I think for every music enthusiast, there comes a defining moment in your life where you really discover music. During the mid-90’s, amidst the experimental phase of MTV (or how I refer to it, the only time MTV mattered), that moment came in the form of the music video program Amp. The series ran from 1996-2001 – though it hit its peak in 1998 before it fell apart when it was later called Amp 2.0 – and showcased
electronica to the mainstream. The show would come on every Saturday night / Sunday morning around two or three a.m. (not sure exactly though) and it was almost like being a child staying up to watch cartoons, though these were genre-defining videos from directors and musicians whom we still discuss to this very day.
For myself, this was my education in music. I’ve gone through many musical phases (rap, britpop, etc.), but electronica was really where it all began for me. I always find myself coming back to it, while it still continues to influence everything i’ve ever listened to. Imagine discovering this through a 14-year-old’s naive eyes, where there really was no other avenue for different music outside of radio. I really wouldn’t want to think where I would be if it wasn’t for this highly seminal program, seriously.
I still remember one of the first episodes that I was able to watch and you really couldn’t ask for much more considering who was featured on the episode. Here’s a quick rundown of what I can remember, along with a random assortment of the many videos that were on the program.
“Around The World” :: Daft Punk
Easily, one of the best music videos of the 90s. And for many, our first introduction to the genius of both Daft Punk and director Michel Gondry.
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“House of God” :: DHS
Simple video, but how can you not be hooked if you happened to come across this in the middle of the night? One answer, not possible.
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“Extra” :: Ken Ishii
What’s cool about this video is that it was directed by Koji Morimoto – one of Japan’s most well-known anime directors, including working on Akira, one of the greatest animes of all time.
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“Believe” :: Gus Gus
This video creeps me out. I’d rather not watch a guy shave his nipples.
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“Midnight In A Perfect World” :: DJ Shadow
My very first introduction to DJ Shadow and consequently, one of my all-time favorite tracks. Enough said really.
Click after the cut to watch some other videos that were featured on Amp.
“We Have Explosive” :: The Future Sound Of London
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“Sexy Boy” :: Air
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“Sugar Water” :: Cibo Matto
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“Da Funk” :: Daft Punk
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“Setting Sun” :: The Chemical Brothers
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“Ni Ten Ichi Ryu (TeeBee Remix)” :: Photek
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“Born Slippy” :: Underworld
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“2Wicky” :: Hooverphonic
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“Protection” :: Massive Attack
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“Dirt” :: Death In Vegas
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“The Box” :: Orbital
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“Trigger Hippie” :: Morcheeba
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WOW–you are sooooo right! That was one helluva show, and I’m really surprised it didn’t do better here. MTV was in a good place then, but that was it’s end; after that, it just degenerated into something I pretty much hate now, and blame for many of youth culture’s ills. It’s such a shame. But I gotta give much props for the great selection you presented here; excellent tunes all, and I remember watching them, as well.
Wow, this is uncanny, it’s the soundtrack to my life in the 90s!
oh god, what a nostalgia OD.
actually three of those songs (‘Da Funk’, ‘Trigger Hippie’ & ‘The Box’) I have on CD single. ah, being 20 and discovering all that great music. few things can beat that. 
Ah yes, those days when MTV actually played music…seems like so long ago…
nostalgic yes. Want to have them all in one CD.
Ok, I’ve been searching for a video I saw on AMP for years. I was really young, so I don’t remember much, but there was some sort of ghoul/demon in the middle of the screen in black and white and he was either dancing or singing along with the song and I vaguely remember the song having really fuzzed out bass on it. It was really creepy and had kind of a “come to daddy” feel to it. Does anyone remember this? Sorry, I know it’s super vague, but it’s been driving me crazy
Holy-Shit-RightOn. I remember being 13 and seeing the movie Hackers. I was like, “What the fuck is this music?…!” Got the soundtrack and Prodigy’s Music for the Jilted Generation and I was off on my life-music adventure. I saw AMP for the first time shortly after that and remember it being on multiple nights a week at midnight or 1am. The music and videos were phenomenal, and whetted my appetite for more. Nobody I knew was into that stuff and I turned to the internet and grabbing tracks off IRC advertised FTP and direct download servers. Changed my life man, I don’t know what I would have been like without that experience. I’ve enjoyed all kinds of shit since then (classic rock, rap, really bad “trance,” 80s New Wave, etc.) and had been on an indie rock jag for fucking ever. It seemed that all the stuff on the scene had descended to impossible depths yet continued to slide more negative, cynical, and self-disgusted. But it was still the only “real” music I could find. I thought that our whole generation was about to gas itself and the world was going to fucking end listening to that stuff. Almost exactly a year ago something amazing happened. Hope came back! I discovered the electro-pop scene (all on the internet of course) and related rock-dance-disco-synth stuff (JUSTICE, Chromeo, ED Banger stuff, Klaxons, Junior Boys, Ghostland Observatory, etc.) and it felt like coming home from WWIII. I’m currently reveling in the Midnight Juggernauts esp. Ending of an Era. It seems divinely apropo; after years of finding only the occasional diamond in the rough, a virtual Tsunami of music that speaks to me like it did way back then. Life is amazing and wonderful.
