: So I remember being like, whoa. You know what I mean?
Todd: Friday night videos started in 1983, so two years after, two years after mtv, and it went all the [00:48:00] way to 2002. Is that cr is that right?
Cathy: Surprising. Right. You know what this, I’m gonna, I don’t know this for a fact, but I am willing to bet that the whole spring break thing that MTV started doing, that was the beginning of Girls Gone Wild.
Todd: Mm.
Cathy: Don’t you think Possibly that whole idea of like, I think
Todd: I did that, uh, end up in jail.
Cathy: Yeah. Oh, I listened to a whole podcast series on The Girls Gone Wild. Like, I can’t believe that was a thing. Yeah. You know what I mean? Okay, so let’s go Parenting.
Todd: Parenting
Cathy: like
the Jackson Cradled and the.
Cathy: When you coming home? Dad don’t know when. So this is the parenting aspect of understanding MTV. So this is how things, you know, connect across generations. So I just again, wanna give us a lot of props. I think if you’re sitting around thinking, I don’t get this generation of kids we’re raising or what they’re interested in, [00:49:00] we, we actually do, you know, there’s a lot that our, this generation is doing that we started, um, one of them, Todd, that I think is really interesting is we grew up decoding messages from videos.
Mm-hmm.
Cathy: Like, we would watch a video and we didn’t have the language of Easter eggs. Right. That came about because of the show lost. That’s where that started. But you’d watch a video and you, okay, so I’ll just do Cyndi Lauper. Okay. So Cyndi Lauper has this video, girls just wanna have fun. It’s her first one and it’s like, oh my gosh, who is this woman?
Cathy: And everything’s really crazy. And in the video it’s her real mom. Who’s playing her mom. Okay. It is the guy in it, and maybe he’s not in girls one to have fun. I think he’s in time after time. But the guy that’s usually in her videos was her either boyfriend, boyfriend or fiance. Okay. And then Lou Albano.
Todd: Yeah, captain Lou. Captain Lou. He was a wrestler. Yeah, he is. Get rubber bands in his beard. I still haven’t understood why he put rubber bands in his beard.
Cathy: It [00:50:00] was just part of his character and so he was in it. So we were, we had all this like. Information into Cindy’s life. And we were also like, who is Lou Albano?
Cathy: And so then we’d get more invested in what wrestling was all about. Yeah. It would like, there was like this cross-contamination of like, if you’re interested in this, it’ll lead you to this. Yeah. And so we would really do some, you know, investigating of, or like, you know, you were just talking about Whitesnake.
Cathy: Here I go again. Um, Tawny Cat was dating David, whatever his name was. Uh, Coverdale Coverdale lead singer of Whitesnake. And so we got an insight into their life, you know, Billy Joel doing Uptown Girl and having Kristy Brinkley in it. Like we, this was the opening of, of people’s lives right. To us where we could see them together in this like, different way.
Cathy: And that is a big thing this generation does. And that, and, and I still enjoy doing it as well. Um, we, the very little literal terminology is mystery box shows, you know, where the whole intention is to kind of figure out these pieces and [00:51:00] like put them together. But, um, we. We did it.
Yeah,
Cathy: we started it.
Yeah.
Cathy: Yay us. It was us. Can you think of any more, um, videos that you, we got new information from?
Todd: Not a one.
Cathy: Well, how about like. Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney, when they started doing, say, say, say, say, say, say, or, um, Ebony and Ivory. Mm-hmm. Or, you know, like you start to see people’s relationships. Mm-hmm. You know, or I remember a video, really old video of, um.
Cathy: Mick Jagger singing with Bette Midler, beast of Burden. You know, where you’re like, how do these people know each other? You know? And of course, duh. Of course they do. They all live in the same kind of world. And, but it was so cool. Like, it was so interesting to get like, you know, information about these people’s lives.
