MTV

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MTV: Music Television is a young adult cable television network headquartered in New York City. Originally devoted to music videos, especially popular rock music, MTV later became an outlet for a variety of different material aimed at adolescents and young adults.

The network was founded on August 1, 1981 as an operation of Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, a joint venture of Warner Communications and American Express. In 1985, it was acquired by Viacom Inc., and was folded into MTV Networks, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary. MTV's combination of music videos, youthful video jockeys, irreverent commentary, promotion of special rock concerts, and news and documentaries about bands and performers established the network's popularity with youthful viewers, and it became a leading promoter of new rock music and rock musicians. In the 90's, MTV was often considered to be the driving force in American pop culture, but this influence has dramatically declined.

History

MTV's roots can be traced back to 1977, when Warner-Amex Cable (a joint venture between Warner Communications and American Express) 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. The popularity of the channel prompted Warner Amex to market the channel nationally to other cable services.

At midnight on August 1, 1981, the format was changed to music video (using a concept originally devised and sold to Warner Amex by Michael Nesmith, previously a member of the hit pop band The Monkees), and the name was changed to "MTV—Music Television".

The programming was created by the visionary music producer, Bob Pittman, who later became president and chief executive officer, of MTV Networks. [1]

MTV started in New York City but was available in most of the United States by the mid-1980s with the nationwide expansion of cable.

It went to air with the words, "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll!" Appropriately, the first music video shown on MTV was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles (often wrongly attributed to one of their contemporaries with a similar name, The Bangles). (With similar tongue-in-cheek humor, the first video shown on MTV Europe was "Money for Nothing," by Dire Straits, which starts and finishes with repetition of the line "I want my MTV," voiced by Sting; on MTV Latino, the first video shown was "We Are Southamerican Rockers" by the Chilean band Los Prisioneros.)

The early format of the network was modeled after Top 40 radio. Fresh-faced young men and women were hired to host the show's programming, and to introduce videos that were being played. The term VJ (video jockey) was coined, a play on the term DJ (disc jockey.) Many VJs eventually became celebrities in their own right. The early music videos that made up the bulk of the network's programming in the '80s 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 stars of the 1980s and 1990s were made into household names by MTV. 1980s bands immediately identifiable with MTV include Eurythmics, RATT, Culture Club, Def Leppard, Duran Duran and Bon Jovi. Michael Jackson launched the second wave of his career as an MTV staple. Madonna rose to fame on MTV in the 1980s, and to this day continues to use the network to promote her music.

In 1984 the network produced its first MTV Video Music Awards show. Seen as a fit of self-indulgence by a fledgling network at the time, the "VMAs" developed into a music-industry showcase marketed as a hip antidote to the Grammy awards. In 1992, the network would add a movie award show with similar success.

After MTV's programming shifted towards heavy metal and rap music, MTV Networks launched a second network, Video Hits 1 (VH-1), in 1985. VH1 featured more popular music than MTV. Today, MTV Networks also owns Nickelodeon, a cable channel airing children's and family programming.

MTV in the mid-'90s, shortly before the transition to non-music programming

MTV started off showing music videos nearly full-time, but as time passed they introduced a variety of other shows, including animated cartoons such as Beavis and Butt-head and Daria; "reality" shows such as The Real World and Road Rules; prank/comedic shows such as The Tom Green Show, Jackass, and Punk'd; and soap operas such as Undressed. By the second half of the 1990s, MTV programming consisted primarily of non-music programming. In 2000, MTV's Fear became the first 'scary' reality show where contestants filmed themselves. The show ran for three seasons and spawned numerous imitations, including the currently running Fear Factor on NBC. In 2002, MTV aired the first episode of another 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, another popular reality TV show that follows the lives of Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey, a music celebrity couple, began. It has run for three seasons. 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 2004, MTV's parent company Viacom bought Germany's largest provider for music television Viva Media AG, thereby creating the largest company for music on the European mainland. In November 2004, MTV announced it would begin airing in February 2005 MTV Base in Africa, [2] thereby reaching the world's last major populated area previously not served by MTV.

Diversification

The advent of digital satellite and cable has also brought greater diversity including channels such as MTV2, which features the slogan "Where The Music's At." In the U.S., MTV2 initially focused on playing music videos and other music-related programming exclusively; in Europe, MTV2 plays specific genres of music (mainly alternative and rock). Viacom, parent company of the MTV Networks, is also behind VH1, which is aimed at celebrity and popular culture programming; and CMT, which targets the country music market.

