aug 1st, 1981

i know everyone shits on MTV now, and most of it is deserved. but this has been by far one of the biggest cultural influences ever, i think it definately ranks right up there with the advent of the TV in terms of how it has influenced people and how they make choices (right or not)

though it has been surpassed in terms of getting new bands music out there by the internet, it not only paved the way for such endevours (making people realise there is more out there than just what is force fed, with shows like head bangers ball, 120 minutes and YO! MTV Raps {technically thats what mtv has become the past 5 years or so...though they are just following the trend the young people want, even if it is horseshit)

they made reality tv what it is. say what you will the first 4 season of RW were fantastic. many bands people never would have heard of got major play on there, or play on their shows (hi, my name is rob zombie, id like to thank mikd judge for making me popular)



alan hunter, jj jackson, martha quin, nina blackwood and mark goodman, thank you

MTV sucks

Video killed the radio star.

on vh1 classic, they played the first hour of videos from that day

holy fuck i forgot how seductive/hawt pat benetar was in the video for you better run

I was thinking yesterday how much I used to like watching MTV News with Kurt Loder and Tabitha Soren. I think MTV sucks now, but 15 years ago it was good.

I would be interested in seeing the evolution of their mission statement over 25 years.

hasnt changed.
get kids to watch- make a fuckload of money.



you can see it in the background of TRL from some camera angles

I thought I had read an article on this somewhere. For anyone who's interested...

http://www.newstatesman.com/200607100034

Internet killed the video star
The Back Half
Viv Groskop
Monday 10th July 2006


As the digital revolution gathers pace and the export of American culture becomes increasingly fraught, MTV is losing its cool, writes Viv Groskop


"I heard you on the wireless back in '52": the opening lyrics to the Buggles's "Video Killed the Radio Star" were the first words to be heard when MTV launched on 1 August 1981. The playlist for the first hour featured videos by Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, The Who and the Pretenders. By the following year, 9.3 million people had subscribed. In 1983, Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video, which clocked in at more than 13 minutes, was widely credited with launch- ing the pop video as an art form. The 1990s were the golden age of MTV; it launched channels across the globe, eventually boasting more than 70 million subscribers.

On the eve of the channel's 25th birthday, however, a crisis is looming. The music industry has been transformed since MTV's launch, with new temptations of the iPod era hitting the target demographic of 18- to 24-year-olds. Ratings have risen only 5 per cent over the past five years, compared to its sister channel VH1's 17 per cent growth. The company itself admits there is a problem. "I've been deeply paranoid since the day it launched," Judy McGrath, CEO of MTV Networks, said recently. "I've always been afraid it's an Eighties idea. I don't know what the new company is going to feel like, but we'll be expected to grow and deliver."

There is a certain false modesty to this statement, as MTV's reach is still global. The company is a $7bn-a-year operation, broadcasting in 28 languages over 50 channels in 168 countries. It reaches 440 million households, including 17 million viewers in the UK. MTV Networks runs Nickelodeon (three channels), VH1 (five), Comedy Central and seven MTV channels. Twenty new channels launched in 2005 alone. According to MTV, eight out of ten viewers are outside the United States.

However, outside the US, one of MTV's biggest competitors is now local programming. While it remains a huge brand on the global stage, MTV has to compete in every country with channels that are able to offer a small-scale, community feel. A secondary threat comes from digital media, which offer consumers the opportunity to exercise a level of control over their viewing and listening habits that MTV is unable to match. On internet chatboards, bloggers have made clear their preferred way forward: "Demand-MTV" - the video that they want, when they want it (and, begs one blogger, "with karaoke option").

As a result, the channel has diversified, shifting its emphasis away from music. It no longer shows any music videos during the day, devoting a large part of its airtime to reality and lifestyle TV shows. In the 1990s the channel commissioned one animation that seeped into the popular consciousness - Beavis and Butt-head (1993) - and with the 21st century came Jackass, The Osbournes, Cribs and Pimp My Ride. Music videos have since become the preserve of the offshoot, specialist "genre" channels, such as MTV Base, which is geared towards urban music.

One way for MTV to manage its entry into the digital era could be for it to branch out into the so-called "social media", exemplified by the internet site MySpace. This is one market where MTV's core emphasis on youth lifestyle could come into its own. Last year the channel's parent company, Viacom, lost out to Rupert Murdoch when he bid $580bn for the MySpace parent company, but experts say it is not too late for MTV to fight back. "Social media are just beginning and growing rapidly, which leaves plenty of space for new entrants with a strong heritage like MTV," says Jaap Favier, research director for the independent technology research company Forrester. "In fact, if MTV can convert its strong brand into a community successfully, it will lure bloggers away from those sites."

Last year, Judy McGrath announced that "media identities are up for grabs" and that MTV, in the wake of its failed attempt to buy MySpace, would be adopting a "digital Marshall Plan", involving mobile phones, broadband channels and video games. The fightback also involves pushing new "community" and niche projects, many of them overtly politically correct and interactive. MTV has launched Logo, a gay and lesbian channel; a children's website called NeoPets; and, with Microsoft, a music download service, called URGE (dubbed "the first serious rival to iTunes"). Channels have been created for particular ethnic groups in the US: MTV Desi for south Asian Americans, MTV Chi for Chinese Americans, and, since 27 June, MTV K for Koreans.

The backdrop to all this diversification and cultural sensitivity is that, in the current political climate, promoting American culture and values has become an increasingly loaded act. "When I was a kid almost any popular culture that came from America was cool," says Gideon Simeloff, a strategy adviser to the media sector. "Culturally, things are different now." Keith Harris, chair of MusicTank, the British music-business network, says: "I don't think MTV has the cool factor any more: it's an institution."