Todd: So, um, I just asked Chad GPT most meaningful videos from the eighties and nineties. Michael Jackson thriller. Yes. Oh dude. Huge. Peter Gabriel Sledgehammer. Yes. Madonna. Like a prayer. [00:52:00] Huge. Uh, Sunday, bloody Sunday Live Uhhuh. It’s when Bono’s got the’s, like in the rain or it’s like Misty and he’s got the big flag.
Cathy: Did you understand when you two came out that they were activists? Did you know what they were singing about? Not really. Not really.
Todd: Uh, Cyndi Lauper girls just wanna have fun genesis, land of confusion. Yep. That was Ronald Reagan. Public Enemy. Fight the power. Yep. Bruce Springsteen born in the USA, which people don’t understand.
Todd: That’s not supposed to be necessarily a positive thing. So those are from the eighties. The nineties is, uh, Nirvana. Smells like Teen Spirit, TLC Waterfalls. Yeah, huge. Pearl Jam. Jeremy. Yeah, Tupac. Brenda’s got a baby. REM. Everybody hurts.
Cathy: Yep.
Todd: Uh, a lot is Morisset ironic now I just feel like we’re just Yeah,
Cathy: well now you’re getting into the nineties more.
Cathy: Yeah.
Todd: Yeah.
Cathy: But these were, you know, and, and again, part of the reason that those are meaningful, like sledgehammer, it was really because of the visual aspect to it. I don’t think there’s anything deep. I mean, maybe people find depth in Sledgehammer, but I don’t love that song. But [00:53:00] it was interesting right, the way they did the video.
Cathy: And so it was really popular. It was like the number one video. Um, whereas Thriller was this crossover, you know, we got Quincy Jones who helps with the song, and then we have John Landis who is the director of the video. And it was the longest video we had ever seen. Oh yeah. And it was like a whole story movie of scary it movie.
Cathy: So scary turned and then they used the same stuff that they used from an American werewolf in London. Um, makeup artist. You mean? Makeup artist? Which if you look at it now, you’re like, that’s not great. Right. But at the time it was huge. Yeah. Um, so anyway, just a few more things. Um, you know, that I, I thought this was interesting.
Cathy: I wrote this down. We parent to the soundtrack in our heads, our emotional memory is layered with music and it shows in how we connect. And I can relate to this. I don’t know if everybody can, but I, I feel like when something’s going on in life, I, there’s [00:54:00] songs that come up for me from my history, you know what I mean?
Cathy: And it’s how I connect, you know, and we still do this, you know, a lot of, uh, Taylor Swift is, I, my girls are probably, as they grow up everything, will really Taylor Swift in some way. Not just because she’s their favorite artist, but Taylor wrote about everything.
Yeah.
Cathy: You know, growing up and relationships and breakups and independence and they’re always gonna have something to relate to.
Cathy: Um, so. Also, I’m trying to think if there’s anything. Well, I’ll just end with this. Why does this matter now for our parenting? Because we understand why kids like TikTok, we understand why they love YouTube. We understand that Instagram is like a version of entertainment. It’s it’s emotional expression for them.
Cathy: Um, they use visuals to say things better. Yeah. You know, they emotional expression comes through stronger in a music video than it does when you’re listening to it on the radio. Now, I think [00:55:00] some people purists would say, I don’t want the video because now I have to go along with what this vision is.
Cathy: Mm-hmm. Right. Some people like to listen to music and come up with their own idea, like, you just brought up Jeremy in Pearl Jam. Sure. He, he won’t say, he won’t finish that story. No. Uh, Eddie Veder. No. He’s like, that’s up to the people watching. Yeah.
Todd: And I think a lot of artists do that. Right? They’re like, if I, the minute I explain what it was in my head, may take away your experience.
Todd: ’cause you may create something different based on the, the words and the music and the lyrics.
Cathy: But don’t you think the video challenges that notion? Because if you’re making a video with a viewpoint mm-hmm. Then you’re already giving people a viewpoint on that song.
Todd: Right. And I am not an expert on the video, Jeremy, but I think there was always questions on whether or not that blood was his or his fellow classmates.
Cathy: Yeah.
Todd: And I think it was when it was written, it was his,
Cathy: yeah.
