During the spring of 2016, I had just started a job that was not exactly inspiring my enthusiasm. I would eventually go on to enjoy it and exert more effort in driving success for the department but in the beginning, it was bleak. Not so coincidentally, it was also around this time that I started my blog.
One day that spring during a lunch hour, I stumbled upon a newly published memoir by Dave Holmes, a VJ during my MTV golden era of 1998 to 2002. The fact that that era aligns with my high school years is not a coincidence. Naturally, I immediately purchased the memoir and spent my lunch hour and afternoon devouring Party of One: A Memoir in 21 Songs and stifling laughter from my cubicle.
I enjoyed Dave Holmes’ lens of growing up during the 1980s, living in Manhattan during the 1990s, and coming to the horrifying conclusion that he aged out of the demographic to whom pop culture catered in the 2000s. So much so, that I find myself revisiting his memoir every spring. These days I laugh a bit more freely. Because you know, I am reading it at more appropriate moments than Wednesday afternoon.
I listened to his most recent podcast, Waiting for Impact, last winter but as my time became less available what with moving the family back stateside from Asia and attempting to keep up with half marathon training, I eventually stopped tuning into the most popular boy band that never was at some point mid-season. What I won’t be abandoning, however, is his new podcast, Who Killed the Video Star.
Who Killed the Video Star should be required listening for anyone who came of age at the cusp of the millennium and any pop culture junkie. If you flipped on Total Request Live after the bus dropped you off and before reporting to the studio for a ballet class (just me?), this podcast is for you. If you ever find yourself wondering what the hell happened to MTV, this podcast is for you.
Only six episodes have been released so far, and Dave breaks down the question at hand in about half hour long mostly chronological segments. Being an iconic VJ himself, he taps others who worked in front of and behind the camera to share insights with the average viewer.
I cannot think of a better host and researcher to take on this the disintegration of a revolutionary channel to twenty-four hour Teen Mom.
