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David Bowie Criticizes MTV for Not Playing Videos by Black Artists | MTV News

MTV News · 5M views · 2016-01-11 · 4:40

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Overview

A 1983 interview clip in which David Bowie questions MTV VJ Mark Goodman about why the channel played so few videos by black artists.

On Hacker News

Cited as a famous, pointed example of Bowie challenging MTV's exclusion of black music, in threads on media gatekeeping.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2021–2025

Topics

Music performance & songsSocial issues & cultureMedia, journalism & propaganda
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david bowiemtv1983music industryracism

What people said

throwaway2037 · 2021-08 · Strong recommendation

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!

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donohoe · 2021-08 · Recommendation

No black singers or bands you'll notice... Worth watching: "David Bowie Criticizes MTV for Not Playing Videos by Black Artists | MTV News" [VIDEO]

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brudgers · 2025-05 · Reference

You can see MTV’s “string of black faces” rationalizing in the Bowie interview: [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.

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Sources

Video by MTV News, played through YouTube.

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