@ Rgwrks – Hmmm, not sure on what that video is. If I suddenly discover the answer, i’ll be sure to let you know! Can anyone else help?
@ Gage – I think that’s what ultimately killed my love for electronica (at the time), as discovering something was definitely as you put it as finding “diamond in the rough.” Almost anyone with a laptop could put together a piece of crap and it become more and more difficult to find anything worth listening to. The horizon is starting to change though, with bands that you mentioned. Future looks good!
*whimpers* I remember that show! I miss my MTV the way it used to be. There used to be so many great music shows. Anyone missing 120 Minutes?
@gage:
It’s uncanny how similar our stories are. For me it was Prodigy first then Hackers and it just started taking over my listening habits. It created a new appreciation for what is real and good music. I can remember listening to the First Daft Punk album and just being blown away because I had never heard anything like that, ever! I was 1 of 5 or 6 other kids at school who were in the know about electronic music and loved that. Sure I was listening to Nirvana and The Offspring on the radio, but once I heard something that I like I got hooked. Tricky, Massive Attack, Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, Shadow, Orbital, Prodigy, LTJ Bukem, Roni Size…and now the newer stuff is really making waves in pop culture…gotta love it.
@rgwrks
Found this amp episode list with videos played…maybe it’ll help you find the video in question. http://my.execpc.com/~danperry/mus/amp.html
Thanks Josh! I’ll let you guys know when I find it.
Come to Daddy, Aphex Twin. Really creepy!
I loved this show! A great intro album for me was the soundtrack to a Playstation game called Wipeout XL. It had mixes to some of the greatest at the time. Leftfield, Underworld’s Pearl Girl . . . But to watch Amp after coming home from the bars (a great background look and sound during a late nite conquest!) and tripping (non-chemically) to the music.
WOW. Never really watched MTV, but those were my biggest music years too. I remember great times to that music – have most of those tracks. Some all time favorites there. Even met Ken Ishii twice in that period. Nice not to feel completely out of the world for once: most people still seem to think that there was only Scooter or something.
Man, I LOVED AMP. Like many of you, AMP opened my eyes to wider genres of music, and really set the tone for me growing up in the 90’s. Absolutely great stuff!
In the years since, one song has always been stuck in my head from an AMP video, and I can’t for the life of me remember it’s name or artist. What I do remember is the video was in an urban setting, black and white, and the camera used to film it was rotating in a slowish circle with a kind of fish-eye lens on it. If that sounds familiar, and any of you remember who did that video, I would be very grateful for the song title or artist!
rgwrks :
the video you’re thinking of is Death In Vegas “Dirt” :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QWKt1YlquA
valkyrie :
the video you’re thinking of is Carl Craig “Televised Green Smoke” :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwUQ5oKM-hE
Yeah that’s the one! Thanks Slinky!
WOW…ive finally found other people that remember this psychedelic eye & ear candy called Mtv’s AMP. I was in my early 20’s in the early-mid 90’s…good times….good times. I experimented very heavy with LSD in the 90’s. I cant tell you how LSD mixed with trance, techno, rave music changed my life. Some of my most cherished memories were Saturdays & Sundays just after midnight, I made it a point to be home in time to watch the crazyness & time my drop to be in the proper state of mind for the computer animated bliss.
The music is auditory stimulation, Im suprised not to see many comments on the computer generated graphics that was perfect to trip too. Im proud to say my watching AMP turned me on to many various artists for which to this day im trying to track dowm their CD’s, Ive collected many, many more to go.
For me the whold AMP experience was more than music, being on LSD it became a combo of AUDITORY & VISUAL STIMULATION. More visual for me, I have a question for you all…..have any of you heard of AMP episodes being released on DVD?????
the house of god by DHS….
absolutley brilliant. a song i had long forgotten. love the video as well.
GT
i miss that show! it aired in brazil til 2003 i think. those were the days.
::gui
Count another one into the 90’s rocked camp. Very nice post. Just wish you didn’t use the word “electronica”. Unless you’re secretly Madonna.
Man OH MAN! that really takes me back, This show and 120 min really made my weekend back when they were on, thanks for finding and sharing these. Theres one in particular, a very ambient tune, visuals being bent green static circles, have you come across that one ? Any who, this is just great, thanks again!