MTV recently broadcast a new Indian Pop Culture channel called MTV Desi and University-oriented channel mtvU.

International divisions

MTV Networks and Viacom have launched numerous native-language MTV-branded music channels to countries worldwide.

Criticism

In its early years, MTV was criticized as racist, since the acts it featured were nearly exclusively white. MTV executives countered by claiming that there were few—if any—promotional videos available from black and other minority acts, although artists such as Diana Ross and The Jacksons had been making music videos before MTV existed. Shortly thereafter, the network began heavily featuring videos from Michael Jackson's album Thriller, in particular "Billie Jean" and "Thriller", and Prince's album 1999, in particular the videos for the title track and "Little Red Corvette". Subsequently, MTV delved heavily into black musical acts, developing several hip-hop music-themed programs such as Yo! MTV Raps, and got rid of MTV X to make room for MTV Jams. This is in part because many young African-Americans prefer to watch BET rather than MTV.

Because of its visibility as a promotional tool for the recording industry, MTV has been criticized as overly commercial and accused of denigrating the importance of music in the music industry (replacing it with a purely visual aesthetic); this is an ongoing problem for punk and emo bands. As early as 1985, some musicians were criticizing MTV for these reasons, perhaps most famously Dead Kennedys with "MTV − Get off the Air".

MTV UK has recently been under fire as it no longer airs any daytime music videos, outside of parts of a few shows like Total Request Live and Making the Video, and focuses primarily on MTV produced reality shows such as The Osbournes and Punk'd. Many argue, however, that as MTV runs nine music channels in the UK, it has delegated music videos to its genre channels in a bid to differentiate itself from the competition of the fourteen other music video-oriented channels. Videos are also often played between other shows and at night.

The same criticism has also been made of MTV in the USA, with its dearth of music videos, and its stronger focus on reality shows such as Road Rules, The Real World, Laguna Beach, and others as well. The primary U.S. MTV channel does occasionally play music videos (albeit rarely) instead of exclusively relegating them to their genre channels.

MTV UK has also been attacked for over-use of on-screen graphics, such as logos, programme promotion and countdown timers, and its electronica-themed genre channel MTV Dance is often derided for playing a lack of dance music during the day, preferring a mix of pop-dance, pop, and R&B. Ironically, the channel has also been criticized for lacking programming.

Critics also claim that bands sell well because they get a lot of exposure on MTV, rather than MTV picking the best bands to promote; and that MTV has too much influence in the music industry. Although it could be argued that MTV is simply giving airtime to the most popular acts in a given country, the counter-argument could also be made that these acts get popular simply because of the exposure that MTV gives them.

There have also been some critics who have said that MTV promotes bad behavior (mainly premarital sex, war propaganda, and even recreational drug use) to the youth of America by embracing the behaviors of certain celebrities who are not good role models. It was also said by someone that 'MTV was porn for children!' (later in the evening and during the night, MTV tend to show slightly more adult-themed programming, most of the adult-themed programming was pornographic movies and shows).

There are also critics of MTV and their reality shows such as NEXT, the game dating show that demoralizes individuals by making the daters complete various tasks and games only to be "Nexted" when they were not pleasing enough because of their looks. The show also airs homosexual daters, which can be seen as controversial due to its open sexual nature that is open to viewers of various ages.

MTV and VH1 drew heavy criticism for their coverage of Live 8, the multinational concert of musical artists which raised awareness for African debt relief. The broadcast of music was limited, as the network cut to its on-air personalities, celebrity interviews, and commercials in the middle of live acts. The epitome of this was the widely reported decision to cut to commercial during Pink Floyd's performance in London, which was bassist Roger Waters' first performance with the rest of the band since 1981. MTV VJ's came onscreen to talk during the first guitar solo in "Comfortably Numb," then cut back for a few seconds before playing a commercial. 1 Because of the criticism the channel received over this, both MTV and VH1 decided to show the whole 10-hour Live 8 concert again the following weekend, this time without any commercial breaks or VJ interruptions.

The channel also faced criticism in the wake of the Super Bowl XXXVIII half time show — which it had produced. This infamous halftime show featured the exposure of one of Janet Jackson's breasts, which was shown on live television. Afterwards the NFL indicated that MTV would not produce any further Super Bowl halftime shows, or any public event.

