In 1983, David Bowie confronted MTV for refusing to play black artists' videos

In the wake of David Bowie's death, this seems to be the story being shared the most.MTV was under fire in 1983 for a its alleged lack of prominent black musicians' videos on their channel. Rick James' hit "Super Freak" was notably absent, and the artist had publicly called the channel "racist" in a Rolling Stone interview.Bowie, during a press junket for pop hit "Let's Dance,"grilled an MTV veejay named Mark Goodman about the issue.The following excerpt of that interview has been shared by thousands:There are many reasons to love David Bowie. Here's one. 1982: challenging MTV on their refusal to play black music: pic.twitter.com/0ku30wccVG' Charlene White (@CharleneWhite) January 11, 2016The excerpt has also been prominently shared on Tumblr. As the tweet implies, just one more reason to honorDavid Bowie.Here is the full text:David Bowie: Why are there practically no blacks on the network'Mark Goodman: We seem to be doing music that fits into what we want to play on MTV. The company is thinking in terms of narrowcasting.David Bowie: There seem to be a lot of black artists making very good videos that I'm surprised aren't being used on MTV.Mark Goodman: We have to try and do what we think not only New York and Los Angeles will appreciate, but also Poughkeepsie or the Midwest. Pick some town in the Midwest which would be scared to death by' a string of other black faces, or black music. We have to play music we think an entire country is going to like, and certainly we're a rock and roll station.David Bowie: Don't you think it's a frightening predicament to be in'Mark Goodman: Yeah, but no less so here than in radio.David Bowie: Don't say, 'Well, it's not me, it's them.' Is it not possible it should be a conviction of the station and of the radio stations to be fair' to make the media more integrated'Bowie died on January 10, 2016.Join the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: Lady Gaga almost quit music, and she had a good reason
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