MTV
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| Owner | MTV Networks (Viacom) |
| Part of a series on |
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| Programs on MTV |
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| Censorship on MTV |
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MTV (Music Television) is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on August 1, 1981, the original purpose of the channel was to play music videos.[1] Today, MTV plays a limited selection of music videos but primarily broadcasts a variety of pop culture, youth culture, and reality television shows aimed at adolescents and young adults.
Since its premiere, MTV has revolutionized the music industry. Slogans such as "I want my MTV" became embedded in public thought, the concept of the VJ (video jockey) was popularized, the idea of a dedicated video-based outlet for music was introduced, and both artists and fans found a central location for music events, news, and promotion. MTV has also been referenced countless times by musicians, other TV channels and shows, films and books.
MTV has spawned a handful of sister channels in the U.S. and dozens of affiliated international channels around the world. MTV's moral influence on young people, including examples of censorship and social activism on the channel, has been the subject of debate for years. MTV's choice to focus on non-music programming has also been contested relentlessly, demonstrating the channel's continued impact on popular culture.
The launch of MTV
Previous concepts
MTV's pre-history began in 1977, when Warner Cable (a division of Warner Communications, and an ancestor of WASEC, Warner Satellite Entertainment Company) launched the first two-way interactive cable TV system, Qube, in Columbus, Ohio.
The Qube system offered many specialized channels, including a children's channel called Pinwheel which would later become Nickelodeon. One of these specialized channels was Sight On Sound, a music channel that featured concert footage and music oriented TV programs; with the interactive Qube service, viewers could vote for their favorite songs and artists.
Robert Pittman had test driven the music format by producing and hosting a 15 minute show, Album Tracks, on WNBC, New York, in the late 1970s. Pittman's boss, WASEC COO John Lack, had shepherded a TV series called PopClips, created by former Monkee-turned solo artist Michael Nesmith, the latter of whom by the late 1970s was turning his attention to the music video format.[2]
In the book The Mason Williams FCC Rapport, author Mason Williams states that he pitched an idea to CBS for a TV show that featured "video-radio" where disc jockeys would play avant-guarde art set to music on the air. CBS quashed the idea, but Williams premiered his own musical composition "Classical Gas" on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, where he was head writer. The book in which this claim is made was first published in 1971, ten years before MTV first came on the air.
HBO also had a 30 minute program of music videos, called Video Jukebox, that first aired around the time of MTV's launch and would last until late 1986. Also around this time, HBO would occasionally play one or a few music videos between movies. SuperStation WTBS launched Night Tracks on June 3, 1983 with up to 14 hours of music video airplay each late night weekend by 1985. Its most noticeable difference was that black artists received airplay that MTV initially ignored. The program ran until the end of May 1992. Shortly thereafter, NBC launched its music video program called Friday Night Videos which was considered network television's answer to MTV. It ran from 1983 to 2002.
Music Television debuts
On August 1, 1981, at 12:01 a.m., MTV: Music Television launched with the words "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll," spoken by original COO John Lack. Those words were immediately followed by the original MTV theme song, a crunching guitar riff written by Jonathan Elias and John Petersen, playing over a montage of the Apollo 11 moon landing. MTV producers Alan Goodman and Fred Seibert used this public domain footage as a conceit, associating MTV with the most famous moment in world television history.[citation needed]
Appropriately, the first music video shown on MTV was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles. The second video shown was Pat Benatar's "You Better Run". Sporadically, the screen would go black when someone at MTV inserted a tape into a VCR.[3]
At launch time, the official subscriber count across the U.S. was 3,000,000 (the actual number was 500,000), but the immediate impact would have argued that every young adult's television in the country was tuned to MTV.
MTV's early days
Personalities and format
The early format of MTV was modeled after top 40 radio. Fresh-faced young men and women were hired to host the network's programming and to introduce videos that were being played. The term VJ (video jockey) was coined, a play on the acronym DJ (disc jockey). Many VJs eventually became celebrities in their own right. The original five MTV VJs in 1981 were Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, J. J. Jackson and Martha Quinn. In 2005, this group (except for J.J. Jackson, who died in 2004) became hosts on Sirius Satellite Radio.[4]
The early music videos that made up the bulk of MTV's programming in the 1980s were often crude promotional or concert clips from whatever sources could be found. As the popularity of the network rose, and record companies recognized the potential of the medium as a tool to gain recognition and publicity, they began to create increasingly elaborate clips specifically for the network. Several noted film directors got their start creating music videos, including Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, and David Fincher.