MTV has also come under criticism for being far too politically correct and sensitive when it came to censorship. This was most prevalent in the eventual decline of the hit show Jackass. The creators of Jackass often felt that MTV's producers did not let the show run its free course due to the excessive restraints under which they put the Jackass team. MTV has also heavily edited a number of music videos, frequently to remove references to drugs or weapons. Edits include "45" by Shinedown (it is renamed "Starring Down" and a good portion of the chorus is edited to eliminate gun references), "We Are All On Drugs" by Weezer (It is renamed "We Are All In Love" and lyrics are changed from "On Drugs" to "In Love", and "Hash Pipe" by Weezer (the word "Hash" is obscured, and the vocal has been edited to sound like "Half"). Also, the song "Four Kicks" by Kings of Leon has the words "guns" and "switchblade" censored in the chorus. The song Stinkfist by Tool was renamed "Track #1" since the title was considered "too offensive for public consumption" .

Political influence

After so many shots to the network about the content of programmes, they started showing a plethora of political and economic shows. These shows include: "think MTV," which talks about current political issues such as gay marriage, the U.S. presidential election (two years ago the network spent a large amount of time on the 2004 election), and war in other countries, among other topics. MTV aired a popular band's Sum 41 trip 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.

Other politically diverse programmes include True Life, which documents people's lives and problems, and shows an epilogue of after the show was shot; MTV News Specials, which centers on very current events in both the music industry and the world; and a lot of other shows based on the current times. It 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 on live TV. However many people believe that MTV is liberal biased.

Cartoons

MTV has a history of cartoons with mature themes, the most notable probably being Beavis and Butt-head, and its spin-off, Daria. Most of its other cartoons have lasted only for a single season, despite usually being original and creative.

Some of the cartoons MTV has produced:

  • Beavis and Butt-head
  • Celebrity Deathmatch
  • Clone High
  • Daria
  • Downtown
  • Quads!
  • Undergrads
  • Cartoon Sushi
  • Æon Flux
  • The Maxx
  • Spy Groove
  • Liquid Television
  • 3 South

Slogans

  • "I want my MTV"
  • "MTV... Proud as a Moon Man" ("Weird Al" Yankovic's spoof of NBC's 1979-1981 slogan Proud as a Peacock)
  • "MTV Lives In Your Music"
  • "Some People Just Don't Get It"
  • "Watch and Learn"
  • "M-m-m-m T-t-t-t V-v-v-v"
  • "MTV News: You Hear it First"
  • "MT-blah: Blah-blah Tele-blah"
  • "I love my MTV"
  • "The Number One Music Channel" (slogan used for MTV UK from 2000 to 2002 as the channel broadcasts on digital cable and digital satellite, the slogan was axed in 2003. The fact that since then MTV has played very little music may also add to why this slogan was dropped.)
  • "I Like..." (MTV Asia)
  • "Don't let Jerry Win. Best watch your MTV's"
  • "Think"
  • "Not on TV, on M-TV"
  • "Best Watch Your MTVs"
  • "Just See MTV"
  • "MTV Enjoy"
  • "Nongkrong di MTV" (Slogan in MTV Asia for MTV Indonesia before MTV Indonesia aired (1997-2001)
  • "MTV Gue Banget"(MTV indonesia,2001-present)
  • "MTV Ayos" (MTV Philippines)
  • "Habla Tu MTV"

References in popular culture

  • George Michael's "Freedom '90" makes reference to the pressures the network placed on visual image: "I went back home, got a brand new face / For the boys at MTV"
  • The declining popularity of MTV was noted as Bart scrawled "I no longer want my MTV" in a Simpsons' season 9 chalkboard gag; a parody of Dire Straits' 1985 song "Money for Nothing."
  • The song "MTV − Get off the Air" by the Dead Kennedys was a protest against the content and style of music that dominated MTV during the '80s.
  • Bowling for Soup's "1985," contains the line, "Bring back Springsteen, Madonna, way before Nirvana there was U2 and Blondie, and music still on MTV."
  • Lyrics to Manowar's "Blow Your Speakers" include "Wrote a letter to the MTV/What’s goin’ on now/Don’t ya care about me."
  • Lyrics to Reel Big Fish's "Don't Start A Band" include "And even if you make itall the way to MTV/I don't think you could take it all the bullshit and the greed."
  • Lyrics to Beck's "MTV Makes Me Wanna Smoke Crack" include "MTV makes me wanna burn flesh!/Having an orgy down in the satellite dish!"
  • Cartoon series Megas XLR frequently features the destruction of billboards and other paraphernilia for a group called "PoP TV", whose symbol is clearly based on the MTV Logo. XLR was directed by Chris Prynoski, a former MTV animator whose own show (Downtown) had been cancelled by MTV years ago.
  • The opening track on Pantera's "The Great Southern Trendkill" song with the same name include the lyrics, "Buy it at a store, From MTV to on the floor, You look just like a star, It's proof you dont know who you are."