Some in the music industry hold MTV responsible for a wider decline: of grass-roots musical innovation. "The thing that's sad now is that music is a corporate lifestyle choice," says the composer Daniel Pemberton. "If you create something that doesn't fit on the right supermarket shelf, it won't sell." Forget the digital revolution: for Pemberton, "the real revolution will come when someone launches a successful new act without the involvement of a major label. Institutions like MTV stop that from happening."

Some suggest MTV could harness its power to become a serious backer of ground-breaking music at the grass roots. "They could become a distributor and promoter themselves for starting bands - like Arctic Monkeys - which are not backed by the majors yet," says Jaap Favier. He emphasises the idea that MTV must buy in to the kind of "consumer-generated content" upon which MySpace relies.

So it's change or die for the original music channel. In the digital age, young people don't just want to watch videos; they want to feel plugged in to their "community" as well.

One could argue that MTV is the entity that is singularly responsible for the destruction of the most important musical movement in America since the punk movement. That movement being the ‘grunge’ scene and the destruction occurred by MTV’s massive overexposure and commercialization of the Seattle scene.

Hmm no, I have to disagree. I don't think grunge was meant to last very long. Because the whole idea was that these guys didn't want to be famous. Even radio play and CD sales will make you famous. Perhaps being forced to make MTV videos in order to stay viable made certain bands angry. But the huge explosion never would have lasted, even if MTV were not a factor.

The 'we don't wan to be famous' philosophy combined with the fact that MTV made them famous (see the affect of the smell like teen spirit music video) I think was at least a huge influence on its death.

Like I said though, you could argue this point, it just depends on the view one takes. Also, I think it can be dangerous to just write it off with a statement along the lines that 'it wasn't meant to last.' That view, to me, takes some serious foresight.

if it wasnt for MTV i wouldnt have heard pearl jam. so....fuck you mtv for turning to horeshit.

If I had to choose between jabbing my eyes out with icepicks or watching MTV, I'd choose watching MTV.

i think mtv sucks now too, but you people act like it has done absolutely nothing for music

The "grunge" movement sucked anyway. If MTV was responsible for destroying it, well then, thanks MTV.

you are a fine example of someone who likes to read what he has wrote

All I gotta say is when I was 5 years old I lived in a neighborhood in Indianapolis w/ my mom and grandma comprised of mostly people between the ages of 40-85 so I didn't have anybody to play/interact with in my neighborhood. MTV, along w/ some radio but more MTV, was my gateway to popular culture and acceptance of 'life', I guess, besides being ill and having to deal with illnesses, death and stuff (Diagnosed w/ Lukemia (sp?) when I was 2, went into remission at 4). Having my first bit of knowledge about sex thanks to the "Hip Hop Hurray (sp?)!" video from Naughty By Nature and other elements. The visuals of videos like "Under The Bridge' from RHCP when John is on top of the globe playing guitar and stuff, now it seems like a few seconds but back then, he and the guitar just seemed to go on and on forever and I absolutely loved it. MTV is responsible for my first experiences with 'music appreciation'. I found out about Boyz II Men (the best TRUE male vocal pop group to exist in close to 20 years, NOBODY has matched them yet), Pearl Jam (when I saw the Jeremy video for the first time, I saw Eddie's face and honestly, being a 6 year old (I think), he scared the living shit out of me and yet, after seeing the video a few times, his intensity went from frightening to inspiring. I started imitating his expressions and shit when the video would come on and I'd do the whole "OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH" parts and stuff.), Stone Temple Pilots, Janet Jackson (she was sex to me back then, that "Anytime, Anyplace" video was the closest I got to softcore porn besides watching Cinemax), Madonna, New Edition (That girl is POISON....), Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Heavy D, U2, Live and just so many more bands. Hell, Beavis and Butthead was the first show I ever had the experience with that I had to sneak around to watch it because my mom absolutely hated the show and didn't want me to see it and Liquid Television which had that one part on it w/ the blonde action figure that was kind of in the same vein as 'Action League NOW!' except the chick cussed a lot and she killed people, I thought that was totally sweet. MTV made me feel like a regular kid because outside of what the music made me feel and some of my reactions to the shows, to the world around me I was 'the kid who survived cancer so you have to be light on him' or, such as at school 'the kid who had many acquaitences (sp?)/users and few friends, talked too much according to teachers and always daydreamed'.

The reason that MTV has failed (at least in my eyes) is not only because of their lack of giving equal time to actually showing videos but also because they started realizing, around 1999 or so, that they were basically the first 'A.D.D.' network and then decided to embrace that fact by using crazy editing in their shows to keep your mind constantly wandering, never taking time to focus on one event/subject long enough for anyone without the attention span of say, a person born before 1980, to get extremely bored. Flashing a graphic showing what show is coming up next while the current show is on isn't 'cutting edge' and 'hip', it's annoying, distracting and truly shows that MTV no longer really gives a shit what it shows on it's channel because if people are dealing with the fuckin' graphic and have not changed the channel already, most likely they're not going to. In my opinion, Jackass was the last great show to be on MTV because it showed that MTV might actually have some balls again, the way they did in the early '90's w/ B&B etc. but then, after people reacted, MTV immediately killed that show and alas, had it's balls ripped off. Thanks MTV...but no thanks. Try to grow back some balls!

and that folks, is what it is all about, nice post