A large number of rock bands and performers of the 1980s were made popular by MTV. Such acts ranged from new wave bands as The Police, Adam Ant, The Cars, Eurythmics[5],Culture Club[6],The Fixx, Split Enz, Ultravox and Duran Duran[7] to hard rock or heavy metal bands[8] like Van Halen[9], RATT[10], Def Leppard[11], Prince, and Bon Jovi. The network also rotated the videos of "Weird Al" Yankovic, who made a career out of parodying other artists' videos.[12]
Also, MTV played some classic rock acts from earlier decades including David Bowie, Journey, John Mellencamp, Rolling Stones and ZZ Top.
The hard rock band Kiss publicly appeared without their trademark makeup for the first time on MTV in 1983. Madonna rose to fame on MTV in the 1980s. Madonna is one of the most successful video performers in MTV history, and to this day she uses MTV to market her music.
Michael Jackson
MTV put Michael Jackson's videos in heavy rotation throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Before then, Jackson struggled to get MTV airing because he was black.[13] To change this, CBS Records President Walter Yetnikoff denounced MTV, saying "I'm pulling everything we have off the air" and "I'm not going to give you any more videos. And I'm going to go public and fucking tell them about the fact you don’t want to play music by a black guy".[13] This harsh stance worked; MTV started showing "Billie Jean", forming a lengthy partnership with Jackson and helping other black music artists.[14]
According to The Austin Chronicle, Jackson's video for the song "Billie Jean" was "the video that broke the color barrier, even though the channel itself was responsible for erecting that barrier in the first place."[15] When the 14-minute-long "Thriller" video aired in December 1983, MTV ran it up to twice an hour to meet demand. MTV, a struggling cable channel, became huge. Jackson's videos were credited to this success[16] and MTV's focus switched from rock to pop and R&B.[17]
Award shows
In 1984 the network produced its first MTV Video Music Awards show, or VMAs. Perceived by some as a fit of self-indulgence by a fledgling network at the time, the VMAs developed into a music-industry showcase marketed as a more relevantm youth-targeted antidote to the Grammy awards. The first award show, in 1984, was punctuated by a live performance by Madonna of "Like A Virgin." In 1992, the channel would add the MTV Movie Awards with similar success.
MTV also created an award show for Europe after the success of the VMAs. The MTV Europe Music Awards, or the EMAs, were created in 1994, ten years after the debut of the VMAs. The EMAs are not shown live in the United States. A condensed, edited version of the broadcast is usually shown on MTV about two weeks after the original airing in Europe, and then the full version is shown on MTV's sister channel, MTV2.
MTV comes of age
Format evolution
In 1985, Viacom bought Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, which owned MTV and Nickelodeon, renaming the company MTV Networks. Within a few years, music videos were no longer the center-piece of the programming. Conventional 'TV shows' would soon replace VJ-format music video programming. Before 1987, MTV featured almost exclusively music videos, but as time passed they introduced a variety of other shows, including some that were originally intended for other channels.
MTV introduced 120 Minutes in 1986, a show that would feature low-rotation, alternative music videos for the next 17 years. Another after hours show was added in 1987, Headbangers Ball. This popular show featured heavy metal music and news regarding metal music. Before its abrupt cancellation in 1995, it featured several hosts, notably Riki Rachtman and Adam Curry. Headbangers Ball remains an iconic identifier of heavy metal music. In 1988, MTV debuted Yo! MTV Raps, a hip-hop/rap formatted program. The program continued until August 1995. It was renamed to simply Yo! and played for one hour from 1995 until 1999.
Non-music video programming began in the late 1980s with the introduction of a music news show The Week in Rock, which was also the beginning of MTV's news division, MTV News. Around this time, MTV also introduced a dance show Club MTV, a game show Remote Control, and music-based specials such as MTV Unplugged, an acoustic performance show.
These new shows would be just the beginning of new genres of shows to impact MTV. As the format of the network continued to evolve, more genres of shows began to appear. In the early 1990s, MTV debuted its first reality shows, The Real World and Road Rules.
Animated shows
- Further information: List of MTV shows: Animation
In a continuing bid to become a more diverse network, focusing on youth and culture, as well as music, MTV introduced animated shows to its line-up in the early 1990s. The animation showcase Liquid Television (originally a BBC import, later acquired and produced by MTV) was one of the networks first programs to focus on the medium. In addition to airing original shows created specifically for MTV, the network also occasionally aired episodes of original cartoon series created by sister-station Nickelodeon (Nicktoons) in the early 1990s. MTV has a history of cartoons with mature themes, notably Beavis and Butthead, Æon Flux, Grimmy, Celebrity Deathmatch, and Daria. Although the channel has gone on to debut many other animated shows, few of MTV's other cartoon series have been renewed for additional seasons, regardless of their reception.