Todd: It was Jeremy’s blood.
Cathy: Where now if we listen to that song, [00:56:00] right, yeah. Right. Like we just finished the pit last night.
Todd: Yep.
Cathy: And, uh, I don’t know. I just wanna say that we’re a big fan. We’re big fans. Yeah. And there’s a lot of, the thing about the pit is it does a really good job of incorporating the issues that our country is facing today in every hour of that show.
Cathy: Yeah. So anyway. Okay, so last big rolling In the Deep or Zen parenting kind of, uh, category number seven, what did it teach us
Todd: and why did we choose this music sweetie?
Cathy: Because we’re learning to fly. Oh,
Todd: that’s
Cathy: right. What did it teach us? What are the big life lessons? Okay. To me, and you can, you know, go back and forth with me to be different.
Todd: Okay.
Cathy: To not look like everybody else. Mm-hmm. To be exposed to different types of music where we weren’t just listening to our local radio station and what they were playing.
Cathy: We had a more global vision. Like I [00:57:00] remember, you know, hearing scorpions winds of change and being like, what’s that about? And what’s Gorky Park and what’s, and you know, hearing about Russia and it’s about the wall coming down. And yes, I was there for that, but like music stimulated more of my interest in what is this about?
Cathy: And, you know, why are they writing about it? And. You know, it, it brought in a more like, um, what’s going and, and again, as I already said, live aid, you know, going into Africa and being like, oh, people are starving. Mm-hmm. You know, um, I mean we heard that from our parents all the time. People are starving in Africa.
Todd: Do they know it’s Christmas?
Cathy: Do they know it’s Christmas? And it’s, it just kind of changed the way we looked at things. Again, rock the vote, um, was a big deal as far as reminding teenagers once they turned 18, that they could have an impact. I would love to know the stats of how much it actually increased.
Cathy: Mm-hmm. The vote, I really don’t know. Um. Again, it validated youth culture.
Todd: Yeah,
Cathy: I think that, and again, gave us a
Todd: voice.
Cathy: It gave us a [00:58:00] voice. It gave us, um, because it wasn’t just about MTV, having the John Hughes movies and having, I just think Gen X was the most rich time for being a teenager.
Yeah.
Cathy: And I’m sure that some people could fight me on this and give me examples, but as someone who enjoys looking at pop culture in every generation, gosh, we had it.
Cathy: We had it. Good.
Todd: I took a slightly more shallow approach to the what did it teach us? Okay, let’s hear it. Um, and I’m just gonna play this theme song and let you guys walk down memory lane.
All right.
Todd: Anytime. Now,
penny wasn’t like the other kids TV mattered. Nothing else, kid. Said yes. Beneath said no, no, no. We’ve got his own game show.
Todd: Sweetie. What was your relationship with the [00:59:00] TV show Remote Control? The Stud Boy. Stud boy. That’s Adam Sandler. That’s Adam Sandler. Um, I remember liking it. It’s funny, I think Colin Clin, Colin Quinn is basically not that funny, but is hilarious in train wreck.
Cathy: Yes he is. He’s funny on
Todd: remote control. Is he? I don’t know. I feel like I need to give him another chance. I remember being like, why does everybody think this guy’s so funny? And but then when I saw him at Train Wreck, like as far as I’m concerned, he is like the highlight of that movie. He is hilarious.
Todd: He’s so funny. But anyways, hilarious. Um, and I always remember being that there was so much. Um, I don’t know, fluffiness to remote control. I just wanted to, the questions and the answers and there would be like these people sitting on the couch and Totally. Then the couch would like flip up into the wall or something if they
Cathy: lost.
Todd: Yeah.
Cathy: They would have to, they’d get flipped up and have to go home. It was very us Yeah. It was very, again, it was just our culture. It was just our culture, you know, like that’s what we were like, that was what we thought was funny. And like we were saying, that was Adam Sandler’s, I think first big break.
