Some musings on the Age of the Music Video.

While I experienced only minimal exposure to the hit music videos of the 1980s as a kid (I can't recall if my parents thought MTV a good influence on me before I was a teenager or not), I caught up on many classic 80s videos about ten years too late, I'm slightly ashamed to say, on VH-1, before that channel became grossly obsolete in terms of any style.
It was fascinating to learn, for one thing, that the Austrian-born pop artist Falco was not necessarily a "one-hit wonder." His smash single, "Rock Me Amadeus," of '86 or so, was followed up with a second video hit, a cover version in German tongue of the actual one-hit wonders After The Fire's 1981 single "Der Kommissar."  (Thank God, Falco never opted for "Rock Me Josef Haydn.")
What's unbelievable in my case is that I was never familiar with the video hits of ZZ Top until I saw them on VH-1.  The so-called "Eliminator trilogy," featuring pop rock's eternal hairy-faced triumvirate and their stylin' hot rod, was fully introduced to me in names and concepts no earlier than in the early 90s, when I saw "Gimme All Your Lovin'," "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Legs," the last of which is the most famous classic, and which I now have on iTunes.  That one, I believe, tells a modern Cinderella story that has to be seen to be understood.  I would say seen to be believed, but how many of you can believe me right now?
Later on VH-1 came a 90s breakthrough series: Pop-Up Video.  I really loved that concept, with its "popping" windows during classic videos offering scientific factoids and trivia about the making of videos and the celebrities in them, etc.  It redefined the videos I saw all before on that channel, even if it hardly redeemed VH-1 itself in the long run; I would've loved to see a Pop-Up Video special called "Worst of the 80s." It could feature, as one stinker, the video for Journey's song "Separate Ways."  Remember that one?  Gee, I'm sorry to hear you do.  It's actually a pretty good song.  But as for the video they made, any more cheese in it, all you'd need is the dried hunks of bread and you'd have fondue.
I largely missed out on the Age of the Music Video.  I saw some in the early 90s on MTV, but didn't exactly binge before the Age faded to nothing, with the onset of reality-based programs dominating the market; "The Real World," premiering in 1992, came to spell the beginning of the end for music videos as we knew them.  It's just as well, I guess; novelties come and go, and I never was a guy who believed in "bringing back" jack squat.  These days, all I watch on TV is DVDs, anyhow.