The Magical and Musical
( Sort Of ) Forty Years of MTV
MTV or Music Television celebrated its 40th birthday last month . Regardless of how old you are or what generation you belong to , when you listen to the term “ MTV ” you will surely know what it is about .
At present , it has been criticized by many older generations , who feel discontent because the channel has gone from being totally oriented to music , to becoming more of a reality TV channel . Love it or hate it , you can ’ t deny the fact that MTV has had at least some impact in our lives at one point of time .
The Beginnings It all started in 1977 when Warner-Amex Cable created Qube , one of the first interactive television platforms that offered different channels with “ categories ”, among which was the children ' s channel Pinwheel ( future Nickelodeon ) and Sight On Sound , a music channel that allowed viewers to vote for the artist or song to broadcast .
This system was a resounding success , so on August 31st , 1981 , Music Television ( MTV ) went on air from New Jersey . It was the same channel as before but with a new name and with the innovation that this time it was going to contain music videos ( this concept was devised by Michael Nesmith of The Monkees ). Its programming was organized by Bob Pittman , a famous music producer of the time who would later become the CEO of MTV Networks . At the time there was no other channel that played music 24 / 7 and it was a great alternative for people who had to call radio stations to ask them to put a song , they just had to tune in to the channel and enjoy watching basically any hit song .
The Rise of the Music Video MTV aired with the words " Ladies and gentlemen , rock n ' roll !", and the first video in history that MTV aired was the aptly titled “ Video Killed The Radio Star ”, by The Buggles . These videos were presented by VJs or Video Jockeys , people who had the same function of a DJ but with videos . They created playlists and these were broadcast on the channel . MTV ’ s promotional video featured an astronaut with the MTV flag on the Moon , a metaphor about the groundbreaking impact of MTV .
During its early days , everyone wanted to appear on MTV and MTV wanted the most relevant music of the moment to be there . It ' s hard to number how many artists were able to jumpstart their careers by appearing on MTV : Madonna , Michael Jackson , Bon Jovi , U2 , Duran Duran , Motley Crue , Poison , just to name a few .
MTV Becomes Less “ Musical ” For the first two decades of its existence , MTV stuck with music but as the new millennium dawned , MTV started featuring other kinds of content as well . Reality shows like The Real World , artist talk segments , comedy shows like Punk ' d and Jackass started dominating the airtime . Over the years , the shift away from music was so drastic , that MTV changed its logo in 2011 , signifying that it wasn ’ t just a music channel anymore . MTV reincorporated the old logo in an effort to go back to its roots , though , in the world of streaming , it ’ s highly unlikely that the channel would ’ ve held any relevance anyway .
MTV is far removed from its nascent days of August 1981 , but regardless of its current state , nobody can deny that it has been a cradle of pop culture , counter culture and musical entertainment . It made the careers of many superstars who have become a part of pop culture folklore . To put it simply , we wouldn ’ t be where we are now if it weren ’ t for MTV . Whether you see that as positive or negative , is up to you .
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