THE VIDEO SHELF · mtv and race in music
David Bowie Criticizes MTV for Not Playing Videos by Black Artists | MTV News
A 1983 interview clip in which David Bowie questions MTV VJ Mark Goodman about why the channel played so few videos by black artists.
Why HN readers recommended it
Cited as a famous, pointed example of Bowie challenging MTV's exclusion of black music, in threads on media gatekeeping.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- MTV News
- Topic
- mtv and race in music
- Format
- interview
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 2
- HN mentions in dataset
- 4
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2021–2025
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
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>> [VIDEO] It blew me away. He is so on point!
throwaway2037 on Hacker News · 2021-08
In Launch HN: BlackOakTV (YC S21) – Netflix for black peopleNo black singers or bands you'll notice... Worth watching: "David Bowie Criticizes MTV for Not Playing Videos by Black Artists | MTV News" [VIDEO]
donohoe on Hacker News · 2021-08
In The first two hours of MTV (1981) [video]
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.