Variety of programming
By the second half of the 1990s, MTV's programming consisted primarily of non-music shows. In 1997, MTV was being heavily criticized for not playing as many music videos as it had in the past. In response, MTV created four shows that centered around music videos: MTV Live, Total Request, Say What?, and 12 Angry Viewers. Also at this time, MTV introduced its new studios in Times Square.
A year later, in 1998, MTV merged Total Request and MTV Live into a live daily top ten countdown show, Total Request Live, which would become the channel's unofficial flagship program. In 1999, MTV shifted its focus to prank/comedic shows such as The Tom Green Show, Jackass, and Punk'd; and soap operas such as Undressed.
On September 11, 2001, when the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center occurred, MTV (along with sister cable channel VH1) suspended all of its programming and went into a simulcast of sister network CBS' news coverage of the events until 11:00 pm that night. The network later joined a plethora of other broadcast media that took part in a Celebrity Telethon to benefit the 9/11 victims.
MTV in recent years
Reality shows
- Further information: List of MTV shows: Reality series
In the early 2000s, MTV put a stronger focus on reality shows rather than music, building on the success of The Real World and Road Rules in the 1990s. MTV continued to play music videos (albeit rarely) instead of exclusively relegating them to their genre channels; however, the music videos aired either in the early morning hours or in a condensed form on Total Request Live. This led to viewer criticism and suggestions that the channel had stopped referring to itself as "Music Television," earning the nickname "Empty-V" with some dissatisfied viewers.[18] At the 2007 Video Music Awards, Justin Timberlake challenged MTV to "play more damn videos!"[19]
In 2000, Martin Kunert and Eric Manes's MTV's Fear became the first 'scare' based reality show and the first reality show in which contestants filmed themselves. The show ran for three seasons and spawned numerous imitations, such as Scare Tactics.
In 2002, MTV aired the first episode of another radical reality show, The Osbournes, based on the everyday life of former Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne, his wife Sharon, and two of their children, Jack and Kelly. The show went on to become one of the network's biggest ever success stories and kick-started a musical career for Kelly Osbourne, while Sharon Osbourne went on to host a talk show on U.S. television.
In 2003, Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, another popular reality TV show that follows the lives of Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey, a music celebrity couple, began airing. It ran for four seasons and ended in early 2005 and they later divorced. The success of Newlyweds was followed in June 2004 by The Ashlee Simpson Show, which documented the beginnings of the music career of Ashlee Simpson, Jessica Simpson's younger sister. In the fall of 2004, Ozzy Osbourne's reality show Battle for Ozzfest aired.
In 2007, MTV aired the reality show A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila, chronicling MySpace sensation Tila Tequila's journey to find a companion. Tequila's bisexuality played into the series—both male and female contestants were vying for love. It was the 2nd most popular show at that time, losing only to The Hills.
In 2008, MTV began the reality show That's Amoré!, chronicling the contestant, Domenico Nesci, from the previous A Shot at Love. There is also anyother contestant from A Shot at Love, helping Domenico make the correct decision, Ashli.
In late July of 2009 MTV announced that it will begin outsourcing productions of TRL to India and the replacement of host Hulk Hogan with dead 50's pop star Buddy Holly.
Anniversaries
On August 1, 2006, MTV celebrated its 25th anniversary. On their web site, MTV.com, visitors could watch the very first hour of MTV, including airing the original promos and commercials from Mountain Dew, Atari, Chewels gum, and Jovan. Videos were also shown from The Buggles, Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, and more. The introduction of the first five VJs was also shown.
Additionally, MTV.com put together a "yearbook" consisting of the greatest videos of each year from 1981-2006. Along with that, music.mtv.com offered a special online viewing of the top music video of each year since 1981. MTV itself only mentioned the anniversary once on TRL. The main highlight of the day on the channel was The Real World.
Current trends
In 2005 and 2006, MTV continued its focus on reality shows, with the debuts of popular shows such as 8th & Ocean, Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, NEXT, Two-A-Days, My Super Sweet 16, and Parental Control. In addition, in recent times, the channel has re-aired other programs from Viacom-owned TV networks, such as BET's College Hill, CW programs America's Next Top Model, Beauty and the Geek[20], and Hidden Palms, and VH1 programs I Love New York and Flavor of Love.[21] Other programs from non-Viacom networks include reruns of the shows Fastlane (from FOX)[22] and Life As We Know It (from ABC).[23]
MTV has also begun showing movies targeted toward the teen/young adult demographic on Friday evenings, including My Boss's Daughter, Shaun of the Dead, and Napoleon Dynamite. The channel has also broadcast several of its own productions of its film-producing division MTV Films, such as 8 Mile[24], Crossroads, Jackass: The Movie[25], and Super Sweet 16: The Movie.
