Writer of Pop Culture

Cool and refreshing news about pop culture and entertainment.

This Day in Pop Culture

This Day in Pop Culture for August 1

The first MTV music video, “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Dune.”

August 1, 2020

2–3 minutes

2014: One Obscure Comic Book Made for a Great Movie

Marvel Studios 10^th movie was a bit of a gamble. Unlike the studios’ earlier films like Iron-Man and Captain America, Guardians of the Galaxy was fairly unknown title, outside of hardcore comic book fans. But Peter Quill’s compelling and funny space adventure not only succeeded, but it also ended up becoming the third-highest grossing movie of the year.

Directed by James Gunn, the movie starred Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, (the voice of) Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, and Benicio del Toro.

The movie was followed by two sequels (Vol. 2 and Vol. 3) and the characters appeared in three other Marvel movies (Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame and Thor: Love & Thunder) and a holiday special for Disney+. A number of I Am Groot shorts about the walking/talking plant creature was made for the streaming service as well. ^{(Image: Marvel Studios)}

1981: The First Music Video is Aired

On this day in 1981, MTV (Music Television) went on the air for the first time. The first words spoken were, “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll,” by one of the creators, John Lack. MTV was to be a visual radio hosted by VJ’s (video jockeys).

The very first video shown was “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles. The Buggles originally planned to be called The Bugs until someone joked that the Bugs would never be as big as the Beatles. So, Geoff Downes and Trevor Horn changed it to The Buggles; a name that they would later regret.

The video format changed the music industry in that just about every music release needed to have a video attached to it if it was going to sell. However, instead of video killing the radio, it seems that radio has won out since MTV rarely shows music videos at all these days and the station’s name means “music television.”

1965: ‘Dune’ Makes its Debut on Bookshelves

The novel Dune is actually based on two serials (Dune World and Prophet of Dune) that were originally published in Analog magazine.

Written by Frank Herbert, it is one of the world’s best-selling science fiction novels. However, the story hasn’t been loved by everybody. J.R.R. Tolkien refused to review the novel because he disliked it “with some intensity.”

The novel also had some trouble finding success in the movies. Some directors had called it “unfilmable.” David Lynch directed a film adaptation in 1984, but was so unhappy with it, he asked Universal to replace his name with the pseudonym “Alan Smithee.”

Eventually, Denis Villeneuve directed the first of two movies for Legendary Entertainment in 2019. It was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won six. Dune: Part Two was released in March of 2024.