Thirty Years, Three Faces: A Look at MTV

Thirty years after premiering its network with the one-hit-wonder, “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles, Music Television (MTV) is celebrating its 30th birthday. With its innovative, edgy ideas, MTV plowed through the 80s, conquered the 90s, and transformed the television industry in the 2000s. MTV has seen America’s newest, working generation crawl, walk, graduate, and have children. So, let’s take a look at how MTV has shaped American culture thus far.

On the 1st of August, 1981, MTV aired as the nation’s first all-music TV channel. Critics of the entertainment industry believed that a solo music network would never succeed, but today, MTV is among the most profitable and influential TV networks. The station began transforming the industry by putting radio ideas on screen, mirroring the movement from journalism to radio in the 1920s. MTV introduced video jockeys (VJs) instead that would relate to their target audience, young Americans. The jockeys have always been style symbols of their generation. Being a jockey meant more than announcing the upcoming song. Many famous people go their start as VJs including: Alexa Chung, Carson Daly, Carmen Electra, Daisy Fuentes, Colin Quinn, Pauly Shore and Tyrese. MTV has been able to maintain its “cool” image by evolving with the times, and every decade has shown a new face for the network.

MTV’s first face was that of the Rebel. In the 1980s, MTV began its controversial reputation by changing the way people viewed music. Two years after it’s first video aired, MTV debuted Michael Jackson’s fourteen-minute-long music video “Thriller,” and exposed Americans to the concept of the music video as a storyboard. In 1984, the company had its first annual Video Music Awards (VMAs) and shocked viewers again with international sex symbol, Madonna’s performance of “Like a Virgin” in a wedding dress. Vh1, a sister network to MTV, was created in 1984 to appeal to an older, more musically focused crowd. It was also in the 80s that MTV began its infamous MTV Spring Break which had parents keeping their kids under lock-and-key during their week off from school. By 1989, MTV began to transform itself from a “shock-and-awe” program network to a behind-the-scenes musical experience with shows like Rockumentary, a musical documentary.

Face number two is that of the “rockumentarian.” In the 1990s, MTV was known for its ability to connect the artist directly to their fans. MTV began its Unplugged section which featured artist without all the glitz and glamour of a concert arena, and placed them in an intimate setting with just the their fans and music. Bands featured on “Unplugged” include: Nirvana, Eric Clapton, Squeeze, Mariah Carey, and Sting. The network launched the American obsession with reality TV in 1992 with the creation of The Real World. A year later, MTV dipped into the cartoon world with its creation of Beevis and Butthead, a show that whimsically explored the mind of the American teenager. By 1996, thirty-minute shows weren’t enough to satiate the company’s hunger for programming and MTV’s first film, Joe’s Apartment aired. That same year, the company had expanded greatly and its sister company, MTV2, was launched hooking audiences with its commercial free music videos. Borrowing from radio, in 1998, MTV created its first interactive program TRL:Total Reqest Live, which allowed viewers to call in and vote for their favorite videos.

By the 2000s, MTV had transformed from music television, to musicians on TV with its reality TV shows like The Osbournes, Making the Band, and Run’s House. These shows and their comrades created MTV’s third face: reality TV network. The first program that took MTV from music to amusement was 2000’s Jackass. The show’s concept is summed up by its title, a bunch of dudes, running around both making rears of themselves and getting the same part kicked. The Osbournes gave MTV’s audience a peek at how rock families deal with one parents success, which proved to be a lucrative look for the network. By 2004, the network had a baby of its own in mtvU, a network that incorporated online trends with programming. MTV’s impact on media and its viewers set the stage for MTV’s 2008 Rock-the-Vote election campaign, in which the network encouraged young people to exercise their right to vote for President. While the social impact of MTV in the 2000s is evident, nothing has impacted American society quite like the network’s golden child of 2009, Jersey Shore. The show which showcased Jersey Shore regulars with an appetite for alcohol and a penchant for trouble wrapped in a guido shell, sky-rocketed to the top of Twitter and every other social media outlet, once again making MTV the talk of the town. The frontrunner in the reality TV boom, MTV also produced successful, yet controversial shows like Teen Mom, Engaged and Underage, and 16 and Pregnant. So many people were talking about MTV’s ability to produce hit reality TV shows that the company in February of 2008, dropped “Music Television” from its logo.

Whether you’ve been watching MTV for thirty years or thirty minutes, it’s obvious that the network is here to stay. MTV’s ability to change with the times and generate new viewers because of its ingenious programming has solidified the company’s spot in American media. While you may not like the network or its shows, you have to admit no network knows how to change its face for its evolving public quite like MTV.