The Death of MTV?
Mentor Information
Maria Cizmic (Humanities and Cultural Studies Department)
Description
Music Television (commonly known as MTV) was a cable channel that had been launched in late 1981 with the original intention of showing solely music videos. The television platform would be in a continuous stream 24/7. These videos came from music from the Top 40 playlists. The channel promoted artists and bands like Madonna, Bon Jovi, Cyndi Lauper, and Michael Jackson. Instead of disc jockeys, the channel had video jockeys, or ‘vee-jays’ (like Alan Hunter and Nina Blackwood). This platform celebrated over a full decade of success, and its popularity gradually rose. However, when the 1980’s were over, the channel saw some drastic changes. New people like Chris McCarthy took over the corporate offices and made changes in the programming. The young audiences saw grown adults screaming at each other, getting drunk, engaging in intimate activities, and throwing temper tantrums over the smallest things. The people who made the channel successful became terminated after their contracts expired. The actual airtime of the music video stream became less to almost nonexistent. What is happening to the original MTV? Why are there reality television shows on the platform? What is so fascinating of watching grown men and women fight over the most frivolous things? The paper’s primary focus is about the founding material of Music Television and how it evolved to showing reality shows. This paper will examine the first music video aired along with the first reality television aired. The major contributing factor of MTV’s change are different interests.
The Death of MTV?
Music Television (commonly known as MTV) was a cable channel that had been launched in late 1981 with the original intention of showing solely music videos. The television platform would be in a continuous stream 24/7. These videos came from music from the Top 40 playlists. The channel promoted artists and bands like Madonna, Bon Jovi, Cyndi Lauper, and Michael Jackson. Instead of disc jockeys, the channel had video jockeys, or ‘vee-jays’ (like Alan Hunter and Nina Blackwood). This platform celebrated over a full decade of success, and its popularity gradually rose. However, when the 1980’s were over, the channel saw some drastic changes. New people like Chris McCarthy took over the corporate offices and made changes in the programming. The young audiences saw grown adults screaming at each other, getting drunk, engaging in intimate activities, and throwing temper tantrums over the smallest things. The people who made the channel successful became terminated after their contracts expired. The actual airtime of the music video stream became less to almost nonexistent. What is happening to the original MTV? Why are there reality television shows on the platform? What is so fascinating of watching grown men and women fight over the most frivolous things? The paper’s primary focus is about the founding material of Music Television and how it evolved to showing reality shows. This paper will examine the first music video aired along with the first reality television aired. The major contributing factor of MTV’s change are different interests.
