Talk:MTV Unplugged

Merge Unplugged into MTV Unplugged
Any comments? - Kio 02:41, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

I don't think so, MTV Unplugged means quality live performances, eventhough its tempting to do so, but one is a genre and MTV Unplugged is more of a legacy. This is like saying all reality based TV show pages should be merged into the main reality show page.

I vote against the merger... RadicalSatDude 11:26, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Unplugged is an acoustic version of a blues/rock/pop song. If its not just a song, but an entire album it mostly has a form of a "Live Acoustic The Best Of". If you want to merge these two articles than m,erge them into Unplugged whick will have a section === MTV Unplugged series === --Milan Tešovic 14:58, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

Against. They are two different things. "unplugged" is a specific genre of live performance. "MTV Unplugged" is a TV show featuring such performances. The genre itself - which is the acoustic presentation of songs initially familiar to audiences by virtue of performance with electric instruments - existed prior to the TV show.

The first MAJOR usage that attracted public attention was by Pete Townshend in 1979. (There were undoubtedly earlier such performances that were less celebrated.) The genre itself was not described by that word. The terminology was usually something like: "a live acoustic version of..." When the word "unplugged" was coined in 1989 to describe such performances - the term was then applied retro-actively to earlier such performances. Davidpatrick 18:47, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

OK...Then what about acoustic music and unplugged together? If I understood correctly, unplugged would be a "subcategory" of acoustic. Kio 20:10, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Eric Clapton, other early appearances?
Shouldn't greater prominence be given to the history of the show, and earlier performances, particlarly that of Eric Clapton, that turned Unplugged into an institution of sorts. Hmmm? ProhibitOnions 00:37, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
 * If you have any references, it would be a great addition! Kio 03:14, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

->I'll second that because I was shocked to see Stevie Ray Vaughan's performance in early 1990 omitted from the page. He had the audience on their feet. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.241.172.37 (talk) 21:15, 27 September 2013 (UTC)

removed proposed merge tag
While MTV Unplugged consists of acoustic music, it would make no sense to merge these pages. Acoustic music is a concept that's far greater than the scope of a single show on MTV. Per WP:BB, I've removed the proposed merger due to an utter lack of support. quadratic 03:13, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

Unplugged and Acoustic music
It now seems clear to me thar the music genre is called acoustic music and should NOT be merged with MTV Unplugged. Nevertheless, I tried searching a little bit about the term Unplugged (which I thought was is an MTV Networks trademark) hoping to find lots of references, but all I could find was this page. Is "Unplugged" (without "MTV") really an MTV trademark? - Kio 07:40, 7 May 2006 (UTC) ~I don't think so. Try googleing "unplugged is a trademark" and you'll find that it's part of other trademarks. Perhaps when it's put in a certain font it is theirs? The font could have been lost on the page you linked. ~Mila

I like men.

Really unplugged?
This article needs info about how Unplugged was not really purely acoustic. As far as I know, there's some controversy over this, but a source is needed. --Ldrhcp 02:17, 14 May 2007 (UTC)


 * I just saw an experpt from an "MTV Unplugged" concert, and the keyboard was not an acoustic piano. I couldn't really identifiy it, though; perhaps something like a Rhodes piano or another electric piano.
 * Anyway, "MTV Unplugged" is just a catchy name to give the audience an idea about the general idea of the show. Despite the name, there are quite a few plugs which are still plugged in (I'd even go so far to say that the amount of plugged cables does not greatly differ from that of an "plugged concert"). Very obvious is the use of dynamic microphones, which alter the sound significantly (for example, the proximity effect is a popular way to improve vocals and the sound of instruments). --Klaws (talk) 17:25, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

First Spanish show was not Shakira's?
Charly Garcia's MTV Unplugged was the first all-Spanish language show AFAIK, since it was done in 1995. You can look the references up in Charly_Garcia and Spanish Wikipedia. Arciooh (talk) 18:58, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

Not Shakira's Unplugged
Well, I'm from Mexico and I consider myself as a big MTV Unplugged fan. I can tell you that before Shakira's Unplugged (1999) I enjoyed Mana's Unplugged in the same year, so that's a proof it was not the first Spanish Unplugged at all. 9 years before Shakira's performance, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, a former ska-rock band from Argentina opened the Spanish version of the show (1990), just a year after English Unplugged shows were aired, so Charly Garcia wasn't the first artist to play his songs "unplugged" either.