Cathy: Mm-hmm. He would come out and be the [01:00:00] stud boy. Um, and, and what did people win? I feel like they won trips probably. They probably gave them like trips to spring break that they were also sponsoring. You know what I mean? Who knows. But yeah, that was a, that was a good talk show. So, and again, that’s the thing about validating our culture.
Cathy: Like we, I felt as a Gen Xer that our fashion, our music, our digital spaces were respected. Yeah. Like, I felt like we were the people. Mm-hmm. Right. That everybody cared about. I remember. When I was in college or maybe getting outta college, I can’t remember when Clueless came out, but I remember thinking, wow, there hasn’t been a teen movie in a long time.
Cathy: Like, I felt bad for the kids who were so much younger than us because Clueless like picked up the slack and I don’t know if much came after Clueless. Right. You know, can’t hardly wait. And some of those things, yeah. There was
Todd: this big, uh, gap.
Cathy: There was just a gap and we just had so much to identify with.
Cathy: Mm-hmm. You know, we had, so, you know, I just really am appreciative. So we, [01:01:00] and again, last thing, what did it teach us, which I’m, we’ve kind of said, but I’ll say it again. The power of representation, whether it was yo MTV raps, 120 minutes, MTV news, there was a counterculture. There were different voices, there were different people of color.
Cathy: Um, there we cared about diversity and we got to finally see ourselves, you know, like, and not every, if we didn’t see ourself, we at least saw people that we could. Identify with someone.
Yeah.
Cathy: And, um, so I kind of, I think, you know, just to kind of wrap up that category, I think you have more in common with your kids than you think you do.
Cathy: And I, I think if you can go back, it’s part of what I love about pop culture is it reminds me of being that age. And when I can tap into that, I better understand why my girls love what they love. You know, like, I don’t think my parents were too hyped that I was watching hungry like the wolf and having like a lot of sexual things thrown at me or, you know, watching, you know, [01:02:00] Tawny cat contain, do the splits on a car, but it, I understand why.
Cathy: It, it was,
Todd: well, it’s ’cause we have since eyeopening to me what it was like to be young.
Cathy: Correct. And, and pop culture is a mirror for you. It reminds you like go back, listen. That’s what part of the show is, is it’s not just, it’s fun because Todd and I love talking about it. But can you remember, because not only can you share this with your kids,
Cathy: you can play those anytime you want. They make me laugh. So, um, I think you’ll have a better time identifying with your kids. So let’s close that and finish the last three categories.
Todd: No, I got a lot more categories than that, but you do. Yeah. We’ll see. We have, we, well, here’s the next one. Okay.
Todd: Nobody puts baby in a corner. Nobody puts baby in a corner. Nobody. Come on. Um, so we’re calling this cringe or classic [01:03:00] and I don’t really have much here other than, um. S like is it cringey or is it classic? And I don’t even know if Jersey Shore is even, I feel like it was, I was an adult when Jersey Shore came on.
Todd: Yeah.
Cathy: We were kind of
Todd: beyond. But is that cringey or classic? And for me it’s pretty cringey.
Cathy: Well, I said, what I wrote down is old MTV is classic. MTV after a certain year was super cringe. Mm-hmm. They stopped playing videos.
Todd: Well, nowadays, I don’t know what, uh, like now what’s I, I think I asked Chad. GPT, what is the most popular shows on MTV right now?
Todd: Mm-hmm. Love and Hip Hop. Atlanta. Okay. Caught in the act. Unfaithful. Okay. Teen Mom, the next chapter and Ridiculousness. I don’t know what any of these. So those are all the, the newest ones that apparently are being watched. And I don’t think it’s being watched by many people. And then the old is Real World, which we haven’t really talked about.
Todd: Jersey, Jersey, Jersey Shore, TRL. Yeah. What was that? What did, uh,
Cathy: total [01:04:00] requests live.
Todd: Yeah. Beefs and butthead, unplugged, punked, stuff like that. And
Cathy: I think those shows are being more like the nineties, that was like in sync Backstreet Boys. Like we worked in our twenties. Yeah.
Todd: Eighties. There was mostly videos and then nineties are like, Hey, let’s put some shows on.
