(Each has also asked for a copy of the book, as did Roger Taylor.) They have a unique perspective, because Duran helped make MTV a success, but (unlike, say, a-Ha) they’re still around and thriving long after MTV quit playing videos. What was your impression of them?Īll three spent an ample amount of time talking to me, and were generous with their recollections and opinions. You interviewed Nick, Simon and John for the book. If you look at the comments section of any great video on YouTube, you see people posting, “Bring back videos!” and “I wish MTV still played videos!” This book is for those people. I wanted to memorialize the golden era of music videos, which started with MTV’s launch in 1981 and ended in 1992, when “The Real World” debuted and the network began to abandon music videos. As Simon said to me sadly, “Nobody’s got any money to make videos now.” In retrospect, the ‘80s was the last great boom in the music business: video budgets were huge, and so were hairstyles and egos. The music business today is shriveled and boring. It was so good, we decided to put an excerpt here. the band and his thoughts on the history of MTV. The DD VIP Fan Community scored an written interview with Rob for the site, chatting about the book.

Writers Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum's well received new book, I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution, is out now, and Duran Duran is among a handful of artists spotlighted.

I Want My MTV by Craig Marks