You can check on the MTV Latinoamerica's official site.  BahíaBoy 15:17, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

Nirvana's performance
It was NOT Cobain's last performance on TV. Nirvana played on MTV Live and Loud show December 13 (taped for New Years Eve). --Raderick (talk) 07:55, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

MTV Unplugged originally conceived and proposed to MTV by Jules Shear.
Wow. The section titled "Inspiration for MTV Unplugged" read as if written by someone with a grudge against Jules Shear. The section began with generalities (sometimes, when famous performers do acoustic versions of their best-loved songs in concert, people get really excited!) and speculation (Maybe a twenty-year-old Elvis Presley concert had something to do with it!) It was as if the writer was bending over backwards, metaphorically, to avoid giving any credit to Jules Shear. The guy has enough trouble getting his name out there, without having his past achievements discredited! Well, thanks to the unequivocal statements in the New York Times article I cited at my source, hopefully the anti-Shear insanity ends here. But why do I have the feeling it won't?

--Ben Culture (talk) 15:28, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Shear absolutely deserves credit (per the NY Times story) for bringing the specific concept of a TV show tapping into the emerging culture of acoustic performances to MTV. No question. The milieu in which this interest in acoustic versions of hits occurred evolved over a period of years. So the article should reflect the chronology of the milieu and the well-publicized events that led to 1989 And at THAT point in the story, Shear's role should definitely be clearly stated. Which is how it is now. Davidpatrick (talk) 19:05, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Was vs. is
The intro says MTV Unplugged "was a TV series". Do we have any confirmation that MTV has no plans to ever do any more Unplugged specials? If not then the it should read "is a TV series".

More Was and Is
The original MTV Unplugged series seems to have been taken off the air in the fall of 1997. Between 1989 and 1997, about a dozen new shows were made each year, with frequent reruns. If I recall correctly, the reruns appeared on a weekly basis. The later episodes appear to be specials: quite a few of them are by international artists who are highly unlikely to ever turn up on American MTV. The TV.com listings, which are the only semi-reliable listing, don't distinguish between shows made primarily for the English-speaking world and those made for foreign-language affiliates. Timothy Horrigan (talk) 04:43, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

Recent performance?
From what I can tell, the German band Sportfreunde Stiller recently recorded an MTV Unplugged in New York - the album was released in late May/early June 2009 (I'm listening to it now) but I can't find any info as to when it was aired. Dmccormac (talk) 21:42, 11 July 2009 (UTC)

Jay-Z entry seems to be in error
The entry says that Jay-Z's unplugged album was recorded in Nov 2000, and released in Dec. It must be 2001. Because Blueprint was released in 2001 (Sept 11 actually). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.177.152.92 (talk) 05:29, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Memories of the earliest shows
I can remember Aerosmith playing one of the first shows, with Steven Tyler playing a piano. I also remember Great White, who covered Led Zeppelin's "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" on the show, and it became a popular video on MTV. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ashnazg (talk • contribs) 22:05, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

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Zoé
March 22 2011 best unplugged by my favorite band ZÓE/ música de fondo Jerohe1987 (talk) 01:37, 18 July 2018 (UTC)

Kinky
6/3/14 kinky Jerohe1987 (talk) 02:03, 18 July 2018 (UTC)

Björk
Is there any reason why the 1994 performance by Björk is not included in the list?

Here is a reference, and I believe it was a great performance by Björk, so I find it strange that it is not included in this list. But before adding it I prefer to be sure if maybe it is included in some other list and there is some reason why it is not here... it's seems to me so strange that that performance is not on the list! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ptoniolo (talk • contribs) 16:30, 17 December 2019 (UTC)


 * Not notable. -  FlightTime  ( open channel ) 16:41, 17 December 2019 (UTC)