Cathy: Totally. And then it started to be real world. Yeah. And the real world, world challenges and all of that. And it just got super cringe to me. I mean, and again, for people who still love MTV, great. It just changed from what we were expecting.
Todd: Um, should we go to the next one? Yeah. Um, and we’re calling this music game.
Todd: Is that work? No. The I have best quote. Best quote. Next.
May the force be with you. May the fool be with you. May the force be with you. May the fool be with you. May the force be with you. Be with you.
Todd: So, best quote, what do you have? Um, I don’t know if I have a best quote. Um. I was just gonna do the, the Taylor Kanye thing, but I already kind of played that, that really wasn’t the best quote, but just most extreme moment.
Todd: But what do you have?
Cathy: Well, this is kind of goes without saying, but I just pulled it up because it seemed the most obvious [01:05:00] before MTV music was just something you heard after MTV, it was something you watched. Hmm. Mark Goodman, MTV vj, by the way, Mark Goodman, the MTV VJ was when I moved to Chicago after graduating from college.
Cathy: He was the radio DJ for the most prominent station in Chicago. Yeah. So I listened. You can imagine that was very soothing to me. Um, you know, getting ready in the morning and listening to Mark Goodman’s voice, it was, um, you know, I’m like, oh, this is, this is connecting to me.
Todd: I have the next one is, where are they now?
Todd: I do, do you have that? I don’t think I have anybody, but I’m gonna play our category music.
Where brought you now where you, not that.
Cathy: Sweetie, where are they now? All right. Martha Quinn. Yeah. 64 years old hosts the Martha Quinn Show, syndicated radio show on the iHeart Media Station. Um, in two years ago, 2023, she was diagnosed with endometrial end endometrial cancer, [01:06:00] um, but continues to find joy in her daily life.
Cathy: That’s such a dumb sentence at the end. Mm-hmm. Um, she was diagnosed with cancer, but she’s doing fine, is I think what they’re trying to say. Nina Blackwood. She left MTV in 1986. She hosted solid gold. Oh, it comes full circle. That’s right. Nina went to solid gold. Now she cos co-hosts, uh, SiriusXM’s eighties channel as we said.
Cathy: Um, and so do, um, Mark Goodman and Alan Hunter. I think we know, let’s see. Mark Goodman continues to, you know, be a DJ Alan Hunter, same thing, but Alan Hunter also co-founded the Sidewalk Film Festival and he has something called Hunter Films. And then JJ Jackson. Went back to radio after MTV, uh, but then he had a heart attack in 2004 and he was only 62 Uhhuh, so he died.
Cathy: Okay. So,
Todd: um, for some reason, I want to know where Kurt Loder is and Kurt Loder writes film reviews for a Reason magazine. Oh, okay. So in case anybody’s really,
Cathy: Kurt Loder went off the deep end. He may have, I don’t know, [01:07:00] I feel like I just heard something about him that wasn’t great. But I could be wrong.
Cathy: Could be wrong. Investigate. Everybody. Investigate. Um, so now is it music? Game time. Music game.
That song makes me go.
Todd: So how would you describe this category?
Cathy: Okay, so the music game is something that Todd and I and our friends, Manish and Chris, the four of us, created this game and we, we like to think we’re the only ones who ever created this game, which is you come up with a topic or you know a word, and then you have to choose a song that connects.
Cathy: Really well to it. And, and it shouldn’t be something super obvious or you’re not gonna win. Like, for example, if we were, you know, uh, talking about, I think I gave an example last week of it, or a couple weeks ago, is if like we were talking about [01:08:00] Revolution around the world and you just chose the Song Revolution by the Beatles, that’s so boring.
Todd: Yeah. It’s too, uh, it’s too obvious.
Cathy: It’s too obvious. It’s too like, you know, right. Top level of like something you could reach for. Our whole goal is to like really dive into music. You also don’t, uh, wanna dive so far in that nobody knows the song, right? Like there’s this really sweet spot where you’re using something, you’re choosing a song that really explains.
