Dancing On Air
Busting moves and teasing hair with YouTube's funnest time travelers.
At some point in the last 24 hours, I guarantee you’ve said and/or read “the internet is a horrible place.” Perhaps “a dumpster fire,” or “the worst.”
Not wrong!
But not entirely right, either.
Why dwell in the hellworld of unsolicited opinions and viral takes when your mind garden can be nurtured and tended to within the infinite scroll of positivity that is YouTube?
This site still offers more opportunities for accidental joy than any other streaming service. Copious amounts of garbage too, but play your cards right and you can avoid the trash entirely. Pick a few good subscriptions, drop some solid searches… you’re off to the races.
Of all the algorithms, YT is the one that “gets me.”
And right now, it knows that I want nothing more than full-length episodes of regional dance music television programs.
Start with the Club MTV Fan Page, featuring “Downtown” Julie Brown in all her late ‘80s polka-dotted glory.
Filmed at The Palladium on 14th St, now a NYU dorm with a pretty good gym.
I’ll always associate this era with post-Prince dance pop, Latin freestyle and all their club-friendly offshoots. Jane Child’s nose ring, Noel “Silent Morning,” etc.
Scroll through CMFP’s many uploads for big records, bigger shirts (what up Rick Owens), and a delightful collection of interviews with some of the proudest bridge-and-tunnel dancers to ever hit cable television.
Consider this jam pumped up!
By the time we hit the ‘90s, Club MTV gets rebranded as The Grind.
Fortunately for all of us, the fan page keeps uploading!
I was watching daily IRL. Don’t remember the show’s grunge detours (and definitely can’t recall any punk rock tributes) but I am in no way mad at these refreshers.
“Is Miami ready to feel the flow of Naughty By Nature?”
That’s more like it.
I presume if you’re reading this, the appeal of snug striped shirts and dark lip liner remains timeless.
The Proustian hockey jersey.
Throwing it back a decade earlier, we haveThe Dance Show, which beamed into Atlanta-area homes circa 1983.
A kind individual has uploaded twenty five (!!!) full episodes.
The pilot kicks off with “Let’s Dance” into Gladys Knight and The Pips “Save The Overtime (For Me)” into Elton’s “I’m Still Standing.” Episode Two features Flock Of Seagulls playing jams that somehow aren’t “I Ran” or “Space Age Love Song.”
Pitch perfect tunes for cooking dinner, with the added bonus of glancing at the screen every so often to see a woman dressed like a Trapper Keeper shimmying from side to side.
Philly’s Dancin’ On Air — which you may know for giving Kelly Ripa her onscreen debut before morphing into Dance Party USA — might be the most potent two-stepper of the bunch.
They go to the beach!
They play Nirvana?!?
DOA scratches the same musical itch as Club MTV, with added hoagie eating contests and (an often-hilarious) all ages cast.
My man gets sturdy!
No single account is posting these (apparently due to some controversy) but former host Mike Rossi has uploaded some good ones.
Wherever / however you can find ‘em, the Dancin’ “Teen Talk” segments are priceless. Not just for the accents (whose epigenetic appeal I cannot deny) but for their snapshots of a pre-reality TV era, well before everyone knew how to talk in like-and-subscribe voice.
They’re loose and free. Borderline public access quality. Total fire.
Is this nostalgia?
I’m cursed to chase the dead media dragon forever, but I’d like to think it’s through the eyes of (ahem) a historian.
Big difference between exploring cultural detritus (raises hand) and obsessing over niche interests (raises other hand) versus wishing things were still the way they used to be (points both hands at your meemaw and DX’es).
Spoiler alert: they can’t.
The present is interesting too! And the future even more so. If there were modern day versions of these shows, I’m sure I’d still be glued to the screen.
But until that happens…
Who’s holding HQ Steampipe Alley rips?