MTV marks its 40th anniversary on August 1 of this year, and the milestone will be celebrated with an exhibition at the GRAMMY Museum Mississippi in Cleveland, Mississippi.
MTV Turns Forty: I Still Want My MTV, opens Friday, May 14, 2021. Why is it in Mississippi? Because one of MTV’s founders, Bob Pittman, is a native of that state.
In addition to exploring the history of MTV, the exhibit will feature memorabilia from some iconic performers who became superstars thanks to MTV exposure. On display will be the dress worn by Madonna in her video for “Vogue” and the leather suit Michael Jackson wore in the clip for “Dirty Diana,” plus contracts from his other video shoots, including the making of the “Thriller” video. Well after all, Michael Jackson made MTV with Thriller so make sense!
The Exhibition will include much more items from other artist and will run through the summer of 2022 and will also travel nationally and internationally.
Artifacts provided on loan from Hard Rock include:
- The silky dress briefly worn by Madonna in her music video for “Vogue”
- The leather suit worn by Michael Jackson in the music video for “Dirty Diana,” plus contracts from other shoots, including the making of the “Thriller” music video
- The Ibanez acoustic guitar played by Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon in the music video for “Save a Prayer”
- Dire Straits’ 1986 MTV VMA Award for Video of the Year for “Money for Nothing”
- The Yamaha acoustic guitar played by Bret Michaels in the music video for Poison’s “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”
- And more
Additionally, MTV Turns Forty will feature artifacts such as:
- Memorabilia from Aerosmith and Run-DMC
- Interview footage, notes, sketches and more about the idea for MTV from Bob Pittman and John Sykes
- Artifacts from the MTV Video Music Awards
- Initial exhibit sketches from the late Lucy Janoush, founding Board Member of the Mississippi Museum
- Spotlights on the many pivotal moments in MTV’s history, from Nirvana and “MTV Unplugged” to “Beavis and Butt-Head” and “The Real World”
- And more
For more information, visit the GRAMMY Museum Mississippi
SOURCE: Facebook
