It was 1981, and the generation that was the first wave of yuppie culture was on top of the world. Everything was changing quickly—it was the beginning of the science fiction world. Times were good, at least from a material point of view. For 800$US, you could be the first kid on your block to have the crystal clear digital sound of a new invention called the compact disc player. Sony reigned supreme with the top-loading Betamax VCR and cable TV was making an impact that would have everlasting effects. A large part of that techie entertainment revolution was a music video cable station called MTV, which signed on with the appropriately titled clip "Video Killed the Radio Star."
It was a world born fully flowered into existence by ex-hippies who had knelt dutifully at the twin altars of consumerism and short attention spans. They had reinvented the world in their own image, and it was good. This MTV thing, especially, offered all sorts of commercial potential possibilities. It could take what had heretofore been identified with teen angst and outright rebellion, and morph it into the mainstream mindset. Malls would be cool places to hang out, and every Buffy and Todd could disguise themselves as real-life stars. Record sales would boom, there'd be a Camaro in every garage, and hair gel sales would shoot through the stratosphere.
The thing is, though, there was nothing revolutionary about it. It had all been done before—over forty years before, in fact. Soundies: A Musical History (airing throughout March on PBS) proves beyond a doubt that our forebears were rockin' with their own version of MTV. It was 1940, and Americans, mostly recovered from the Great Depression, were feeling pretty good about themselves. The country was getting back on its feet and the thirst for entertainment had never been stronger. The time was ripe for the Mills Novelty Company to introduce an interesting machine called the Panoram.
About the size of a refrigerator, the Panoram spawned a revolution in entertainment. A forerunner of the 16mm film projector, it allowed users to see, for the first time, the performers who they had idolized via sound recordings—and all for one thin dime. Loaded with eight three-minute clips, the Panoram afforded viewers random opportunities to actually see performances by some of the country's most popular musicians. Duke Ellington, Louis Jordan, Les Paul, Cab Calloway, among others, are all featured on Soundies. The three-minute performances are restored to pristine clarity, and provide us with not only a delightful timetrip into the entertainment of the day, but a glimpse into how quickly shifts in socio-political climates dramatically influence the landscape of popular culture.
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