3 Classic Rock Songs From 1987 That Got Swallowed by the MTV Machine

MTV was a magic box that took in songs with at least decent music videos and spit out international hits. Getting a music video on the broadcasting network was a huge deal for any musician’s career in the 1980s and 1990s. For the following classic rock songs from 1987, however, they got massively overshadowed by their makers’ MTV-friendly hits. And I think that’s a shame. Let’s take a look at a few songs that deserved just as much love as those MTV hits, shall we?

“Rocket” by Def Leppard from ‘Hysteria’

When one thinks of Def Leppard’s Hysteria, one probably thinks of the music video for “Pour Some Sugar On Me”. MTV did end up ranking the song at the tippy-top of their Top 300 Videos Of All Time list in 1991. It’s one of the most memorable classic rock songs to ever enter MTV’s video rotation. 

Sadly, I think the song and video’s popularity also overshadowed a few genuinely good songs on Hysteria, including a few underrated single releases. “Rocket” was the final single to be released from the album, and I think it’s quite underrated. Though, I’d say that it wasn’t a total bust. The song ranked at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

“Five Years Dead” by Mötley Crüe from ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’

If you were an 80s kid and had your face firmly planted to your TV during the MTV era, you’ve probably seen the music video for “Girls, Girls, Girls” by Mötley Crüe about a million times. It was pretty raunchy for its time, and it’s crazy to think that video director Wayne Isham sent an uncensored version of the video to MTV originally. The clean version is what we got, and that song and video massively overshadowed the rest of the album of the same name. And that’s a shame, considering the deep cut “Five Years Dead” is actually a pretty good song. That bass groove à la Nikki Sixx carries the song beautifully.

“Love Removal Machine” by The Cult from ‘Electric’

This song got swallowed up by the MTV machine, but not in favor of The Cult’s other works. In fact, the heavy metal classic “Love Removal Machine” was one of 1987’s most notable rock songs, reaching No. 15 on the Mainstream Rock chart in the US. And yet, as hair metal exploded on MTV and the songs featured on the network began to dominate the charts as well, songs like “Love Removal Machine” faded into obscurity fairly quickly. Which sucks, because the music video for this song was more than good enough for MTV’s love.

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