When Viacom replaces its VH1 Classic channel with MTV Classic this Monday, you can expect a blast from the '90s.
The new channel will feature music programming like "MTV Unplugged," reality shows like "The Real World," animated series like "Daria," and music videos from the genre's heyday.
Many of those videos are set in our photogenic city, from They Might Be Giants' "Don't Let's Start," filmed at the New York Pavilion of the 1964 World's Fair, to The White Stripes' "The Hardest Button to Button," shot in part at the 33rd Street PATH station.
We've rounded up our favorites below, in hopes that MTV executives in charge of programming will hear our prayers:
"Bad," Michael Jackson, 1987
Directed by Martin Scorsese, this iconic music video was shot in the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station in Downtown Brooklyn. You don't see old-school turnstiles like those that Jackson and his crew hopped anymore.
"Fight the Power," Public Enemy, 1990
"Fight the Power" may have been conceived as an anthem for Spike Lee's influential film about racial tensions on a hot summer day in Bed-Stuy, but the single got its own video, shot amid brownstones in the same neighborhood. The director assembled hundreds of extras to act the part of protesters in a political rally.
"Around the Way Girl," LL Cool J, 1990
LL Cool J plays the creep in this video, filming women on the city streets with a camcorder and dancing bare-chested with all of them at once. We don't think this is the best strategy for finding oneself an "around the way," or street-savvy, girl.
"I Got a Man," Positive K, 1992
A rapper with a short-lived career, Positive K likely filmed most of this video around Fort Greene, in Brooklyn. Visible in one shot is the Prison Ship Martyr's Monument in Fort Greene Park.
"Juice (Know the Ledge)," Eric B. & Rakim, 1992
The hip-hop duo's video may be set in Harlem, but Rakim's lyrics take you all over town: "I go to Queens for queens, to get the crew from Brooklyn /Make money in Manhattan and never been tooken / Go Uptown and the Bronx to boogie down / Get strong on the Island, recoup and lay around."
"Big Time Sensuality," Bjork, 1993
Watch Icelandic art-pop diva Bjork dance in ecstasy on the back of a flatbed truck as it cruises through Manhattan in this black-and-white video.
"Electric Relaxation," A Tribe Called Quest, 1993
Q-Tip, Phife Dawg and Ali Shaheed cruise the city streets in a cab before pulling up to the Square Diner in TriBeCa, where they bafflingly order only a glass of Coke and a cup of coffee.
"C.R.E.A.M.," Wu-Tang Clan, 1993
Wu-Tang raps about selling drugs to make "dollar dollar bill y'all" in this video set in the Stapleton Houses on Staten Island, a housing project where member Ghostface Killah and Wu-affiliate Shyheim lived together.
"Root Down," The Beastie Boys, 1994
The video for this Beastie Boys' song — in part an homage to growing up in New York City — cuts back time and again to an old MTA subway map. Thrown in between is a lot of B-roll footage of break dancers on Big Apple streets and subway cars coated in graffiti.
"All I Need," Method Man ft. Mary J. Blige, 1995
This video was shot in Washington Heights, near the intersection of 155th Street and Broadway.
"Definition," Black Star, 1998
Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek drive down Brooklyn's Flatbush Avenue in a Crown Heights dollar cab called "Black Star," their progress impeded for an interlude by a police officer who asks for a license and registration.
“Everything is Everything,” Lauryn Hill, 1998
Let your mind be blown by the symbolism here: New York City perches on an enormous vinyl record, spinning on a turntable. Hill dodges the turntable needle while singing about the struggles of inner city black communities until the track's end, when her name is revealed on the record's label.
"You Get What You Give," New Radicals, 1998
The alternative rock band New Radicals leads a rebellion against oppressive conformity at the Staten Island Mall in this video. They even lock up the squares in pet cages.
"Rollin'," Limp Bizkit, 2000
The action: Fred Durst and his bandmates take a joy ride around Manhattan in Ben Stiller's car, after the actor mistakes the rock star for a valet.
The jam session setting: Limp Bizkit plays atop the South Tower of the former World Trade Center.
The fallout: The band would win an MTV Video Music award for "Rollin'" and receive a letter of congratulations from the staff at the WTC only days before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. No one wanted to watch it for years afterwards.
"New York, New York," Ryan Adams, 2001
The singer-songwriter's video, shot four days before 9/11, features the Twin Towers prominently in the background. The song is a love letter to the city, with its most common refrain, "Hell, I still love you, New York."
"The Hardest Button to Button," The White Stripes, 2003
This mesmerizing video directed by Michel Gondry uses pixilation animation to multiply drum kits and guitar amps in rhythm with the music. The action is set inside the PATH station at 33rd Street and all over the Upper West Side.