The first MTV movie--not a good thing

Rating: 4/10 (8 April 2003)

A lady welder (Jennifer Beals) dances at a local bar at night and dreams of becoming a professional dancer. She's also romanced by her boss (Michael Nouri) and coached by a retired dancer. She also has a bunch of fellow dancers at the bar and a cook who tells some of the stupidest, sexist and racist jokes I've ever heard--by the way, we're supposed to LIKE this character and find his appalling humor hysterically funny!
A shallow story, bad acting, crappy dialogue, non-stop profanity sink this. But then again, it's not really a movie--it's a bunch of MTV videos slung together with only the faintest gleam of a plot.
This was (somehow) a huge hit back in 1983--I didn't like it then and I still don't like it now. I'm giving it a 5 just for the music, the message of the movie (follow your dreams no matter what), the good direction by Adrian Lyne and Beals (she can't act at all, but I like her...and she's a hell of a lot better than Nouri).
How did such a stupid, shallow, foul-mouthed movie become such a big hit?