''Club MTV'' is a half hour television show modeled after ''

American Bandstand ''American Bandstand'', abbreviated ''AB'', is an American music-performance and dance television program that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989, and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as the pr ...

'' that aired on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

from August 31, 1987, to June 26, 1992. ''Club MTV'' was part of MTV's second generation of programming, as the channel was phasing out its original 5 VJs and introducing new ones.

Overview

Background and format

Hosted by Downtown Julie Brown (

Kevin Seal Kevin Seal is an American television presenter and voice actor. Biography Seal was an MTV VJ in the late 1980s, the host of the pilot of '' Club MTV'' (according to an MTV special) and one of the hosts of the influential alternative-music prog ...

hosted the pilot) at The Palladium, a large dance club in New York City, the show cut back and forth between teenagers dancing to a hit dance song and the video of that hit. In later shows they would dance exclusively to

freestyle music Freestyle music, also called Latin freestyle or Latin hip-hop ''(sic)'' is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in the New York metropolitan area and Philadelphia, primarily among Hispanic Americans and Italian Americans in the 1980s. I ...

. Often there were musical guests who performed their new singles; such guests included

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, Exposé,

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, New Kids on the Block, Vanessa L. Williams, Sheena Easton,

Debbie Gibson Deborah Ann Gibson (born August 31, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer and actress. Gibson released her debut album '' Out of the Blue'' in 1987, which spawned several international hits, later being certified triple plati ...

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, MC Hammer, Taylor Dayne, Deee-lite,

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, Soul II Soul, Black Box, Company B, El DeBarge,

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, Inner City and

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. Also some rock groups like

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, Mr. Mister,

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, and

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also appeared live on the show. The show was taped in a private home once in 1988 with former

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frontwoman Belinda Carlisle as a musical guest, when a full 24 hours of MTV were broadcast from the home of the "MTV At My House" contest winner. Other shows featured were ''

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'' and ''The Week In Rock''. With the rise in popularity of Freestyle music, ''Club MTV'' began using the music nearly exclusively with a few

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air cond ...

and hip hop songs thrown in. In 1989, MTV introduced a companion show for Friday nights called '' Street Party'' that aired the complete videos of songs used on ''Club MTV''. Though molded after ''American Bandstand'', the show had a more sophisticated, nightclub look. The women especially, many of them aspiring models, dressed in provocative clubwear—skintight dresses, Spandex pants, miniskirts, fishnet stockings—and the show became known for its sexual allure. In an MTV special broadcast in the fall of 1999 on some of the network's more scandalous moments, Rob Fox, casting director for ''Club MTV'' during its first year, argued that "''Club MTV'' was supposed to be a teen dance show, but in a channel run by men it turned into a show that was pretty much 'Table-dance Afternoon.'" Notable entertainers who got their start as Club MTV dancers include Camille Grammer,

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, Jennifer Esposito, Essence Atkins,

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, and Darrin Henson.

The Club MTV Tour

Late in 1989, MTV launched their first Club MTV Tour featuring

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, Information Society,

, Milli Vanilli and Tone Loc. But the tour was marred with troubles. On the first tour, singer Cathy Dennis who was booked for six weeks suddenly dropped out after three days, publicly accusing one of the members of Milli Vanilli, the tour's headline act, of sexual harassment. In addition Milli Vanilli was permitted by tour promoters to lip sync to pre-recorded tracks. One night a track began to skip midway through the song "

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" while the show was being taped for broadcast. Later that year when it was revealed that neither Fab Morvan nor Rob Pilatus had performed on their album but the vocals had been recorded by other various studio singers, MTV was suspected of knowing that Milli Vanilli was a fraud all along. Tour promoters countered that lip-syncing was a common practice because of the exhausting dance routines artists did while performing. During the 1992 tour, several acts dropped out midway through their bookings, forcing MTV to book new acts at the last minute. With most of the Freestyle acts no longer interested in the tour, MTV wound up booking hip hop and rap acts to replace them.

Legacy

On March 20, 2005, VH1 Classic aired a marathon of old ''Club MTV'' episodes. On April 25, 2020, MTV bought ''Club MTV'' back for a special, titled ''Club MTV: Dance Together'' hosted by D-Nice and Keke Palmer. The one night only event served as a fund raising benefit to help music programs during the coronavirus pandemic.

References

External links