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Some of the cartoons MTV has produced:.
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MTV aired a popular band's Sum 41 trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo, documenting the conflict there. Xandros Desktop Mangement Server or xDMS is already available. presidential election (two years ago the network spent a large amount of time on the 2004 election), and war in other countries, among other topics. It is expected to ship by the end of the year 2005. These shows include: "think MTV," which talks about current political issues such as gay marriage, the U.S. The server works with Linux and Windows environments. After so many shots to the network about the content of programmes, they started showing a plethora of political and economic shows. The current beta test of Xandros Small Business Server or xSBS already runs both Apache and Samba servers.

The song Stinkfist by Tool was renamed "Track #1" since the title was considered "too offensive for public consumption" . For more information on the different editions, please see the external link "Xandros Desktop Matrix". Also, the song "Four Kicks" by Kings of Leon has the words "guns" and "switchblade" censored in the chorus. The web browser Mozilla Firefox and the email client Mozilla Thunderbird are included. Edits include "45" by Shinedown (it is renamed "Starring Down" and a good portion of the chorus is edited to eliminate gun references), "We Are All On Drugs" by Weezer (It is renamed "We Are All In Love" and lyrics are changed from "On Drugs" to "In Love", and "Hash Pipe" by Weezer (the word "Hash" is obscured, and the vocal has been edited to sound like "Half"). Unlike the other editions, there is no e-mail support or user guide (Deluxe and Business editions only). MTV has also heavily edited a number of music videos, frequently to remove references to drugs or weapons. This has a limited set of additional software; for example, in Xandros File Manager, CD burning speed is limited to the minimum burning speed of the CD drive (usually 4x speed) only, and it only comes with a 30-day trial of CrossOver Office instead of the full version included in the deluxe and business editions.

The creators of Jackass often felt that MTV's producers did not let the show run its free course due to the excessive restraints under which they put the Jackass team. Finally, Xandros Open Circulation Edition is a freely redistributable edition for non-commercial use. This was most prevalent in the eventual decline of the hit show Jackass. This version also includes CrossOver Office for running applications designed for Microsoft Windows and comes with a user manual and 90 days of free e-mail support. MTV has also come under criticism for being far too politically correct and sensitive when it came to censorship. There also tools for the administration and deployment of Xandros desktops within a company or institution. Afterwards the NFL indicated that MTV would not produce any further Super Bowl halftime shows, or any public event. Xandros Business Desktop is more expensive but includes support for Active Directory, and advanced microprocessor features like SMP and Hyperthreading.

This infamous halftime show featured the exposure of one of Janet Jackson's breasts, which was shown on live television. Surfside Linux also includes a USB headset for communications and gaming. The channel also faced criticism in the wake of the Super Bowl XXXVIII half time show — which it had produced. Alternatively, Surfside Linux comes with a user manual, 30 days of free e-mail support, and bundles a wide array of Internet software including several versions of Skype. 1 Because of the criticism the channel received over this, both MTV and VH1 decided to show the whole 10-hour Live 8 concert again the following weekend, this time without any commercial breaks or VJ interruptions. Its installer can resize NTFS partitions, and also bundles more software. MTV VJ's came onscreen to talk during the first guitar solo in "Comfortably Numb," then cut back for a few seconds before playing a commercial. The Deluxe edition includes a user manual, 60 days of free e-mail support, and the ability to run Microsoft Windows applications with CrossOver Office.

The epitome of this was the widely reported decision to cut to commercial during Pink Floyd's performance in London, which was bassist Roger Waters' first performance with the rest of the band since 1981. There are three editions, Standard, Deluxe and Surfside Linux. The broadcast of music was limited, as the network cut to its on-air personalities, celebrity interviews, and commercials in the middle of live acts. Xandros Desktop is for the home user, which is cheaper and easier to use than higher end versions. MTV and VH1 drew heavy criticism for their coverage of Live 8, the multinational concert of musical artists which raised awareness for African debt relief. Xandros makes products for both the consumer and business markets. The show also airs homosexual daters, which can be seen as controversial due to its open sexual nature that is open to viewers of various ages. .

