10 Music Videos Banned By MTV
8. Neil Young - This Note’s For You (1988)
The '80s saw a litany of famous celebrities using their sway to help sell commercial goods. Neil Young found the practise the worst insult to musical integrity ever to be conceived. His single, This Note's For You - a parody on the Budweiser slogan "This Bud's for You" - was Young's takedown of the trend.
Besides lyrics that berated capitalism, the video contained a number of scenes that took aim at his fellow musicians. Michael Jackson was famously burned while filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984; a scene Young parodied in his video with a Jackson lookalike. Needless to say MTV's lawyers were hesitant to play the clip, claiming the likeness of Jackson may lead to liable suits. A fairly spurious idea given they were already running the "Weird Al" Yankovic parody of Bad...
Young saw this as nothing more than MTV hoping to stay on the good side of their corporate overlords. In an open letter he wrote, "MTV, you spineless twerps. You refuse to play 'This Note's For You' because you're afraid to offend your sponsors. What Does the 'M' in MTV stand for: music or money? Long live rock and roll."
MTV eventually crumbled when they realised how popular the video was, putting it on heavy rotation. It's not clear who won that one then: music or money?