MTV Unplugged | |
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Created by | Jim Burns [1] Robert Small [1] |
Country of origin | United States |
Production | |
Running time | 60 minutes |
Original release | |
Network | MTV MTV Live |
Release | November 26, 1989 – present |
Part of a series on |
MTV |
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Programs on MTV |
MTV personalities |
Censorship on MTV |
MTV Generation |
MTV News |
MTV Unplugged is an American television series on MTV. It showcases recorded live performances of popular music artists playing acoustic or "unplugged" variations of songs. The show aired regularly from 1989 to 1999. From 2000 to 2009, it aired less frequently and was usually billed as MTV Unplugged No. 2.0. Since 2009, MTV Unplugged specials have aired occasionally, sometimes through online or subscription only. Episodes and specials have tended to showcase one artist or group, playing a combination of their hit songs and covers.
Many of the artists who appeared on the show in the 1990s released their Unplugged session as an album, and some of these albums were commercial and critical hits. Eric Clapton's Unplugged (1992) sold 26 million copies worldwide and became the best-selling live album of all time[ citation needed ]. Albums such as Mariah Carey's MTV Unplugged (1992), Nirvana's MTV Unplugged in New York (1994) and Alice in Chains' Unplugged (1996) became notable hits of the program. Other Unplugged albums that went platinum include Rod Stewart's Unplugged...and Seated (1993), 10,000 Maniacs' MTV Unplugged (1993), Tony Bennett's MTV Unplugged (1994), Page and Plant's No Quarter (1994), Shakira's MTV Unplugged (1999), Lauryn Hill's MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 (2001), Alicia Keys' Unplugged (2005) and Ricky Martin's MTV Unplugged (2006). Some of these albums produced successful singles as well, including Mariah Carey's No. 1 hit cover of "I'll Be There".
The show received the George Foster Peabody Award and three Primetime Emmy nominations, in its original form.
A limited-run reboot of MTV Unplugged came in 2009, featuring six acts, which won the Emmy Award for Best New Approach.
As of 2021, several episodes are available to watch on Paramount+. [2]
The term "unplugged" has come to refer to music that would usually be played on electrified instruments (such as an electric guitar or synthesizer) but is rendered instead on instruments that can be played without electricity, for example acoustic guitar or traditional piano, although a microphone is still used. In most cases, the bass (or bass guitar) is amplified, and a Hammond organ is sometimes used.
MTV launched MTV Unplugged in 1989. [3] The show featured musicians performing unplugged versions of their electric repertoire. Many of these performances were subsequently released as albums, often featuring the title Unplugged. It was believed that the show was inspired by a 1989 MTV Video Music Awards acoustic performance by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora; however, the show was already in production. [3]
The MTV show titled Unplugged, drawing on this phenomenon, was created by producers Robert Small and Jim Burns. [1] Songwriter Jules Shear hosted the first 13 episodes. [4] The pilot and first seven episodes were produced by Bruce Leddy, after which Associate Producer Alex Coletti took over for the remainder of the series, producing the show through 2001. [5] After the first 13 episodes, the role of host was eliminated. [5] The show was produced by Viacom and RSE Inc [6] and was most frequently directed by Milton Lage and Beth McCarthy.
The first episode of MTV Unplugged was taped on October 31, 1989, and aired about a month later on November 26. [3]
Since 2000, the Unplugged format has been revived on a number of occasions for specials.
The rock band Tesla performed an all-acoustic live set on July 2, 1990 that was released under the title Five Man Acoustical Jam in November of that year, following the format established the previous year by MTV Unplugged. [37]
MTV's sister channel VH1 airs VH1 Storytellers , interspersing mostly acoustic performances with the artists discussing the history, meaning and memories of the songs.