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Critics also claim that bands sell well because they get a lot of exposure on MTV, rather than MTV picking the best bands to promote; and that MTV has too much influence in the music industry. Founded in 2001, the company is located in New York City and Ottawa, Ontario. Ironically, the channel has also been criticized for lacking programming. It is the creator of Xandros Desktop (a distribution of Linux), known for focus on business and new computer users and for being visually similar to Windows XP. MTV UK has also been attacked for over-use of on-screen graphics, such as logos, programme promotion and countdown timers, and its electronica-themed genre channel MTV Dance is often derided for playing a lack of dance music during the day, preferring a mix of pop-dance, pop, and R&B. Xandros is a company that produces Linux distributions. MTV channel does occasionally play music videos (albeit rarely) instead of exclusively relegating them to their genre channels.

The primary U.S. The same criticism has also been made of MTV in the USA, with its dearth of music videos, and its stronger focus on reality shows such as Road Rules, The Real World, Laguna Beach, and others as well. Videos are also often played between other shows and at night. Many argue, however, that as MTV runs nine music channels in the UK, it has delegated music videos to its genre channels in a bid to differentiate itself from the competition of the fourteen other music video-oriented channels.

MTV UK has recently been under fire as it no longer airs any daytime music videos, outside of parts of a few shows like Total Request Live and Making the Video, and focuses primarily on MTV produced reality shows such as The Osbournes and Punk'd. As early as 1985, some musicians were criticizing MTV for these reasons, perhaps most famously Dead Kennedys with "MTV − Get off the Air". Because of its visibility as a promotional tool for the recording industry, MTV has been criticized as overly commercial and accused of denigrating the importance of music in the music industry (replacing it with a purely visual aesthetic); this is an ongoing problem for punk and emo bands. This is in part because many young African-Americans prefer to watch BET rather than MTV.

Subsequently, MTV delved heavily into black musical acts, developing several hip-hop music-themed programs such as Yo! MTV Raps, and got rid of MTV X to make room for MTV Jams. Shortly thereafter, the network began heavily featuring videos from Michael Jackson's album Thriller, in particular "Billie Jean" and "Thriller", and Prince's album 1999, in particular the videos for the title track and "Little Red Corvette". MTV executives countered by claiming that there were few—if any—promotional videos available from black and other minority acts, although artists such as Diana Ross and The Jacksons had been making music videos before MTV existed. In its early years, MTV was criticized as racist, since the acts it featured were nearly exclusively white.

MTV Networks and Viacom have launched numerous native-language MTV-branded music channels to countries worldwide. MTV recently broadcast a new Indian Pop Culture channel called MTV Desi and University-oriented channel mtvU. Viacom, parent company of the MTV Networks, is also behind VH1, which is aimed at celebrity and popular culture programming; and CMT, which targets the country music market. The advent of digital satellite and cable has also brought greater diversity including channels such as MTV2, which features the slogan "Where The Music's At." In the U.S., MTV2 initially focused on playing music videos and other music-related programming exclusively; in Europe, MTV2 plays specific genres of music (mainly alternative and rock).

In November 2004, MTV announced it would begin airing in February 2005 MTV Base in Africa, [2] thereby reaching the world's last major populated area previously not served by MTV. In 2004, MTV's parent company Viacom bought Germany's largest provider for music television Viva Media AG, thereby creating the largest company for music on the European mainland. In the fall of 2004, Ozzy Osbourne's reality show Battle for Ozzfest aired. 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.

It has run for three seasons. In 2003, Newlyweds, another popular reality TV show that follows the lives of Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey, a music celebrity couple, began. television. 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.

In 2002, MTV aired the first episode of another 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 ran for three seasons and spawned numerous imitations, including the currently running Fear Factor on NBC. In 2000, MTV's Fear became the first 'scary' reality show where contestants filmed themselves. By the second half of the 1990s, MTV programming consisted primarily of non-music programming.

MTV started off showing music videos nearly full-time, but as time passed they introduced a variety of other shows, including animated cartoons such as Beavis and Butt-head and Daria; "reality" shows such as The Real World and Road Rules; prank/comedic shows such as The Tom Green Show, Jackass, and Punk'd; and soap operas such as Undressed. Today, MTV Networks also owns Nickelodeon, a cable channel airing children's and family programming. VH1 featured more popular music than MTV. After MTV's programming shifted towards heavy metal and rap music, MTV Networks launched a second network, Video Hits 1 (VH-1), in 1985.