I so want this song…it was on one of the episodes, i have no idea which one, or the artist…but it went something like this….
do wop wop de la do wa be dop, duh na na na a man, eh do wop, hip hip hip…..
yeah i know….black guys driving around in like an old caddy, with big hoodie light colored jackets with the hoods on, i’ve been trying to find that track for years now
i can hear it in my head….dangit.
I would stay up late into the AM hours watching this show in my room. I eventually set up a VHS deck to record AMP every weekend while I slept. I must have had 30 hours of tapes at one point. Somehow I let them get away from me– all those strange and new music videos that changed my whole perspective on modern music and on the art of making music into film.
Thanks to YouTube and sites like yours, I’ve been able to piece together a lot of what I’ve been trying to remember over the years.
Two I can’t identify any longer:
Something vaguely about two men dueling over a woman in old 1970’s muscle cars at dawn. Every character is a mannequin. We cut back and forth between both men as they wake up and prepare to get into their cars to play a deadly game of chicken. One of the cars flies off a cliff at the end. The girl is devastated and runs away.
Another one is completely nonsensical. A robotic teddy bear that breaks apart (showing android innards) and a scary looking anime girl (a live actor made up with a prosthetic head and giant, wide open anime style eyes) try to escape some vague kind of fortress. This video featured a house track.
Does anyone remember these?
One more I can’t find or identify:
two guys are playing rock music and singing in English. In the middle of the song, a man from the French ministry of culture (or cultural programming committee… something like that) comes in and stops the music. He explains to the musicians that, “You cannot sing in English. You aren’t doing much to help preserve our culture by singing in this manner. If you want to keep playing this music, gentlemen, you should sing your lyrics in French. Good day.” The song continues in French.
Craig, I think that was a song by Laurent Garnier
So surprised to see this site exists. Loved the music of that time. Don’t forget Meat Beat Manifesto’s “Atomic Bomb”, and Coldcut’s “Timber” videos… You can find them on You Tube. I checked… They use to drive my friends insane wondering why I watched AMP… For sure, Mtv’s better years long past. It’s like a cool girlfriend. You never realize how cool she was until she’s gone… I do miss her too… Peace….! !
I meant Fluke’s “Atomic Bomb”. Sorry, just have Meat Beat Manifesto on the brain…
Awesome post. I loved amp so much, and I still have the first compilation cd they released for it. I really wish they would have just made a huge collection of every song on the show.
I’m also going to chime in about a video I’ve been searching for. The music was almost comedic, but the video itself showed many scenes of various puppets picking up a telephone and “headbanging” into the receiver. The music and video were quite comedic. Any help on who the artist, song, or what video this is would be amazing. Thank you for the nostalgic trip.
I was just thinking about this show myself. The first compilation CD is great. But I thought the visuals were often more interesting than the music. I see all these old shows from MTV are now popping up on VH1. Do you think there’s any chance they’d resurrect AMP to show in the middle of the night sometimes?
I can remember being 14 and staying up late staring at the glow of the tv…watching MTV’s AMP. There was a video I really liked where this girl was going in all these different futuristic looking rooms, and the girl was wearing headphones and jamming to the tunez…a prelude for what I would be doing in the future
Anyone know this video?
i still dig that music. does anyone know what the name of the artist(s) who had a video on amp that was sung in an asian language (probably vietnamese), it had a computerized or digital semi blurry filmed asian running through very tall green grass. it was the voice of an asian woman singing only a couple of verses throughout the whole song to a fast beat. i might be an artist called WE TV but im not sure. what about that cartoon video where a hot younger woman by day would be w/ her cranky old husband but by night would go into the city to perform in a sexy cabaret show. man, we would just get so wasted and then put on amp tv and trip out for the rest of the night. please make my year and answer these. TYVM
OK, the AMP video I have been looking for was a guy sitting on a bed in a red room, and then the body would freeze and his arms would come out and swing around… Any one have any ideas? Thanks!
Craig,
The robot teddy bear with wierd anime girl is
CJ Bolland Sugar is Sweeter
I was looking for that for a while also..
Oh man, I’m having flashback convulsions! I remember coming home late Saturday nights just to watch this. When they moved it to Sundays, I’d walk into work on Monday morning looking like a well-used rag. Thanks for this, what great memories!
argie: we™ – 3/10 of the population
its good to know there are still mtv amp lovers out there that was me and my friends favorate show. We would do our alternative activities and wait till 1200 am to watch it…. I Really miss those music videos and the way they made me feel… they were so original and different from anything ive ever seen….. anyone remember the video with the dog guy holding the stereo to his sholders going into the gas station to buy beer?