Cathy: This word or this thing that we’re talking about. So in other
Todd: words, if this category, if this, uh, if this, um, podcast, if this movie, we might be talking about a movie, if this TV show being described in a single song, which is kind of a weird ask, what would that song be?
Cathy: Right. But that’s what makes it so fun, is it’s like some TV shows already have songs in them.
Cathy: Right. Don’t choose those. Right. Choose the vibe Yeah. Of it. So just again, historically speaking, the way we started this game is we used to write down words, throw it in a bowl. Mm-hmm. We’d all put like five and then we’d choose one, and then we’d have to come up with a song. And [01:09:00] then Todd always liked to compete, so we had to like compete, put points in.
Cathy: I, I like to just kind of share and we have to defend our song. Yeah. We can’t just say, oh, ’cause I chose it. We have to defend it. So Todd.
Yeah.
Cathy: If this episode of our very first e episode of Zen Pop Parenting was represented by a song mm-hmm. What do you think it would be?
She a mag on your sleeve. So shave your face with some mates in the dark, saving all your food.
Stand in front down park, yo, cut it.
Todd: Um, pretty obvious choice, I think. Well, it, you’ve got to defend it. Well, you know, gen X, um, I think it kind of encapsulates us being self-deprecating, us thinking we’re more important than we actually are, which I know is, which is a paradox. Uh, this played a nonstop, when it came out in [01:10:00] the early nineties.
Todd: Uh, I think it just kind of defines our generation a little bit. So that’s what, that’s my best defense.
Cathy: Okay. I’d like to beat you. Okay. Are you ready?
Todd: Yeah.
Cathy: Okay. My song and I didn’t give it to you ahead of time. Sorry. You’re gonna have to look it up. It’s 99 LT balloon. Oh, very good. Loft balloons. And I do want the loft version, not the red.
Todd: You want the German version? I do. Uh, let’s see if this one.
What
Todd: I remember about this video was she, didn’t she have her armpits? And I’m like, oh, that’s weird.
Cathy: See, it expanded your v you know your viewpoint on the world. Yeah. So 99 left balloons by Naina. It’s, uh, 1983 anti-war song. And it uses, uh, the story about [01:11:00] balloons were mistaken for an en enemy aircraft to symbolize Cold War paranoia.
Cathy: And that, um, that small misunderstandings, like releasing balloons into the air could trigger, trigger some kind of global conflict. That’s what the, the song was about. That didn’t really happen. She was just writing about how it could, um, I think this song embodies everything we’ve been talking about because it’s about world issues.
Cathy: Obviously. It’s like a global thing. It was a huge visual medium. Remember, do you remember the video?
Todd: Uh, no.
Cathy: Okay. Um, none of us knew what Nana was saying.
Todd: No.
Cathy: Okay. There is a version that’s 99 red balloons where you can, they make, they, you know, put it in English, but it’s not as good. Like, so we could kind of hear it, but we just memorized the German, which is what people do all over the world.
Cathy: You know, they listen to English songs and they just memorize. Yeah. They don’t speak English yet. They don’t. And, you know, so it’s not that crazy, but I just memorized the words in German. Um, it made an impact and it was kind of like one of those [01:12:00] songs that without MTV, we would’ve never
Todd: That’s right.
Cathy: Connected with, and it had all the elements of what we were talking about.
Todd: So, who wins? Me or sweetie? Me? You guys have to vote. Yes. You guys have to vote. I don’t know how you’re gonna vote. I’ll put it on social media. Are you ready for our final category? Okay, let’s do it.
Todd: I don’t know why I chose that one versus the regular Jeopardy one, but, um, I already know the answer, so it’s really gonna be you. Okay,
Cathy: let’s see what I can do.
Todd: Um, some of them are easy, but not everybody knows this as well as you do. So, sweetie, just, just don’t get mad at me. Okay?
Cathy: I won’t be mad. Should I give a, uh, should I
Todd: take a breath?
