But as recounted in Rob Tannenbaum and Craig Marks’s excellent 2011 oral history I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution, the show, originally created by Jim Burns and Bob Small, was already in production by then, as a more modest acoustic hootenanny with more modest stars. The industry lore is that Unplugged was inspired by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora’s appearance at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards, howling through “Livin’ on a Prayer” and “Wanted Dead or Alive” while strumming not-at-all-gaudy acoustic guitars. They’ll also tell you lots of stories about how much fun it was to do that.
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But the producers and directors of the original series will tell you that Unplugged is not quite as simple as handing rock stars acoustic guitars and pointing a camera at them. It’s MTV’s latest attempt to turn its storied past into its vibrant future. But Friday night marks the debut of a more official Unplugged reboot, turning over its first installment to Vine phenomenon turned semi-legit pop star Shawn Mendes. The show never quite disappeared, popping up sporadically in the past decade or so to showcase the likes of Florence + the Machine or Miley Cyrus. And it scored mid-period Album of the Year Grammys for both Clapton and, why not, Tony Bennett. It inspired breakthrough moments for everyone from Pearl Jam (see Eddie Vedder scrawling “PRO CHOICE” on his arm during a manic “Porch”) to Maxwell (whose harp-driven version of Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work” is an all-universe highlight). It generated unlikely radio hits (see 10,000 Maniacs covering “Because the Night”). Hatched in 1989 with a deceptively simple premise-big stars play their big hits, stripped down and acoustic-the show was a massive ’90s phenomenon that, unlike many other ’90s phenomenons, has modestly endured since. MTV Unplugged, one of the channel’s most prestigious franchises, helped launch a few careers and revitalized quite a few more. Alex Coletti, ‘MTV Unplugged’ producer and showrunner
“Remember: The word unplugged was not in the lexicon.
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