Martha Quinn said in her speech last night at Schwab Auditorium that MTV has been called "the Beatles of the 1980s."

If this is so, then Quinn, one of the original "video jockeys" of MTV must be the Paul McCartney of the pioneering cable network.

Quinn is the true guru of the video music age if the reaction of last night's large crowd is any indication of her popularity. Audience members quizzed her about all aspects of the network and the music business in general for over an hour after her speech.

Quinn's talk, sponsored by Colloquy, began with her own modest story; she started in commercials as the "You'll Go Nuggets for McNuggets" girl. She eventually used her experience as a college DJ at New York University to help her land a place as one of MTV's six original VJs.

In order to make it in the entertainment business "you have to want to work bad hours, work for free and do the things no one else wants to do," she said.

Besides career advice, Quinn gave an insightful overview about the history of MTV itself, which included a rapidly edited video featuring clips from all 10 years of the network's broadcasting. The video was well received by the audience, which clapped in recognition of its rock music heroes.

"We started out with 130 videos total . . . and now we're in 70 countries," she said, receiving a round of applause.

The rock fans in the audience came for many different reasons, but they seemed mostly interested in gossip from the music world. Quinn fielded questions about topics ranging from various heavy metal bands to the concept of MTV "making" bands because of their image.

"It doesn't matter what your video looks like . . . I feel if your song makes people tap their feet it will sell," she said, debunking the idea that in the 1990s, image is everything.

Rob DeGrauw (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) said he was excited about seeing Quinn.

"I blew off my English paper for this," he said.

Most audience members were surprised by Quinn's down-to-earth attitude.

"She wasn't pretentious at all. I thought she'd be a much colder person," said Mariska Van Aalst (senior-English).

Colloquy President Rick Groskopf (senior-finance) was also intrigued by Quinn's "laid-back" attitude.

"This is only her second speech ever . . . we decided to get her because we knew she'd draw a large audience," he said, adding that Quinn was very flexible with Colloquy.

Quinn had many stories from the world of rock and roll, including one piece of advice from singer David Lee Roth. "David has two points to live by," she said. "One is 'don't sweat the small stuff' and two is 'it's all small stuff.' "