MTV Icon

[Eklipse]

I was just thinking to myself the other day, and was wondering if maybe MTV had made any more of the Icon shows after they did Metallica. Realized that they did 1 more, The Cure, and didn't continue making them.

To me, it was a good idea. Paying tribute to musicians that were icons in their genres. There are 4 total. I have complaints with some, but agree with others.

1.) Janet Jackson. What the fuck did she do that was so important that Michael didn't do 1,000,000 times better? Why was she given the honor and not her brother? I do agree that she was popular at one time, but I will never consider her to be an icon in anything, except wardrobe malfunctions on national television.

2.) Aerosmith. I believe they had a right to be there. Very influential band.

3.) Metallica. Same as Aerosmith. Possibly the most successful heavy metal band of all time. If you don't agree, you're a dumbass. Enough said.

4.) The Cure. All I can say on this one is...who?? Never heard of them.

I think it's a concept that MTV or maybe VH1 need to bring back. I don't see MTV doing it, since they've distanced themselves from music like McMahon has distanced himself from "rasslin."

[FakeLaser]

How have you never heard of The Cure

[dronepool]

You really never heard of the Cure? Really?

[Seth82]

yeah I am rather surprised at that comment

[Icess]

Hey guy, have you ever heard of that band called the Cure? They weren't big time or anything, but they may of had some one hit wonder kinda diddys. They were close to me and I still have pictures of them. I use to take the walk through a forest with my friend and say only on "Fridays am I in love with you". During which, my cell kept blowing up and I kept telling them "Wrong #"....

[Vox Populi]

4.) The Cure. All I can say on this one is...who?? Never heard of them.

I'm really not sure that's possible.

[CannoliJoe]

I think they chose Janet Jackson because she did a lot of work with the channel during her "Control" and "Rhythm Nation 1814" albums. Not to say she deserves it but she did also sell a lot of albums.
I don't believe Aerosmith deserved to be up there or that they were very influential. They were another group who depended on their videos to come up with sales. Metallica was deserving for the reasons Eklipse mentioned, but the show itself was horrible. Avril Lavigne and Snoop Dogg? It is almost like they were making a point of how much Metallica sold out.
Even though I am a fan of the Cure Im not sure belong up there either. Maybe Nirvana was more deserving?

[Rammsteinmad]

I remember watching the Metallica one back in the day (was really pissed that I never taped it, but that doesn't matter now with Youtube and the Internet being what it is) and really liking it.

Not really into The Cure or Aerosmith, but definitely agree Janet Jackson WTF?!

[Vox Populi]

I think they chose Janet Jackson because she did a lot of work with the channel during her "Control" and "Rhythm Nation 1814" albums. Not to say she deserves it but she did also sell a lot of albums.

She's the seventh most charting artist in American history, which frankly puts her a country mile in front of the other selected artists as far as actual icon status goes.

I don't believe Aerosmith deserved to be up there or that they were very influential. They were another group who depended on their videos to come up with sales.

Aerosmith sold more albums before they became an MTV staple than they did afterward, and the strong majority of their enduring hit singles came from before as well.

[Rammsteinmad]

She's the seventh most charting artist in American history, which frankly puts her a country mile in front of the other selected artists as far as actual icon status goes.

Wow seriously. I had no idea. I'm a huge fan of Michael Jackson, but as far as I was aware Janet was just 'his sister from the Scream video' who maybe had one or two hits.

[CannoliJoe]

She's the seventh most charting artist in American history, which frankly puts her a country mile in front of the other selected artists as far as actual icon status goes.
There are better choices that could have been made, Madonna just one off the top of my head.