Today, MTV's main source of music video programming is still Total Request Live, airing four times per week, featuring short clips of music videos along with VJs and daily guests. A hip-hop music video show, Sucker Free, also airs sporadically. Throughout each day, MTV shows excerpts from music videos, usually the hook, in split screen format during the closing credits, along with the web address of the MTV web site to encourage the viewer to watch the complete video online. On most days, music video rotation continues in the early morning hours.[21]
Social activism
MTV has a long history of promoting social, political, and environmental activism in young people.
In 1992, MTV started a pro-democracy campaign called Choose or Lose, to encourage up to 20 million people to register to vote, and hosted a town hall forum for Bill Clinton.[26] In the 1990s and early 2000s, MTV promoted annual campaigns known as Fight For Your Rights, with the slogan "Speak Out/Stand Up Against Violence", to bring forth awareness on America's crime, drugs and violence issues.
On April 6, 2001, MTV voluntarily ceased regular programming for 24 hours as part of the year's hate crimes awareness campaign. On that night, MTV aired a made-for-TV movie Anatomy of a Hate Crime, based on a true story of the 1998 murder of 21-year old Matthew Shepard, a gay college student. After the film and a discussion, MTV went dark and showed names of hate crime victims.
MTV also aired a documentary covering a trip by the musical group Sum 41 to the Democratic Republic of Congo, documenting the conflict there. The group ended up being caught in the midst of an attack outside of the hotel and were subsequently flown out of the country.[27]
In recent years, other politically diverse programs on MTV have included True Life, which documents people's lives and problems, and MTV News specials, which center on very current events in both the music industry and the world. One special show covered the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, airing programs focused on the issues and opinions of young people, including a program where viewers could ask questions of Senator John Kerry.[28] MTV worked with P. Diddy's "Vote or Die" campaign, designed to encourage young people to vote.[29]
MTV's most recent activism campaign is think MTV, which discusses current political issues such as same-sex marriage, U.S. elections, and war in other countries. The slogan of the program is "Reflect. Decide. Do." As part of think MTV, the channel also airs a series of pro-conservation ads called Break The Addiction, as a way of encouraging their viewers to find ways to use less fossil fuels and energy.
Criticism and censorship
Criticism of MTV
As early as 1984, because of its visibility as a promotional tool for the recording industry, MTV was accused of devaluing the importance of music in the music industry, replacing it with a purely visual aesthetic, and putting equally popular but less image-centric or single-based acts at a distinct disadvantage. Since then, MTV has been criticized over the years by various groups about programming choices, social issues, and a perceived negative moral influence on young people.[30]
Censorship on MTV
On the other side of the moral influence debate, MTV has also come under criticism for being too politically correct and sensitive, censoring too much of their programming. Many of MTV's shows were altered or removed from the channel's schedule. Additionally, many music videos aired on the channel were censored, moved to late-night rotation, or banned entirely from the channel.
Beyond MTV
Sister channels in the U.S.
MTV operates a group of channels under the name MTV Networks, a division of its corporate parent, Viacom. In 1985, MTV saw the introduction of its first true sister channel, VH1, which was originally an acronym for "Video Hits One" and was designed to play adult contemporary music videos. Today, VH1 is aimed at celebrity and popular culture programming. Another sister channel, CMT, targets the country music and southern culture market.
The advent of satellite television and digital cable brought MTV greater channel diversity, including its current sister channels MTV2 and MTV Tr3s, which initially played music videos exclusively but now focus on other programming. Music videos still occupy most of the schedule on two additional channels, MTV Hits and MTV Jams. MTV also broadcasts mtvU, a college-oriented channel on campus at various universities.
Recently, MTV Networks launched MHD (Music: High Definition), a high definition channel that features programming from all three of the major music-themed channels owned by MTV Networks: MTV, VH1, and CMT.
In 2005 and 2006, MTV launched a series of channels for Asian Americans. The first channel was MTV Desi, launched in July 2005, dedicated toward South-Asian Americans. Next was MTV Chi, in December 2005, which catered to Chinese Americans. The third was MTV K, launched in June 2006 and targeted toward Korean Americans. Each of these channels featured music videos and shows from MTV's international affiliates as well as original U.S. programming, promos, and packaging. All three of these channels ceased broadcasting on April 30, 2007.
