What were the golden years of the Headbanger's Ball when it came on MTV back in the late 80's/early 90's? My guess would be before the grunge wave in 1992, I wished I would've gotten to watch Headbanger's Ball as a kid, also what time did Headbanger's Ball came on MTV?
shareI'm going to say right around the time Riki Rachtman started hosting is when it peaked. I think he started in early 1990. I was in the 7th and 8th grade and always used to watch it every Saturday night when it was on from 11 PM to 2 AM (CST). Unfortunately, when I started highschool, I started going out more on the weekends and gradually lost interest in staying home to watch Headbangers Ball. 1989, 1990, and 1991 were the best years for Headbanger's Ball, I think. I have several VHS tapes from that time w/ whole entire episodes recorded on them (commercials too) and I wouldn't trade them for nothing. :)
share[deleted]
I also miss it as an actual "show." You know...where Riki Rachtman would be on several times during the hour interviewing bands. He even read fan mail and named his couch "Jennifer." I haven't watched in like a month...but I know that Jamey Jasta is supposed to be the host, but he's never on to host it. Now, it's really just straight videos w/ maybe a few clips in between of bands talking about their music, but that's really it.
shareI used to love staying up to watch this show. Where I live, there wasn't any radio playing my style of music during those days. (Country music was the thing at my high school.)
Anyway, I remember ringing in the new year with Slayer, seeing some great Iron Maiden videos, and being introduced to some great new music that I couldn't otherwise find locally.
I think the grunge scene put the final nail in the coffin, but this show started to decline when the 3 hour show was reduced to a 2 hour 'Headbangers Ball' with a 1 hour lead-in of top 10 "metal" songs, which were nothing more than the power ballads we could see any time during the week. I tuned into this show to see Danzig, White Zombie, Cathedral, and find some new music, not to see the same Poison video I saw all week.
I grieve for what MTV has become. I think they could really use a resurrection of this. At least I would watch. But they seem more interested in doing some gimmicky dating show.
It's a shame that the *beep* grunge (except a few) era cause the show to jumped the shark and it was the also the beginning of the end of MTV and Television
since the real world came out in 1992, it has gone to hell, even YO! MTV Raps got cancelled 3 years later.
The Two Party system sucks ass and always will
Vote libertarian or Constitution party