Beverly Hills Music Lyrics

Thoughts on MTV's Ascent to Adulthood

On Aug. 1, 1981, viewers on a few cable systems were treated to a tight shot of the space shuttle preparing for launch and a NASA countdown, followed by the words “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll!” over footage of the Apollo 11 moon landing, giving birth to a channel that would grow to define pop culture over the last two decades of the 20th century and beyond.

I owe my most obnoxious moments in life to 30 years of MTV.

After all, it’s where I learned big hair and lace were welcome accessories to any outfit, thanks to several Madonna videos and those beautiful days MTV would air the timeless classic “Desperately Seeking Susan.” (Never before or since has a bathroom hand dryer seemed so sexy.)

It’s where I learned every word to Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing”; every move to every En Vogue dance routine; was introduced to Salt-n-Pepa; decided Jodi Watley was awesome; briefly earned the nickname “Candy Rain” after Soul for Real’s hit song; and accepted that my hair would probably never be as awesome as Adam Curry’s.

A tradition of my youth as rich as the weekly viewing of “Beverly Hills 90210,” I would frequently watch the MTV Jams countdown after arriving home from school. It also served as the best backdrop to cleaning my room or getting ready, hanging on every word of past hosts Bill Bellamy, Downtown Julie Brown, Dan Cortese and John Norris.

Without any self-awareness whatsoever and all the Hypercolor and I.O.U. shirts a girl could ask for, I believed I was cool for knowing all the lyrics to songs by Another Bad Creation. As a fourth grader, I also rocked out to the likes of C&C Music Factory, Color Me Badd, Maxi Priest, PM Dawn, Mariah Carey and R.E.M.

While some of my favorite songs from 1991 still creep onto some of my iTunes’ play lists, MTV hasn’t been part of my life for years. The network lost me sometime after the second (and best) season of Real World. Reality television started, the music stopped, and I found VH1’s “Pop-Up Video” far more entertaining.

Upon realizing that yesterday marked the 30  anniversary of MTV, I realized I have indeed grown up (and away) with one of my favorite childhood channels.

At 12:01 a.m., Aug. 1, 1981, MTV launched with the words, “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll!” I was just shy of 9 months old at the time, but I took those words to heart a little more each year as the network seemed to forget its own message.

Sweet Homes of Country Music Stars « Mortgage Compliance Corner

- Yahoo!

Country music makers often come off as more down to earth than other famous musicians. In the past it was almost a requirement that country musicians grew up in humble homes, and some of them even kept their digs low key once they got famous.

Other country stars, especially nowadays, opt for housing that is not quite so basic or cozy—for example, young Carrie Underwood just purchased over 400 rural Tennessee acres to call home for about $3.4 million.

The same trials and tribulations of life that provide endless lyrical inspiration for so many country songs—love, betrayal, heartbreak, D-I-V-O-R-C-E, and death—also affect the living situations of the people who lived the lyrics—country music makers. They move in and they move on, so their homes on the market are often fodder for discussion on real estate sites like Realtor.com (who provided many of the images for this slideshow). Once in a while, as you’ll see in the following slides, country musicians even move out of Tennessee.

It’s a sure bet that many of the following structures will become immortalized in country music lyrics, or they already have. The Rosanne Cash song "House on the Lake" has this lyric inspired by the selling off of the longtime home of her famous parents: "There’s nothing left to take/ But love and years are not for sale/ In our old house on the lake."

Check out these country music stars’ homes:

Taylor Swift

Word has it that young miss Taylor Swift bought this 1925 house in historic Whitland for her family. Now, just a year after the purchase, the home is back on the market. It features vaulted ceilings and exposed beams, original hardwood floors, and so on. Perhaps more interesting to ponder is the amount of real estate girlfriend has amassed in her short period of fame: a $2 million, 4,000+ square-foot penthouse apartment in Nashville’s Adelicia luxury residence, and a $3,550,000 fairy-tale-esque 1941 Cape Cod Colonial in Beverly Hills that looks as darling as the singer herself.

Alan Jackson

Last year, Alan Jackson downsized from his famous mall-sized estate home on 135 acres, Sweetbriar (pictured here), selling it for $10 million less than the original asking price. Features include a wide fieldstone-floored wraparound porch, outdoor fireplace, children’s playground and playhouse, stables and fenced pasture, a pond and boathouse with roof deck, an ATV track, an airplane runway, enough garage to house a car collection numbering 20, and a rustic guest cabin for when the mansion’s occupants need to get away from it all.