Time Capsule: MTV Talks to Teens at Tower Records in 1994
by Best Classic Bands Staff
Some of the teenage girls being interviewed by MTV News in 1994 outside Tower Records in New York City.
It’s been so long since MTV was the go-to outlet for all things music that it’s easy to forget that the initials actually stand for Music Television. So it was with great interest when a friend of ours sent us a link to a video on YouTube of a bunch of teenagers being interviewed in 1994 for the network’s Music News as they were leaving the Tower Records store in New York’s Greenwich Village. A boy and then a group of five girls, all around 14 years old, were asked what they had just purchased.
The boy appears to be empty-handed but expresses keen interest in one album in particular that’s about to be released. “Pearl Jam… it didn’t come out yet, right? I’m going to get that… definitely. Vitalogy, right…? Cool.”
Next to exit the store are the group of girls who are eager to share what CDs they’ve purchased, titles from the Dave Matthews Band and the Offspring among them. The unseen MTV News reporter then shows them a list of some of the season’s hot titles and asks, “What about any of these? Did you guys want to get any of these records?”
“Tom Petty!” “Yeah, Tom Petty… Madonna. Definitely Madonna.” “No,” one friend interrupts, “definitely Tom Petty.” His solo album, Wildflowers, had been released that November.
The “leader” in the light brown hair offers her definitive opinion. “I’d say definitely Tom Petty and maybe…” Her blonde friend at the right finishes her sentence, “… Snoop Doggy Dogg.” Another suggests Eric Clapton.
“We like old music,” says blondie. “Yeah, these are just new records that came out in the last three months and are coming out. What about the new Pearl Jam record?”
The gals don’t react positively to that one. “I don’t really know much about it,” is the consensus. The reporter digs deeper. “What about Page and Plant?”
“I’ve never even heard of them,” says the leader. “Yeah, the guys in Led Zeppelin,” replies the reporter. “Oh, I like Led Zeppelin,” says the blonde.
The reporter speaks for all of us. “I feel old now. Thank you very much.”
As this item was written in 2024, those teens are likely around 44 years-old… with teens of their own.
Related: Tower Records in the ’70s
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