Every few months, an infamous clip of legendary pop star David Bowie resurfaces showing him going after MTV for their racism during the '80s, when they largely refused to play Black music videos in an effort to appeal to white audiences.

The clip went viral again this weekend, reminding everyone of how openly bigoted the music channel was in its early days after launching in 1981.

In the 1983 interview, Bowie criticized MTV for refusing to play popular Black music while MTV host Mark Goodman defended the channel with his own brand of bigotry, claiming MTV couldn't just appeal to people in "New York and Los Angeles," and instead must try to appeal to people in Poughkeepsie and the Midwest.

"It occurred to me, having watched MTV over the past few months, that it's a solid enterprise and it's got a lot going for it. I'm just floored by the fact that so few Black artists are featured on it. Why is that," Bowie asked Goodman.

Goodman said the company was trying to "narrowcast" the music it was playing for a specific audience.

"That's evident," Bowie shot back. "It's evident in the fact that the only few Black artists that one does see are on about 2:30 in the morning to about six. Very few are featured predominantly during the day. I'll say that over the last couple of weeks these things have been changing but it's a slow process."

Goodman and an unseen producer denied Bowie's claim and said people's perceptions of the channel were only based on the few hours each day that they tuned in. Goodman denied that the channel was keeping Black artists off the air at certain times of the day.

But Bowie didn't back down, saying that on other Black stations he'd seen groundbreaking videos from Black artists.

"There seem to be a lot of Black artists making very good videos that I'm surprised aren't used on MTV," Bowie said.

"We have to try and do what we think not only New York and Los Angeles will appreciate but also Poughkeepsie or some town in the Midwest that will be scared to death by Prince, which we're playing, or a string of other Black faces and Black music," Goodman responded. "We have to play the music that we think an entire country will like."

Bowie immediately clocked the suggested racism in that statement, but Goodman continued, saying white teenagers wouldn't respond well to Black bands like The Isley Brothers or The Spinners and that Black music wouldn't mean as much to them.

"I'll tell you what maybe The Isley Brothers or Marvin Gaye mean to a Black 17-year-old, and surely he's part of America as well. Do you not find that it's a frightening predicament to be in?" Bowie asked.

Goodman then tried to shift blame to radio stations, which were also segregating music at the time.

"Is it not possible that it should be a conviction of the station and of other radio stations to be fair? It does seem to be rampant through American media. Should it not be a challenge to try and make the media far more integrated? Especially of anything in music," Bowie said.

Goodman responded by saying more white artists were starting to play Black music, which would allow MTV to start to mix in more Black music as genres melded together.

Then Goodman referenced a letter from a white teenager who said he didn't want to see Black music on MTV.

"Well that's his problem," Bowie said.

In 1983, when David Bowie got MTV together and asked them why weren't they playing Black artists >>>>> pic.twitter.com/rHavzF6kqA

— Morgan Jerkins (@MorganJerkins) January 4, 2021

Mark-Goodman

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