iTunes induced memories...

I was seven years old when I saw my first video on mtv. My brothers were visiting us for the summer and like the rest of the teenage boy population in 1985, my brothers kept our television set tuned to mtv constantly. This was back when they actually showed music videos, so it was't yet too terribly annoying for me. For our parents, though, I figure it was akin to me now being forced to watch what mtv has become. Funny how back in the day people used to say "What happened to programming? Those kids just watch videos all day" and now people say "What happened to the vidoes? Now there are all those stupid shows on!" but I digress. One saturday morning in the summer of 1985, I woke up and tiptoed out to our living room. I was careful to make enough noise to let the boys' subconsciouses know that I wasn't trying to be quiet. I had already learned that teenage boys will sleep through everything except a) somebody trying to be quiet, b) somebody trying to change the channel on the tv or stereo and c) somebody trying to sneak the last handful of chips from the last bag of doritos. I turned on the television, careful to turn the volume down really low so as not to wake up our parents. On the screen was a man dancing rather prettily around so some song that required a simple, colorful background. Turning up the volume just a little bit I listened to enough of the song to learn the melody and then switched the channel to the cartoons I had been missing all summer because of my stupid....er.... older brothers. I completely forgot about the music video until later that day. To match their obsession with watching mtv, my brothers talked about mtv incessantly. At some point in that afternoon's video discourse, the subject of Michael Jackson came up. Now, put down those torches and pitchforks. In 1985, Michael Jackson was freakin' rad man! I don't remember what it was about him my brothers were discussing, but not to be outdone, I piped up "I love Michael Jackson!" "You don't even know who he is," my oldest brother said, trying to blow me off. "I do too! I saw him on tv this morning!" "No you didn't, you were watching cartoons." the younger older brother said. "No, I watched him. Then I watched cartoons." "No you didn't." "How would you know, you didn't wake up until I was watching the smurfs!" "Erin," [insert exasperated sigh] "you've never heard Michael Jackson. You're only seven." "Oh yeah? Then how come I know this?" and with that, I defiantly started singing "She won a Raspberry Parade. la la la la la la la know what's in store. Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaspberry Parade. La La la la la la la in store." I can still hear their laughter roaring in my ears. Of course they set me straight on the differences between Prince and Michael Jackson. I also learned more than I could ever care about a ton of other people too. That became the summer of the mtv academy. And then, tenish years later, I was a teenager and sitting in the high school library with a group of my friends... "Wait wait wait. You're telling me she wore a Raspberry Beret? The kind you find in a secondhand store???" Brothers.