If rock ‘n’ roll set out to shake up our parents’ culture, television came along to tame, package and sell rock ‘n’ roll.
TV and rock became inseparable 45 years ago, and the bond has only tightened in the meantime. Even more so than radio, television has shaped the listening tastes of three generations, from Elvis Presley’s censored hips to Michael Jackson’s moonwalking feet, the Beatles shaking their mop tops on “Ed Sullivan” to Nirvana smashing their instruments on “Saturday Night Live,” Ricky Nelson breaking out his guitar on “Ozzie and Harriet” to Beavis and Butt-head breaking all the rules of taste on MTV.
Yet television’s grip on youth culture has also squeezed much of the life out of the art form that it has done so much to promote. Back in the day, rock performers were seen infrequently — at concerts and on album jackets — and their mystery and aura were enhanced by the active imaginations of the listening audience. Now it’s possible to see a hot-selling act dozens of times a week: on MTV videos, on talk and variety shows, and as the subjects of “Behind the Music” documentaries.
It’s little wonder that the cycle that takes artists from unknowns to stars to has-beens has been accelerated to the point where many performers are old news by the time their second album is made. As critic Marc Weingarten writes in his authoritative history of the medium, “Station to Station: The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll on Television” (Pocket Books), “Everybody is practically everywhere these days.”
Yet television still holds an undeniable allure. Despite the numbing blandness of most videos and the rote quality of so many talk-show performances, the tube still has the power to make stars or even destroy them. Just ask Sinead O’Connor.
FIVE MOMENTS THAT ROCKED OUR CRITIC
For better or worse, music on television changed my life. Here’s how.
1965: The Beatles cartoon series dominates my Saturday mornings, and when the boys sing that there are “Eight Days a Week,” I believe them.
1966: The Rolling Stones, with Brian Jones looking especially sinister squatting in the shadows playing a sitar, perform “Paint It Black” on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” I’m terrified, intrigued, disturbed, thrilled. I stop watching Beatles cartoons and begin buying Beatles and Stones records.
1973: Baby-sitting the brats on my block on weekends, I discover the joys of late-night rock television, “The Midnight Special” and Wolfman Jack, who counters the insufferable presence of host Helen Reddy and introduces me to rock hooligans, one-hit wonders and middle-of-the-road travesties.
1989: Neil Young bludgeons “Rockin’ in the Free World” on “Saturday Night Live,” single-handedly bringing a party I am attending to a complete halt. Still the wildest rock ‘n’ roll performance I’ve ever seen on television.
1993: Kurt Cobain wails Leadbelly’s plaintive “In the Pines” with such shattering force on “MTV Unplugged,” it now seems a foregone conclusion that he would commit suicide only months later.
— Greg Kot
GREG KOT CHOOSES SOME OF ROCK’S LANDMARK TV MOMENTS
(X) = Top 10 important events
`50s
(5) 1957: “American Bandstand” premieres and the emerging youth culture begins to define itself. Hosted by the hip uncle of eternal American youth, Dick Clark (above, with Johnny Mathis), “Bandstand” teaches its young viewers how to dress, dance and act cool by watching their peers.
(6) 1957: The network censors ensure that Elvis Presley wiggles from the waist up only on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
1957: Ricky Nelson becomes the first TV-generated rock star by performing songs such as “I’m Walkin'” as the youngest son on “The Ozzie and Harriet Show.”
`60s
(1) 1964: The Beatles establish their personalities with a hilarious myth-making press conference at Kennedy Airport as they arrive in New York, then take their Fab charisma to the stage with a trio of career-making performances on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Their first appearance is seen by an estimated 73 million viewers.
1965: Howlin’ Wolf and the Rolling Stones perform together on “Shindig,” symbolizing the passing of the American blues torch to the British Invasion bands.
(9) 1966: “The Monkees” TV show debuts, an avant-garde situation-comedy with pre-MTV style attitude, starring a pre-fab band with no discernible talent but loads of charm. Could Milli Vanilli be far behind?