Todd: Uh, maybe, yeah. Take a breath. Okay. Uh, let’s see. I broke ’em into two different categories, eighties and nineties. Okay. Um, what band’s? 1983 video for [01:13:00] Looks at Kill featured a post apo apocalyptic gladiator theme, what, 1983 video for. Looks that kill.
Cathy: Um, this
Todd: is according to chat, GPT, so it could be wrong.
Cathy: She’s got the looks at Kill. I felt like that was like a poison song or something. But it’s 83. Is it like Judas Priest? Who is it? It
Todd: says
Cathy: Motley
Todd: Crue.
Cathy: Oh, is that right? Was that that long ago?
Todd: I don’t know.
Cathy: Geez.
Todd: Uh, what was the name of MTV’s Fashion news show hosted by Cindy Crawford. Oh
Cathy: yeah. Um, I think it’s House of Fashion.
Todd: House of Style. House of Style. I’ll give you partial credit. Okay. Well, controversial Madonna video was banned by MTV in 1989. That would be like a prayer. What? 1980s. Show featured music videos that were popup with trivia and facts.
Cathy: Oh, this is my favorite. I can’t believe we haven’t talked about this. You have to get the, can you find the, um, sure.
Cathy: The music to it. It, so my sister and I both loved it. It was called Popup Videos. [01:14:00] And so while you were watching, and that’s so perfect for Zen Pop Parenting. How did we not talk about this?
Todd: Maybe we’ll switch it up.
Cathy: Um, popup videos. There it is.
Who threw paint on members of the outfield? What was Tom Cochrane doing in a porno movie?
Oh no. How did Madonna help Marika go number one.
Todd: All right, so there’s your popup video. I
Cathy: love popup. So basically what would happen is they would put up, they would like have a little bubble come up and it would say, this person was married to this person or this person, you know, right before this shoot had the fe had a fever and they just gave you all this like interesting trivia.
Todd: Yeah. Uh, which Artist Rock? Which artist? Rock? Meia Mades was one of the first non-English songs. Played regularly in MTV Falco. In what year did MTV host the first ever video music awards? Oh, I would assume 83 19 84. 84. And I believe it was hosted by any guesses.
Cathy: Hm. [01:15:00] I don’t have any idea. I think
Todd: it was Bette Midler Random.
Todd: Dan Arod. Oh my God. Random. What singer appeared with a lion in the video for There must be an angel playing with my heart. What singer appeared with a lion in the video?
Cathy: Uh, that would be Annie Lennox.
Todd: Very good. Which artist was the first black woman to win a VMA? I’d say Whitney Houston Ibel. It says Janet Jackson.
Todd: Oh, good. Okay, so there’s the eighties. Here comes the nineties. Okay. Uh, what artist famously protested his VMA win in 1996 by refusing the award? Uh, it sounds like Cobain. Uh, it says Beck. Oh, okay. What band had a hit with no rain in a video featuring the B Girl Blind Melon, which hip hop group’s performance was censored by MTV at the 1990s.
Todd: VMA leading them to walk off the stage two live crew. It says Public Enemy. Okay. That would make more sense. What was the name of the 1995 MTV show where celebrities answered sex and relationship [01:16:00] questions?
Cathy: Oh, um,
Cathy: oh gosh. What was that called? What was that called? Love
Todd: Line.
Cathy: And wasn’t that Dr. Drew and Adam and Adam Pera? Yeah.
Todd: What’s the Tear news program launched? John Stewart’s. John Stewart’s early MTV career.
Cathy: Yes. Um,
Todd: uh, don’t think too hard on this one.
Cathy: The John Stewart show. Very
Todd: good. What VJ went on to become prominent film director known for being John Kovich.
Cathy: A vj.
Todd: It says vj. It’s wrong. That’s wrong. I think, I think it’s like what video producer went on to become a prominent film director.
Cathy: Uh, yeah. What was his name? Um, oh gosh, I can see him and I can’t come up with his name. Spike Jones. Spike Jones, yeah. Who was married to, um, Sophia Coppola.
Oh, wow.