Im trying to remember a artist who had a video on amp the video had a apocalyptic city background, the had a demon character w/ big hands yelling @ some old man. It mightsound strange, but someone out knows what im describing. Help me out please!!!
My god I stumbled on this blog when I googled MTV Amp and I have a VERY similar experience to PJ and was just about the same age when Amp’s videos captivated me. In the depths of my memory lie those videos by DJ Shadow, FSOL, and DHS.
I also have to add the video for this goa trance classic I remember seeing…Man With No Name, “Teleport” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQaVv9PEGCM
Oh and this trippy one by Howie B “Angels Go Bald” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v60PVd_a1kg
Wow wow wow! Those memories are so precious! I have one that’s been killing me to find: anyone know the video where the guy walks down the street and starts kissing random strangers, and then everyone in the video is kissing? Sweet song, sweeter video. I’ve been wondering for years and years who did that one…
Somebody, PLEASE, bring back AMP on a dvd set or something… either that or get us all a f*ing time machine, already!
wow! you lived my childhood! around the age of 13 i started smoking herb and staying up every weekend to watch (and record) this show. I still have one or two VHS tapes with all kinds of great videos. This program basically changed the course of my life looking back. I wish Amp would come back!
zomg! i loved that show as well. i saw so many videos on there that blew my mind as a teen. i’ll never forget how awestruck i was the first time i saw the video for “the box” on the show before they had it on normal rotation
I love this post, and thanks to the commentary, I remembered AMP put me where I am
today, in Japan.
See, I still vividly remember seeing AMP in JHS somehow, in detention I think, where a cool teacher let us watch MTV for a while that day. It tuned into Fluke’s Atom Bomb- I will never ever forget Apollo Smile in that. So hot. Once I heard that stuff for the first time, I was hooked. I went out and bought the first AMP CD, and played it to death.
I remember Photek’s Ni Ten Ichi Ryu got me asking the cool kids who learned Japanese in HS when they came to visit JHS and get us interested in Japanese, “what does this mean?”, my earliest Japanese related memory. From there, I ended up learning about Miyamoto Musashi, got heavy into Techno, trance, and especially Underworld. I went to HS and learned 4 years of Japanese, majored at it in college, graduated, and now live in Japan (soon to return for no jobs!). All probably thanks to Fluke, leading me to Photek, to Miyamoto Musashi & Japan.
I totally forgot why I started learning Japanese over 12 years ago until I read this post, and it all came back to me. & I just watched Trainspotting for the first time a few days ago, and found Underworld all over again. Damn, I miss the good stuff. BRING BACK AMP MTV!
@Rudy Garza:That was “Come to Daddy”by Aphex Twin
Can anybody help? I remember a video that had a guy in a brown suit, looks circa 1940’s or 1950’s, possibly Danny Kaye, yelling, his hair kinda flops around while he is yelling. Might have a conductors wand in one hand. the scene is played over and over in the video along with a scene of some kind of tribesman. I know this is vague but it has been driving me crazy for years. Amp was the best. I, like others here, taped it to watch it the next day. It was always exciting to see what was on that tape the next day. Man I miss the days when MTV actually played music.
anyone know the video with a dog and a sterio,they meet in a little market shopping and the dog is walking around with the sterio on his shoulders listening to the song,what grouop is it???
the cool thing about Amp was the fact that they actually mixed the videos/songs…which after being introduced to raves shortly after I began to appreciate more….this show was instrumental to me as a teenager, I wouldn’t be the same person without discovering it.
OHMYFUKNGOD!!! Isaw amp 4 the 1st time when i was 13, I didnt know what it really was but I found it profoundly interesting. I was like what the hell is this stuff!! Man little did I know at the time that i would be listening to that stuff still to this day. I know MTV TOTALLY sux beyond a shadow of a doubt, but i gotta say thanks 2 them 4 introducing me 2 that. Ive ventured away and listen 2 many kinds of music since then but ALWAYScame back 2 electronic! It is my be all end all!! I AM TOTALLY N LUV WITH IT!!! And will always be
I remember first watching AMP in the mid-90’s, practically from the start, after 120 Minutes.. I used an old cassette voice recorder that I would pace up to the TVa speaker, but later had a sound system hooked up directly to the cable box which had much better results.. Sure, the other kids would listen to a lot of the mainstream crud of the day, but along with 120 Minutes, AMP won out in my mind.. I’d always end up groggy come Monday morning from staying up so late, but was well worth it when I took my walkman to school with me on the way home.. I was pissed when they moved it to MTV 2, and Comcast/AT&T Broadband/Comcast again here in Sacramento didn’t carry it yet. By the time they finally did, AMP was long gone..
I remember a lot of these videos, thank you very much for posting these, as these are a trip back to the good ol days of when Electronica (and I hated calling it that back then!) had started its big boom..