1967: Unlike the Stones, who cave in to Ed Sullivan and censor the risque lyric of “Let’s Spend the Night Together,” the Doors defy the impresario when Jim Morrison sings, “Girl, we couldn’t get much higher” in the midst of “Light My Fire.”
(8) 1967: Literally the single most explosive moment in rock ‘n’ roll TV history: Keith Moon of the Who blows up his drum kit on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” gashing his own arm with cymbal shrapnel and frying Pete Townshend’s scalp. A dazed Townshend wrestles away an acoustic guitar from host Tommy Smothers and splinters it at the comedian’s feet. Bette Davis, one of the show’s guests watching from backstage, faints into the arms of Mickey Rooney.
(4) 1968: Elvis Presley emerges from years of Hollywood reclusiveness clad neck to toe in skintight leather for his nationally televised comeback special, “Elvis” (left), and jams like the sneering upstart of old with his original backing musicians, Scotty Moore and DJ Fontana.
1969: The host of “The Johnny Cash Show” emerges from the shadows with a guitar slung over his shoulder and says: “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash.” The power of his mythic image is confirmed when he gets the elusive Bob Dylan — who shunned even Sullivan — to appear on his program and perform “Girl From the North Country.”
`70s
1972: “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert” debuts with a performance by Alice Cooper (above), in which the ghoulish one stages his own “hanging.”
1972: “Soul Train” debuts and introduces the concept of African-American chic to suburbia.
1972: John Lennon and Yoko Ono cohost “The Mike Douglas Show” for a week.
1976: Willie Nelson, poised to become the next country superstar, plays on the pilot of “Austin City Limits.”
1976: “Saturday Night Live” becomes a force in presenting live music, even persuading the ultra-reserved Paul Simon to perform “Still Crazy After All These Years” in a chicken suit.
1977: The nadir of the Grammy Awards’ cluelessness is reached when host Andy Williams tries to present an award via satellite to Stevie Wonder in Nigeria. When technical glitches arise, Williams asks the blind singer, “If you can’t hear us, Stevie, can you see us?”
1978: The Rutles (below) air their brilliant mockumentary of Beatlemania, “All You Need is Cash.”
`80s
(2) 1981: MTV debuts with “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the British duo the Buggles. The network will go on to replace top-40 radio as the primary arbiter of popular taste and create countless video-driven careers, comebacks and fads: Madonna, Jenny McCarthy, ZZ Top, Duran Duran, Carson Daly.
1982: Marvin Gaye sings the National Anthem at the NBA All-Star Game at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., his radical interpretation both outraging purists and affirming his status as one of the great soul singers of all time.
(3) 1983: Michael Jackson (above) moonwalks into superstardom on “Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever” wearing black sequins and a white glove while performing “Billie Jean.” Then the ace choreography for the “Beat It” video is trumped by the $1.1 million, John Landis-directed “Thriller,” a 14-minute video that sets a new standard for MTV as a marketing tool.
(10) 1985: At the MTV Video Music Awards, Madonna rolls around in a wedding dress with a Boy Toy belt buckle while lip-synching “Like a Virgin.”
1985: The Live Aid concert, featuring U2, Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie, among many others, is broadcast worldwide.
(7) 1986: Run-DMC and Aerosmith collaborate on the video for “Walk This Way,” paving the way for hip-hop’s arrival in the mainstream and laying the foundation for the rap-rock of the ’90s.
`90s
1992: Eric Clapton revives his career by performing “Tears in Heaven” on MTV’s “Unplugged.”
1992: “Beavis and Butt-head” (above) enter heavy rotation on MTV, paving the way for a new wave of bonehead rock led by Limp Bizkit.
1992: Sinead O’Connor effectively destroys her career by ripping apart a picture of the Pope while performing on “Saturday Night Live.”
1993: Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg’s video for “Ain’t Nothing But a `G’ Thing” brings gangsta rap to suburbia
1995: “The Beatles Anthology,” a remarkably staid piece of self-promotion, airs over three nights on prime-time network TV. It features two inferior “new” songs by the once revolutionary and fun-loving band.
1998: Bob Dylan’s performance at the Grammys (below) is disrupted by the partially clad “Soy Bomb” dancer.
