When MTV debuted in 1981, decades before Jersey Shore and other reality shows dominated the primetime schedule, the network broke out as an influential game changer for music videos and youth culture.
Four veteran veejays from those early days — Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter and Martha Quinn — are teaming up to co-write an oral history that promises to be “uncensored,” announced Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
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The untitled project has yet to pin down a relase date.
On the book’s bucket list of topics, according to Atria: an ill-fated “Paint the Mutha Pink” contest with John Mellencamp, a behind-the-scenes account of a Van Halen party bender and “hairstyles gone horribly wrong.”
Says Blackwood: “We look forward to sharing our unique perspective of what it was like to be on the forefront of a cultural revolution: the birth of MTV, Music Television. Yes, the ‘M’ really did stand for music at one time!”
The book deal, which includes an audio edition, was brokered by Atria editor Amy Tannenbaum and Daniel Greenberg of the Levine Greenberg Literary Agency.
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