Bon Jovi performed unplugged in 2007 on CMT. The Police, Mary J. Blige, Kenny Chesney and John Mayer were scheduled to perform. [38]
The fourth season of Canadian Idol featured an Unplugged night which was held at Toronto's Masonic Temple. This episode of Canadian Idol was a tribute to MTV in two ways: a direct tribute to the Unplugged format, and to celebrate the recent licensing of the new MTV Canada which was located in the Masonic Hall until 2012. [39]
On July 30, 2020, Code Orange performed a livestreamed acoustic set on Twitch spoofing MTV Unplugged under the title of "MUDTV Mudbanger's Ball" during the COVID-19 pandemic. [40] The band described it as "conceptually akin to classic MTV Unplugged performances, but with nightmarish digital twists and turns." [41] The performance was later remastered and released on September 4, 2020, as their album Under The Skin. [42]
a-ha is a Norwegian synth-pop band formed in Oslo in 1982. Founded by Paul Waaktaar-Savoy, Magne Furuholmen, and Morten Harket, the band rose to fame during the mid-1980s.
MTV Unplugged in New York is the first live album by the American rock band Nirvana, released by DGC Records on November 1, 1994, nearly seven months following the death of Kurt Cobain. The album was part of the cable television series MTV Unplugged and features a mostly acoustic performance. It was recorded at Sony Music Studios in Hell's Kitchen on November 18, 1993.
Unplugged is a live album by the American rock band Alice in Chains, released on July 30, 1996, by Columbia Records. It was recorded on April 10, 1996, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Majestic Theatre for the television series MTV Unplugged. The show was directed by Joe Perota and first aired on MTV on May 28, 1996. Home video releases of the MTV broadcast were released on VHS in October 1996, and on DVD in October 1999. The MTV Unplugged was Alice in Chains' first concert in two and a half years, and contains live, acoustic versions of the band's biggest hits and lesser-known songs.
"Lake of Fire" is a song by the American alternative rock band the Meat Puppets, written by vocalist and guitarist, Curt Kirkwood. It appears on their second album, Meat Puppets II, released in April 1984. An alternate version appeared as a hidden track on their 1994 album, Too High to Die.
MTV Unplugged is a live EP by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey, released in the United States on June 2, 1992, by Columbia Records. Following the success of Carey's previous two albums and the growing critical commentary on her lack of concert tours and unsubstantial televised performances, Sony organized a live performance show at the Kaufman Astoria Studios, New York on March 16, 1992. The show, titled MTV Unplugged, originally aired on MTV to help promote Carey's second album Emotions, as well as help shun critics who deemed Carey a possible studio artist. However, after its success, the show was released to the public as an EP, with an accompanying VHS titled MTV Unplugged +3.
Page and Plant were an English rock band active between 1994 and 1998. The group consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page and vocalist Robert Plant, accompanied by bassist Charlie Jones and drummer Michael Lee. Formed in 1994 for an MTV Unplugged reunion, Page and Plant released the platinum-selling live album No Quarter, featuring both new material and middle eastern-influenced covers of classic Led Zeppelin songs. Following the success of the live album, they embarked on a world tour featuring a full orchestra.
Unplugged (The Official Bootleg) is a live unplugged performance by Paul McCartney, recorded and released in 1991. Following the vastness of his world tour recently captured on Tripping the Live Fantastic, McCartney took the opportunity to strip back his songs and appear on the acoustic-only show MTV Unplugged, which had only been on air for over a year at that point. Subsequently, McCartney was the first in a long line of artists to release an album of their performance on the show.
"Would?" is a song by Alice in Chains, written by guitarist and vocalist Jerry Cantrell as a tribute to his friend Andrew Wood, lead vocalist of Mother Love Bone, who died in 1990. Cantrell sings the verses of the song, while Layne Staley sings the chorus.
MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 is a live album by American singer-songwriter and rapper Lauryn Hill. The performance comes from her 2002 MTV Unplugged special recorded on July 21, 2001, at MTV Studios in Times Square, New York City. Hill abandoned the hip hop sounds of her debut album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998) in favor of folk and soul songs. It was recorded while she was pregnant with her third child YG Marley. The songs were written solely by Hill, who performed them unaccompanied by a live band, while playing an acoustic guitar. It features lyrics about religion, police brutality, mental health and abuse of authority, along with spoken interludes about her personal and artistic struggles.