Aerosmith sold more albums before they became an MTV staple than they did afterward, and the strong majority of their enduring hit singles came from before as well.
Enduring hit singles? Ill give you "Dream on", but what else is there really?
Also get your facts straight as to how well their albums did before and after their Mtv videos.
<table class="wikitable"><tbody><tr><th>Date of Release</th> <th>Title</th> <th>Billboard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_200) peak<sup id="cite_ref-Aerosmith_Albums_Chart_Positions_76-1" class="reference">[77] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerosmith#cite_note-Aerosmith_Albums_Chart_Positions-76)</sup></th> <th>RIAA cert. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA_certification)<sup id="cite_ref-RIAA.C2.A0.E2.80.94_Searchable_Database_30-18" class="reference">[31] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerosmith#cite_note-RIAA.C2.A0.E2.80.94_Searchable_Database-30)</sup></th> <th>Label</th> </tr> <tr> <td>January 13, 1973</td> <td>Aerosmith (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerosmith_%28album%29)</td> <td style="text-align:center;">21</td> <td>2x Platinum</td> <td rowspan="7">Columbia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Records)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>March 1, 1974</td> <td>Get Your Wings (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Your_Wings)</td> <td style="text-align:center;">74</td> <td>3x Platinum</td> </tr> <tr> <td>April 8, 1975</td> <td>Toys in the Attic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toys_in_the_Attic_%28album%29)</td> <td style="text-align:center;">11</td> <td>8x Platinum</td> </tr> <tr> <td>May 3, 1976</td> <td>Rocks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocks_%28album%29)</td> <td style="text-align:center;">3</td> <td>4x Platinum</td> </tr> <tr> <td>December 1, 1977</td> <td>Draw the Line (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draw_the_Line_%28Aerosmith_album%29)</td> <td style="text-align:center;">11</td> <td>2x Platinum</td> </tr> <tr> <td>November 1, 1979</td> <td>Night in the Ruts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_in_the_Ruts)</td> <td style="text-align:center;">14</td> <td>Platinum</td> </tr> <tr> <td>August 1, 1982</td> <td>Rock in a Hard Place (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_in_a_Hard_Place)</td> <td style="text-align:center;">32</td> <td>Gold</td> </tr> <tr> <td>November 9, 1985</td> <td>Done with Mirrors (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Done_with_Mirrors)</td> <td style="text-align:center;">36</td> <td>Gold</td> <td rowspan="4">Geffen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geffen_Records)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>September 5, 1987</td> <td>Permanent Vacation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_Vacation_%28album%29)</td> <td style="text-align:center;">11</td> <td>5x Platinum</td> </tr> <tr> <td>September 8, 1989</td> <td>Pump (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pump_%28album%29)</td> <td style="text-align:center;">5</td> <td>7x Platinum</td> </tr> <tr> <td>April 20, 1993</td> <td>Get a Grip (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_a_Grip)</td> <td style="text-align:center;">1</td> <td>7x Platinum</td> </tr> <tr> <td>March 18, 1997</td> <td>Nine Lives (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Lives_%28Aerosmith_album%29)</td> <td style="text-align:center;">1</td> <td>2x Platinum</td> <td rowspan="3">Columbia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Records)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>March 6, 2001</td> <td>Just Push Play (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_Push_Play)</td> <td style="text-align:center;">2</td> <td>Platinum</td> </tr> <tr> <td>March 30, 2004</td> <td>Honkin' on Bobo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honkin%27_on_Bobo)</td> <td style="text-align:center;">5</td> <td>Gold</td></tr></tbody></table>

[Vox Populi]

Yes, there are exactly six more iconic popular music performers than Janet Jackson in the "rock era". Yes, Madonna is one of the 6.

Aerosmith became MTV staples as of the 3rd single from "Get A Grip", by which point "Get A Grip" had already sold nearly 3 million copies. There were no completely unavoidable videos from any of the prior albums ("Janie's Got A Gun" received pretty heavy play during the night but was disallowed during the day) and no videos whatsoever prior to "Done With Mirrors".

Enduring hit singles, as in classic rock/"Jack FM" staples? That's a pretty enormous list, quite honestly, and again, the majority of that list is pre-"Cryin'".

[Eklipse]

Seriously, I have never heard of The Cure. I guess I've never listened to any of their music, or maybe have and didn't realize it. Name just doesn't sound familiar to me.

[Vox Populi]

The thing about this "Icon" series is that in all four cases, it was a promotional tour for the band itself, as each of the four had one thing or another that they were heavily pimping at the time. The name of the series is probably a bad one in that we can debate anyone that they've chosen to call "icons", but I'm pretty sure that "An Evening With..." is copyrighted by an entity other than MTV/Viacom.

[CannoliJoe]

Yes, there are exactly six more iconic popular music performers than Janet Jackson in the "rock era". Yes, Madonna is one of the 6.

Aerosmith became MTV staples as of the 3rd single from "Get A Grip", by which point "Get A Grip" had already sold nearly 3 million copies. There were no completely unavoidable videos from any of the prior albums ("Janie's Got A Gun" received pretty heavy play during the night but was disallowed during the day) and no videos whatsoever prior to "Done With Mirrors".

Enduring hit singles, as in classic rock/"Jack FM" staples? That's a pretty enormous list, quite honestly, and again, the majority of that list is pre-"Cryin'".
But the start of their line of videos begins with "Dude looks like a lady", which was in heavy rotation along with "Love in an elevator". "Janie's got a gun" was eventually showed during the day and very consistently. You also seem to forget the reason Aerosmith even had a comeback. Their video collaboration with RunDMC of "Walk this Way" was also played almost every hour.

[Vox Populi]

Even if that's all the case (and it's not, as all but two of the "Permanent Vacation" and "Pump" videos were relegated to PM-only status due to "questionable content"), none of it disproves any of my initial points.

I'd also go so far as to say that the reason that they made a large scale comeback was because Tyler and Perry stopped doing a month's worth of narcotics every day and started focusing on the music again. I'd also go so far as to guarantee that "Walk This Way" was not played "almost every hour" for a great number of reasons.

[CannoliJoe]

You are wrong on both accounts since those videos were played during the day. If Aerosmith had never been in the RunDMC video they would have never been introduced to the younger audience of Mtv viewers, and if you notice the albums they put out after that video appeared all sold more and peaked higher than before.