The Internet
MTV.com, the official website of MTV, expands on the channel's broadcasts by bringing additional content to its viewers. The site's notable features include an online version of MTV News, podcasts, and a video streaming service supported by commercials. There are also movie features, profiles and interviews with recording artists and even clips from MTV television programs. In 2006, MTV.com went through a massive change, transforming the entire site into a video-based entity, in the style of the former MTV Overdrive service. In 2007, MTV.com reverted to a traditional HTML-based web site design.
MTV around the world
MTV (UK) operates 16 channels solely in the United Kingdom. MTV Networks and Viacom have launched numerous native-language MTV-branded music channels to countries worldwide. These channels include, but are not limited to, MTV Greece, MTV Canada, MTV Ireland, MTV Russia, MTV Spain, MTV Austria, MTV France, MTV Germany, MTV Europe, MTV Portugal, MTV Adria, MTV Hungary, MTV Denmark, MTV Finland, MTV Italy, MTV Netherlands, MTV Norway, MTV Poland, MTV Arabia, MTV Romania, MTV Lithuania, MTV Latvia, MTV Estonia, MTV Sweden, MTV Asia, MTV Japan, MTV Indonesia, MTV China, MTV Korea, MTV Philippines, MTV Taiwan, MTV Turkey, MTV Pakistan, MTV India, MTV Latin America, MTV Brazil, MTV Australia, MTV New Zealand, MTV Ukraine, and MTV Base in Africa. Also an International version of MTV known as MTV International was shown on the Internet.
See also
- List of MTV channels
- List of programs broadcast by MTV
- List of MTV award shows
- List of MTV VJs
- Criticism of MTV
- Censorship on MTV
- MTV News
- MTV Networks
- First music videos aired on MTV
- MTV Generation
- MTV Buzz Bin
- MTV slogans on Wikiquote
References
- ^ CNN - MTV changed the music industry on August 1, 1981 - July 31, 1998
- ^ Scotsman.com Living
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ Sirius Satellite Radio: Big '80s
- ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (2000). "Eurythmics - Biography". All Music Guide. Retrieved 2008-02-19.
- ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (1999). "Culture Club - Biography". All Music Guide. Retrieved 2008-02-19.
- ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (2007). "Duran Duran - Biography". All Music Guide. Retrieved 2008-02-19.
- ^ Lane 2006, p. 126
- ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (2002). "Van Halen - Biography". All Music Guide. Retrieved 2008-02-19.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (2002). "Ratt - Biography". All Music Guide. Retrieved 2008-02-19.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (2006). "Def Leppard - Biography". All Music Guide. Retrieved 2008-02-19.
- ^ Ankeny, Jason (2007). "Weird Al Yankovic - Biography". All Music Guide. Retrieved 2008-02-19.
- ^ a b "Michael Jackson, "Billy Jean:". blender.com. Retrieved 2007-04-11.
- ^ Jackson ends black music prejudice on MTV
- ^ Beets, Greg (2001-08-03). "Blow Up Your Video". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-01-30.
- ^ "Why Are Michael Jackson's Fans So Devoted?". abcnews.com. Retrieved 2007-04-06.
- ^ "Music videos changing places". abcnews.com. Retrieved 2007-04-11.
- ^ Urban Dictionary - Empty-V
- ^ People - Rihanna, Justin Timberlake Win Big at VMAs
- ^ MTV.com - On-Air - MTV Week at a Glance
- ^ a b MTV.com - On-Air - MTV Week at a Glance
- ^ MTV schedule for the week of Oct. 20, 2002
- ^ Life As We Know It: Natural Disasters - TV.com
- ^ MTV Schedule for Jan. 13, 2007
- ^ MTV Schedule for July 18, 2007
- ^ MTV's traveling "Choose or Lose" vehicle brings politics. Salon. http://www.salon.com/media/media960923.html
- ^ "Rocked: Sum 41 in Congo" War Child Canada. 2001–2006.
- ^ Sherman, Tom, "The Real Story of the Youth Vote in the 2004 Election." Underscorebleach.net, 2004-11-04. Retrieved on 2006-04-14.
- ^ Vargas, Jose Antonio, "Vote or Die? Well, They Did Vote." Washingtonpost.com, 2004-11-09. Retrieved on 2006-04-14.
- ^ Lane, Frederick S. (2006), The Decency Wars: The Campaign to Cleanse American Culture, Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, ISBN 1591024277
External links