Cathy: And then Sophia Coppola, her movie Lost in [01:17:00] Translation is a kind of autobiographical about her being so lonely.
Cathy: She’s like the Scarlett Johansen character being so lonely while her husband’s working.
Todd: Oh, okay. Yeah. Uh, what was the name of the dating show hosted by Jenny McCarthy on MTV,
Cathy: um, that was called, um.
Cathy: Oh, and then it was Carmen Electra singled out. Singled out. I wouldn’t have gotten that.
Todd: What controversial? 1992 Music Video by Nine Inch Nails was banned from MTV.
Cathy: Um, don’t tell me. I know it. Uh,
Todd: maybe
Cathy: I’ll, I’ll, I want, I
Cathy: doesn’t help. Um, I can sing the words, but they’re, they’re, I, they’re explicit. Uh, uh, I, uh, how annoying. I can’t get it. Todd.
Todd: Happiness and Slavery.
Cathy: That’s it. Says, oh. Oh. That’s not the song I was thinking of. [01:18:00] I was thinking of the video. The one, you know,
Todd: the famous one? The
Cathy: famous one? What’s that called?
Cathy: We’re totally,
Todd: uh, Brent
Cathy: Resner. I know. It’s like one word. Uh, uh, another thing about being with Gen Xers on a podcast is our brains sometimes don’t pull things up. This one is, this it? This is the one I was thinking of. This is closer. Closer. I knew it was one word.
Todd: Um, okay. A few more questions, then we’ll go, then we go.
Todd: Um, what controversial isn’t that a rapper? So, sorry, I didn’t vet these, but it says, what controversial musician got into a heat argument on Mt. V with VJ Kurt Loder in the nineties. It’s a rapper? No, it’s not a rapper. Okay. It’s just a singer. So lead singer of a band. I don’t know. It’s kind of a troublemaker.
Todd: He likes wearing bandanas around his head. Uh, Brett Michaels. He likes to sway like this.
Cathy: Oh. Uh, guns N Roses. So Axel,
Todd: um, what? MTV. Buzz Bin Bands Video [01:19:00] featured Animate Animated Flies and trash in Pepper. The Song Pepper.
Cathy: I don’t know Todd. I think when we get too far into the nineties, I was working nine to five,
Todd: but Hole Surfers Sweet.
Todd: Yeah,
Cathy: I was, I do know the but hole surfers, but I think once we get to like 94, 95, I couldn’t stay home and watch TV all the time.
Todd: Last but not least, what member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers perform nude at the 1992 MTV MBAs? Flea is correct. Um, do you wanna choose any outro music or do you want me to.
Cathy: Um, I think you should choose your own outro music.
Cathy: I think we should go back to the Buggles, ’cause we started with video killed the Radio Star. Shouldn’t we go out with that?
Todd: No. I’m just gonna play this, this line on MTV Unplugged by Pearl Jam.
Cathy: Okay. So before you do that, which has nothing to do with what we’re talking about, but I Yeah. You are producing really well today.
Cathy: Thanks babe. And I just wanna say thank you for all your hard work. That’s what I’m here for, is everybody who’s listening still. Thank you for listening. This is Zen Pop Parenting. As you see, we are going to [01:20:00] incorporate everything we’ve ever talked about. We just have a little different structure.
Todd: Um, what is it gonna, uh, let’s announce what the next one is about, right?
Todd: Uh,
Cathy: do you want to, do we have two choices?
Todd: Do you want I wanna do the movie with all those characters, all those actors
Cathy: You wanna do the outsiders? I do. All right. Right. So we are gonna talk about the outsiders, how it affected our generation, who was in it, who’s still around, how it shifted, the way we looked at ourselves, how it connects to our parenting, and just some fun trivia and WTF moments and whatever.
Cathy: So if you have Read The Outsiders, if you have watched The Outsiders, or you just love Pony Boy and Ralph Macchio and Patrick Swayze in the Gang, please join us next week
Todd: there. Sure. Here we go.
[01:21:00] No.
Round two. Change a little bit. And change a little bit. Pretty pleasant.
