David Bowie Criticizes MTV for Not Playing Videos by Black Artists | MTV News
Why Hacker News recommends it
Cited as a famous, pointed example of Bowie challenging MTV's exclusion of black music, in threads on media gatekeeping.
What it is
A 1983 interview clip in which David Bowie questions MTV VJ Mark Goodman about why the channel played so few videos by black artists.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2021 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec throwaway2037 · 2021-08 · on “Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black people”
You wrote: <<<MTV hardly played black artists.>>> I saw this interview recently: <<<David Bowie Criticizes MTV for Not Playing Videos by Black Artists | MTV News>> [this video] It blew me away. He is so on point!
Recommends donohoe · 2021-08 · on “The first two hours of MTV (1981) [video]”
No black singers or bands you'll notice... Worth watching: "David Bowie Criticizes MTV for Not Playing Videos by Black Artists | MTV News" [this video]
Cites a_bonobo · 2022-05 · on “Pop culture has become an oligopoly”
>Be very wary of survivor bias when looking back in time, especially when there is a risk of nostalgia. Case in point: MTV of the 80s would play little to no black music. There's a famous 1983 interview bit of David Bowie where he asked the MTV VJ why they play no black music, and the VJ waffles a bit on the white suburban market. That does not sound very subversive to me. Here's the excerpt: [this video]
Cites brudgers · 2025-05 · on “When Americana doesn't mean American”
You can see MTV’s “string of black faces” rationalizing in the Bowie interview: [this video] Wikipedia’s article whitewashes the actual history. We were watching MTV and smoking weed in those Reagan’s America days. — In fairness the US music industry had the race music chart which became the R&B chart to keep black musicians off the pop chart and Elvis’s controversy was singing black music…and consequently being played on white radio stations to white kids.