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by MARK POWELL
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For years, rock stars from Mick Jagger to Huey Lewis to Cyndi Lauper implored, “I want my MTV!” It became a catch phrase, and was even repeated by Sting in the background of Dire Straits’ 1985 hit, “Money For Nothing.”
But that demand is falling on deaf ears these days. Paramount Global is openly mulling over pulling the plug on the once-trendy TV channel. It’s already shutting down its remaining music channels in the UK. Industry insiders speculate Paramount will do likewise stateside sooner rather than later.
When the time comes, it will mark the end of an era. How will Americans react? Baby Boomers will cry, “it’s unimaginable!” Gen X and Millennials will probably shrug their shoulders and say, “Eh, whatever.” Meanwhile, most Gen Zers will ask, “What’s MTV?”
That last group in particular is responsible for the once trend-setting broadcaster’s demise. Just as teens and 20-somethings have turned their backs en masse on news (both TV and print), religion, shopping in actual stores (especially malls), and many other touchstones of American daily life, they have fled MTV in droves. That makes it impossible to financially sustain a channel entirely dedicated to catering to youth whims.
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MTV has been around so long (it marked its 44th birthday on August 1), it’s difficult to remember now just how revolutionary it was when it signed on. I remember, because I was part of its target audience at the time.
In 1981-1982, MTV was de rigueur for young people. It was impossible to walk into a dorm room, frat house, or college apartment without it playing on the TV. You didn’t learn which singers and bands were hot from listening to rock radio stations any longer; you saw them first on MTV.
On August 17, 1991, for example, the network’s late-night alternative music format – dubbed ‘120 minutes’ – played the music video for Nirvana‘s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit‘ for the first time. Within months, it had become the anthem of a generation and the band’s ‘Nevermind’ album had reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts.
The music industry quickly adapted to this new reality, too, adopting a new business formula: MTV exposure + increased radio airtime = more record and concert ticket sales.
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Suddenly, it was no longer enough to be able to sing. Performers now had to also be pretty boys and girls with telegenic sexiness and smooth dance moves. And if you didn’t happen to be blessed with a good set of pipes, that wasn’t a problem. Audio technology eventually took care of all that (does the name Milli Vanilli ring a bell?).
The channel became so pervasive among young people that its influence bled over into the political arena. Democratic presidential hopeful Bill Clinton hosted a town hall on the channel in 1992 and came back for another go-round as chief executive. In fact, it was during that 1994 session where he was famously asked, “Boxers or briefs?” by a young female audience member.
Without the least hesitation, the leader of the free world cheerfully answered, “usually briefs.”
MTV’s Rock the Vote campaigns in 1990 and again in 1992 are credited with increasing youth turnout at the polls during those cycles. That success led to the launch of MTV News in 1993, with host Kurt Loder quickly becoming a household name.
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The run continued for decades, but with the proliferation of online content – especially the rise of streaming services like YouTube – the writing was on the wall. In 2023, Paramount announced it was shutting down MTV News, citing overall staffing reductions as the culprit.
From that point on, it was only a matter of “when,” not “if” the end of MTV would come.
Earlier this month, Paramount announced it was shuttering five additional MTV channels by the end of the year. Those channels are:
- MTV Music – the flagship music video channel
- MTV 80s – retro, nostalgic hits
- MTV 90s – throwback pop, rock, and classic tracks
- Club MTV – dance, electronic, and club beats
- MTV Live – live performances, concerts, and related programming
The unwinding is not unexpected. The channel’s original Baby Boomer audience are grandparents now. The indifferent Gen X/Millennial viewers are experiencing midlife crises, and Gen Zers are so desperately searching for a clue that they don’t have time to watch the tube.
It’s easy to get lost in a haze of nostalgia. But the plain truth is the broadcasting business is a business, after all. And in a free market system, when you stop making money, the curtain comes down.
Over a century ago, our ancestors bought many of their household items from door-to-door peddlers. Then our great-grandparents said, “forget that; let’s shop at the new general store instead.” Our grandparents said, “who needs a general store? Let’s try that new department store downtown.” Our parents said, “screw these downtown hassles – let’s shop at the mall.” Which, of course, leads to the current generation, which orders everything online.
So it is with MTV. Its day came, its day passed, and now it’s time to move on.
As we say farewell, it doesn’t hurt to linger for a moment over recollections of the original MTV VJs and recall Mark Goodman’s hip urban coolness, Martha Quinn’s sultry eyes, Alan Hunter’s boy next door charm, J.J. Jackson’s unflappable affability, and Nina Blackwood, for whom we never got the answer to, “is she stoned or what?”
