Looking Back at the Time MTV Said Poughkeepsie Was Full of Racists

MTV once tried to convince David Bowie in an interview that Poughkeepsie, NY was racist. He wasn't having it.

This week, a cringeworthy interview from 1983 resurfaced on my social media feed. One of the original MTV VJs, Mark Goodman, was interviewing David Bowie when the musician turned the tables and began grilling the MTV VJ about the lack of Black artists shown on the channel. Goodman awkwardly tried to explain this by launching into an explanation that somehow winds up blaming Poughkeepsie, New York for being "scared to death" of "Black faces" singing music on their television sets.

We have to try and do what we think not only New York and Los Angeles will appreciate, but also Poughkeepsie or the Midwest... that would be scared to death by Prince, which we’re playing, or a string of other Black faces.

It's unclear why Goodman singled out Poughkeepsie as the one town that wouldn't listen to music by Black artists, but Bowie's smirk while listening to Goodman's awkward answer showed that he didn't believe for a second that Hudson Valley kids would be traumatized by seeing Prince on their TV sets.

As Goodman continued to explain away MTV's lack of diversity, Bowie's body language speaks volumes. Smiling and shaking his head, he replies, "That's interesting." Goodman, unaware that he was woefully on the wrong side of history with his response, continued to explain how kids in 1983 are so violently opposed to Black artists that they would turn against MTV if they saw a video from one during daylight hours.

The camera zooms into David Bowie's shocked face as he simply says, "Interesting." When Goodman asks whether it's a valid point, Bowie refuses to agree, laughing instead and saying he "understands" the point of view.

Of course, months later, Michael Jackson's Thriller would top the charts and change the music landscape on MTV forever. With music fans in New York, LA and, of course, Poughkeepsie selling out copies of the album at every record store, MTV was forced to play Jackson's videos, opening the floodgates for other Black artists to be featured on the channel.