What was the first video shown on MTV Europe?
When MTV first aired in the United States in 1981, its inaugural anthem ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ proved the perfect song to launch the video channel. Six years later, when it was finally MTV’s turn to launch in Europe, the pressure to find an equally fitting track was on. Enter ‘Money For Nothing’, a track featuring Sting’s unmistakable vocals in the opening line of “I want my MTV”.
Directed by British filmmaker Steve Barron, the Dire Straits hit was the first music video to ring in MTV’s European broadcast on August 1st, 1987. Aside from Sting’s obvious endorsement of the channel, the video itself was the perfect reflection of what MTV’s expansion meant for the music industry. The use of CGI graphics was groundbreaking at the time and a reflection of the increasingly visual nature music was moving in, a direction away from radio play that MTV directly spearheaded. As Mark Knopfler’s thunderous riff played out, it was clear the video era had arrived on the continent in style.
But Knopfler himself was initially uneasy about what that meant for the industry, shifting the importance away from artistry and towards making blockbuster videos that might catch the attention of someone absent-mindedly flicking through the TV channels. That’s why the song itself lambasts pretty boy rockstars with big hair, with the highly controversial lyric of, “See the little fa***t with the earring and the makeup? Yeah buddy, that’s his own hair”.
As told from the perspective of two working-class men who catch MTV blaring on their client’s TV while delivering custom kitchens, the song’s two hooks play on the mix of bemusement and admiration they have for music video stars. The first, “That ain’t workin’, That’s the way you do it, Money for nothin’ and your chicks for free”, pokes fun at how little these musicians have to work for not only their money but their women. For MTV Europe’s first sojourn into video, it’s a pretty cynical look at the easy life of musicians.
But the second hook slips into dumb-founded praise, almost demanding more of the excesses of rock and roll videos with the repetition of: “I want my, I want my, I want my MTV”. Fittingly not only for MTV’s launch but the video’s anti-video stance, too, it became a smash hit. It was on a near-constant rotation on MTV, nabbing 11 nominations at the third-ever Video Music Awards, winning two. It beat the equally groundbreaking ‘Take on Me’ for ‘Video of the Year’, which was also directed by Barron.
Barron told Yahoo that it just happened to be a year where he had two huge opportunities to do something special. “I knew we were on to something very good, as soon as we finished shooting and cut it together as the animation was coming in, but nothing could have prepared me for this getting so much attention over the years,” he said. “You always wonder how long your work is going to stay around, how many generations might get to see it.”
After rising to prominence directing ‘Billie Jean’ for Michael Jackson, he became the go-to man for MTV, alongside peers Russell Mulcahy and David Mallet. Barron was approached by an executive from Warner Brothers about the Dire Straits single, which he could direct on the condition he’d fly out to Budapest and actually convince the reluctant band to do it.
In Barron’s memoir, Egg n Chips and Billie Jean: A Trip Through the Eighties, he recalls the uphill battle it was to get Knopfler on board, who was still on tour when Barron flew out to convince him to do the music video. “Dire Straits are very purist, real musicians, especially Mark Knopfler, who’s not really very fond of music videos and all that they’re doing,” Barron wrote.
But he pled his case to Knopfler over dinner with his girlfriend, who is rumoured to be the one who really convinced him to do it. As Barron remembers, there was never a no, but never a yes either, so he resolved to just do it – praying the Bosch FGS4000 would “deliver the goods”.
More commonly known as the Paintbox, the Bosch FGS4000 was the CGI system that bought ‘Money for Nothing’ to life. Coloured using animated paint pixels, the process of animating the video took Barron and Ian Pearson, the video’s computer graphics expert, three and a half weeks in the studio – working round the clock to finish the video by a tight deadline.
‘Money for Nothing’ might have been a more perfect song for MTV Europe’s launch than ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ was for its American counterpart because it so perfectly charted the rising importance of the music video while also pointing out that had consequences for the music industry. Its own success was a reflection of its lyrics because, for all of Knopfler’s protests, he got a hit single out of it, making millions in the process.
Lemme tell ya, them guys ain’t dumb.