"Over Now" is a song by the American rock band Alice in Chains. Written by Jerry Cantrell, who also sings lead vocals, the song is the last track on the band's third studio album, Alice in Chains (1995), and it is about the 1995 breakup of the band. The song closed the televised broadcast of Alice in Chains' MTV Unplugged performance, and that version was released as a single in 1996. The B-side is the original studio version. The single peaked at No. 4 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, and at No. 24 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1996. The song was included on the live album Unplugged (1996), on the box set Music Bank (1999), and the compilation album The Essential Alice in Chains (2006). The MTV Unplugged concert was the first and only time that Alice in Chains performed the song. It was performed again 23 years later at Jerry Cantrell's solo concert at the Pico Union Project in Los Angeles on December 6, 2019.
MTV Unplugged is a live EP by American neo soul singer Maxwell, released by Columbia Records in mid-1997. The album features recordings of Maxwell's performance on the MTV concert series program MTV Unplugged, filmed in New York City earlier in the year. The album includes covers of songs such as Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work" and Nine Inch Nails "Closer."
"Andy Warhol" is a song written by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie in 1971 for the album Hunky Dory. It is an acoustic song about one of Bowie's early artist inspirations, the American pop artist Andy Warhol.
MTV Unplugged is an extended play (EP) and live album by American singer Katy Perry, released in the United States on November 13, 2009, by Capitol Records. After airing more than 100 MTV Unplugged specials, MTV wanted to bring back the series, in order to expose them to a younger generation. The channel recruited various mainstream and popular artists to perform as part of the series, including Perry, who particularly expressed interest in the idea as it would allow her to showcase herself as an artist and share the stories behind her songs.
Throughout their career, The Cranberries recorded several radio and television sessions in the form of recording studio sessions, live studio sessions, and live audience sessions.
MTV Unplugged is an extended play (EP) and live album by American rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars, released in the United States on August 19, 2011 by Virgin Records. It features an acoustic performance taped at Sony Music Studios in New York City on May 13 of that year for the television series MTV Unplugged. The show's purpose is to present name artists, and feature them stripped of studio equipment. The performance was accompanied by musicians from the Vitamin String Quartet, a gospel choir and included the contribution of the band's fans.
MTV Unplugged is the second live album by English indie rock band Florence and the Machine, released on 6 April 2012 by Island Records. It was filmed on 15 December 2011 in New York City's oldest synagogue building, the Angel Orensanz Center, as part of the MTV Unplugged series, with the band being backed by a ten-person choir. The album contains acoustic performances of eleven songs, nine from the band's two studio albums, Lungs (2009) and Ceremonials (2011) alongside a cover of "Jackson" with Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme and "Try a Little Tenderness". Upon its release, MTV Unplugged received mixed to positive reviews by music critics.
Bastille are a British indie pop band formed in 2010. The group began as a solo project by lead vocalist Dan Smith, but later expanded to include keyboardist Kyle Simmons, bassist and guitarist Will Farquarson and drummer Chris "Woody" Wood.
Debut Live is a live album by Icelandic singer Björk. While featuring live versions of songs from Debut, the album does not feature the songs as performed during the Debut tour from 1993–1994. Instead the majority of the CD comes from an acoustic performance of Debut on the MTV Unplugged television program. Originally released in the 5 disc Live Box set in 2003, Debut Live was later released separately on 1 June 2004 by One Little Indian records.
MTV Unplugged: Live at Roundhouse, London is the third live album and second video by Scottish alternative rock band Biffy Clyro. Recorded at the band's one-off acoustic show on 8 November 2017 at the Roundhouse in London as part of MTV Unplugged, it was released on 25 May 2018 by 14th Floor and Warner Bros. Records. The video was directed by Sam Wrench, produced by Sian Larkin & Executive Produced for MTV by Jeremy Davies and Albert Schilcher. The show won Best Live Concert at the 2018 UK Music Video Awards. Four recordings from the release were issued as digital download singles.
MTV Unplugged: Live is the first live album by Australian indie rock band DMA's. The album was recorded on 11 October 2018 at Memo Music Hall, Melbourne, aired on MTV Australia in November 2018 and was released in July 2019. The album peaked at number 94 in Australia and 65 in the United Kingdom.
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