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    Blog Posts by Shawn Amos

    • All The “Thriller” Freaks Come Out At Night: Best Video Tributes

      By Shawn Amos | Video Ga Ga – Fri, Oct 28, 2011 8:47 AM EDT

      It's been almost 28 years since Michael Jackson's "Thriller" first hit the airwaves, forever changing our expectations of what a music video could be. It cost a record-setting $500,000, sold over 9 million units (yes, people used to actually buy music videos), and won big at the Grammy and MTV awards shows. But when it debuted on MTV just a few weeks before Christmas 1983, no one knew how lasting an impact it would have on pop culture.

      John Landis of Animal House and Blues Brothers fame directed, and movie legend Vincent Price reprised his spooky voice mojo from the album. Despite its comic-book vibe, Jackson, then a Jehovah's Witness, was concerned about fans thinking he was a devil-worshipper. To keep his conscience clean, he prefaced the video with a disclaimer: "Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film in no way endorses a belief in the occult." Surprisingly, there was no mention of him hanging out with chimps and llamas. One man's occult is another

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    • Partying Like It’s 1981: MTV’s First 10 Videos

      By Shawn Amos | Video Ga Ga – Mon, Aug 1, 2011 10:46 PM EDT

      Thirty years ago MTV aired its first video, the Buggles' "Video Killed The Radio Star." It was an apt choice, even though radio continued to cruise for another 20 years, until XM Radio and the Internet finally stamped it dead. MTV was the last great musical revolution. It kept this high school kid home on many afternoons when I should have been in class. It was the last time I cut school or work for anything.

      What a difference 30 years makes.

      This Monday, August 1, MTV celebrated its 30th birthday. It might as well have been the 30th birthday of KMET. Remember KMET? Of course you don't. It's an old Los Angeles classic-rock radio station. And it's dead. Dead just like radio. Dead just like MTV. The revolution is long over, and MTV is just another in a long line of corporate stooges trotting out corporate stooge bands trying to pass themselves off as something anti-establishment. It's filled with a bunch of reality nothingness celebrating a life of consumerism. The "M" used to stand for

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    • All The “Thriller” Freaks Come Out At Night: Best Video Tributes

      By Shawn Amos | Video Ga Ga – Wed, Jun 22, 2011 1:24 PM EDT

      It's been almost 28 years since Michael Jackson's "Thriller" first hit the airwaves, forever changing our expectations of what a music video could be. It cost a record-setting $500,000, sold over 9 million units (yes, people used to actually buy music videos), and won big at the Grammy and MTV awards shows. But when it debuted on MTV just a few weeks before Christmas 1983, no one knew how lasting an impact it would have on pop culture.

      John Landis of Animal House and Blues Brothers fame directed, and movie legend Vincent Price reprised his spooky voice mojo from the album. Despite its comic-book vibe, Jackson, then a Jehovah's Witness, was concerned about fans thinking he was a devil-worshipper. To keep his conscience clean, he prefaced the video with a disclaimer: "Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film in no way endorses a belief in the occult." Surprisingly, there was no mention of him hanging out with chimps and llamas. One man's occult is another

      Read More »

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