Look, Ma -- No Amps!

By Guy Garcia

Elvis Costello is only 30 seconds into his set before a small audience in a Los Angeles TV studio when -- boing! -- a broken guitar string brings the music to a halt. During rehearsals, Costello has already groused about the lighting and the sound, so the tension in the wings is palpable. But the mercurial rocker calmly accepts a new guitar and starts again, launching into an acoustic rendition of Deep Dark Truthful Mirror. When Costello leaves the stage nine songs and an hour later, the audience is clamoring for more.

For the creators of Unplugged, MTV's hit program featuring all acoustic performances, such unstrung moments are part of the fun. "Everything's last- minute, and that's the way we like it," producer Alex Coletti says of the Costello segment, which will air next week. "It gives the show the loose feel we want."

Unplugged's easygoing atmosphere attracts stars. Elton John, Paul McCartney and Sting are among the names who have strummed or banged out their hits without the help -- or hindrance -- of amplifiers and electric guitars. Performing without high wattage, muses Sting, makes it necessary "to rethink the music in terms of the arrangement, dynamics and presentation. You are forced to excavate the structure of a song from under layers of synthesizers and overdubbed voices."

Performers are also drawn by the opportunity to play for 150 or so fans in a relatively intimate, informal setting. McCartney found the experience "a bit like going back to the old days, playing small clubs, so you get a pretty good idea of how your set is going down." The ex-Beatle's set went down so well that he has released a limited-edition, 500,000-copy recording of the session, which debuted last week at No. 14 on Billboard's chart of Top Pop Albums.

When Unplugged was launched in January 1990, it started out by presenting such offbeat performers as Sinead O'Connor, Neil Young and Squeeze. Then an appearance by ex-Eagle Don Henley "upped the ante," according to MTV creative director Judy McGrath. Now the show regularly ranks as one of the network's best-performing programs. In April it scored a coup by snagging R.E.M. for one of only two concerts the band performed in the U.S. to promote its No. 1 album, Out of Time. Last month Unplugged broke musical ground by offering an acoustic jam headlined by rappers L.L. Cool J and De La Soul that exposed the R.-and-B. roots of the rap sound. "It sounded like something that would never work," says McGrath.

For that matter, doesn't Unplugged, with its absence of flashy imagery and souped-up electronics, run against the whole idea of MTV? "In some ways it sounds like it would be anathema," McGrath concedes. "But there's something about Unplugged that's very simple and very clear. You can appreciate that there's somebody out there playing it one time, with no chance to mix it or fix it."

McGrath hopes to continue expanding Unplugged's appeal by signing up more women and trying provocative experiments like, say, a collaboration between Panamanian singer Ruben Blades and New York City rocker Lou Reed. Meanwhile, Unplugged has proved that MTV doesn't need electricity to keep its audiences wired.

With reporting by Dan Cray/Los Angeles