Thanks for the memories, guys.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
J. Mark Powell is an award-winning former TV journalist, government communications veteran, and a political consultant. He is also an author and an avid Civil War enthusiast. Got a tip or a story idea for Mark? Email him at mark@fitsnews.com.
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6 comments
MTV was made for the GenX/Millennial generations. Not sure which boomers you’re talking about, but this is a crap article.
Dude, MTV started in 1981 and stopped being worth watching long about 1995ish (Carson Daly was the beginning of the end). The crap they played from 1995-2000 wasn’t music and it wasn’t funny or interesting, then they got into “social change” only to find out that nobody cared.
These columns are starting to grow on me. If you ever want to name your column you could call it “Get Off My Damn Lawn!”
MTV died at the advent of file sharing which started in earnest in the 90s, then again after the rise of YouTube in the 2000s. I mean really, I remember in 99 my preferred file sharing program (not Napster) had multiple petabytes of all sorts of media – music, TV shows, movies, etc – which is insane considering even the idea of a terabyte of storage on your personal computer felt like a pipe dream at the time. YouTube really drove it home though – now you can look for the specific music videos you want to see, on demand, without having to expose yourself to potential viruses.
Streaming media services are honestly just another box of nails that can’t even be driven into the twice buried and vaulted coffin. Listening to Taylor Swift on Pandora doesn’t really affect whether or not people are watching whatever iteration of Teen Mom is on now. Reality TV shows being old, boring, uncreative, lowest common denominator schlock is doing that all on its own.
Interesting article and the comments are all good, leaving me little to say except that the Boomers were mainly the parents when MTV came out. In 1982 I was 14 and I am an older Gen X. My parents were in their thirties and were still young Boomers.
I remember when my grandmother and dad got cable in the early 80’s. I don’t think MTV had been around long, maybe a month at most, at the time. On frequent visits to their house, after each had retired for the night, I was drawn to MTV and several like channels. On a weekend, there might have been as many as four stations carrying non-stop music videos. I recall one program, possibly on a Turner Network channel, called “Radio 1990”. I would channel surf using the wired remote/channel selector provided by the cable company. It was a smorgasbord of videos, some great, some okay, and some that sucked. I could easily sit there looking for my favorite videos until daylight. As time went on, the competing video programs fell by the wayside, but MTV was still there.
The VJ’s noted in the article had occasional interesting music news, and later on, who could forget Downtown Julie Brown? MTV began circling the bowl when they went from an all video and music news format to retarded game shows like “Remote Control” and later, even more retarded programming like “Road Rules”. Sadly, like a cancer, this type programming just expanded on the channel. By the 90’s, it was rare to catch any of the old video programming that MTV launched with, so VH-1 stepped in to fill that gap.
I recall thinking MTV had redeemed itself by bringing us “Beavis and Butthead”. I couldn’t wait to get off from work in 1994 and get home to watch them. They were awesome. When Mike Judge decided to stop doing Beavis and Butthead and created King Of The Hill, I was destroyed. I refused to watch KOTH as I blamed it for Beavis and Butthead’s untimely exit from the stage.
Later on, MTV again redeemed itself with “Jackass”. The antics of the Jackass crew were a source of non-stop laughter in a world that seemed to be losing its sense of humour.
Today, I haven’t watched MTV in years. I haven’t had cable in years. As I have told friends, if I won a few hundred million dollars, I would not have cable in my home. It just isn’t worth the drama and bullshit. They get you in with low rates, and before you know it, you are paying $100, $150, or more per month, and those aren’t even your premium packages. Switch to another company when you finally realize how badly you are being raped by your current company and they do the same thing. It never ends. The last time I paid for cable, in the late 2,000’s, after about 1AM, there was nothing on but endless, stupid, infomercials. Like so many things, cable programming started out great, and over time went to shit. When my grandmother got it in the early 80’s, thirty or so bucks a month got you some really good channels and programming. Most of it was “commercial free” save for the too-frequent self-promoting ads that each channel used to keep you aware of their offerings. Twenty-five or so years later, it was almost nothing but commercials, THAT YOU HAVE TO PAY TO FREAKIN WATCH!!!! No, if I were a multi-millionaire, I would have over-the-air TV with a great antenna setup.
Still, I will never be able to view the MTV astronaut logo without in my mind, hearing that iconic guitar and drum riff in my head that I watched so many times over the years.