In 1992, the network would add a movie award show with similar success. Seen as a fit of self-indulgence by a fledgling network at the time, the "VMAs" developed into a music-industry showcase marketed as a hip antidote to the Grammy awards. In 1984 the network produced its first MTV Video Music Awards show. Madonna rose to fame on MTV in the 1980s, and to this day continues to use the network to promote her music.

Michael Jackson launched the second wave of his career as an MTV staple. 1980s bands immediately identifiable with MTV include Eurythmics, RATT, Culture Club, Def Leppard, Duran Duran and Bon Jovi. A large number of rock stars of the 1980s and 1990s were made into household names by MTV. Several noted film directors got their start creating music videos, including Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, and David Fincher.

The early music videos that made up the bulk of the network's programming in the '80s 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. The term VJ (video jockey) was coined, a play on the term DJ (disc jockey.) Many VJs eventually became celebrities in their own right. Fresh-faced young men and women were hired to host the show's programming, and to introduce videos that were being played. The early format of the network was modeled after Top 40 radio.

(With similar tongue-in-cheek humor, the first video shown on MTV Europe was "Money for Nothing," by Dire Straits, which starts and finishes with repetition of the line "I want my MTV," voiced by Sting; on MTV Latino, the first video shown was "We Are Southamerican Rockers" by the Chilean band Los Prisioneros.). It went to air with the words, "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll!" Appropriately, the first music video shown on MTV was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles (often wrongly attributed to one of their contemporaries with a similar name, The Bangles). MTV started in New York City but was available in most of the United States by the mid-1980s with the nationwide expansion of cable. [1].

The programming was created by the visionary music producer, Bob Pittman, who later became president and chief executive officer, of MTV Networks. At midnight on August 1, 1981, the format was changed to music video (using a concept originally devised and sold to Warner Amex by Michael Nesmith, previously a member of the hit pop band The Monkees), and the name was changed to "MTV—Music Television". The popularity of the channel prompted Warner Amex to market the channel nationally to other cable services. 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.

The Qube system offered many specialized channels, including a children's channel called Pinwheel which would later become Nickelodeon. MTV's roots can be traced back to 1977, when Warner-Amex Cable (a joint venture between Warner Communications and American Express) launched the first two-way interactive cable TV system, Qube, in Columbus, Ohio. . In the 90's, MTV was often considered to be the driving force in American pop culture, but this influence has dramatically declined.

MTV's combination of music videos, youthful video jockeys, irreverent commentary, promotion of special rock concerts, and news and documentaries about bands and performers established the network's popularity with youthful viewers, and it became a leading promoter of new rock music and rock musicians. In 1985, it was acquired by Viacom Inc., and was folded into MTV Networks, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary. The network was founded on August 1, 1981 as an operation of Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, a joint venture of Warner Communications and American Express. Originally devoted to music videos, especially popular rock music, MTV later became an outlet for a variety of different material aimed at adolescents and young adults.

MTV: Music Television is a young adult cable television network headquartered in New York City. The opening track on Pantera's "The Great Southern Trendkill" song with the same name include the lyrics, "Buy it at a store, From MTV to on the floor, You look just like a star, It's proof you dont know who you are.". XLR was directed by Chris Prynoski, a former MTV animator whose own show (Downtown) had been cancelled by MTV years ago. Cartoon series Megas XLR frequently features the destruction of billboards and other paraphernilia for a group called "PoP TV", whose symbol is clearly based on the MTV Logo.

Lyrics to Beck's "MTV Makes Me Wanna Smoke Crack" include "MTV makes me wanna burn flesh!/Having an orgy down in the satellite dish!". Lyrics to Reel Big Fish's "Don't Start A Band" include "And even if you make itall the way to MTV/I don't think you could take it all the bullshit and the greed.". Lyrics to Manowar's "Blow Your Speakers" include "Wrote a letter to the MTV/What’s goin’ on now/Don’t ya care about me.". Bowling for Soup's "1985," contains the line, "Bring back Springsteen, Madonna, way before Nirvana there was U2 and Blondie, and music still on MTV.".

The song "MTV − Get off the Air" by the Dead Kennedys was a protest against the content and style of music that dominated MTV during the '80s. The declining popularity of MTV was noted as Bart scrawled "I no longer want my MTV" in a Simpsons' season 9 chalkboard gag; a parody of Dire Straits' 1985 song "Money for Nothing.". George Michael's "Freedom '90" makes reference to the pressures the network placed on visual image: "I went back home, got a brand new face / For the boys at MTV". "Habla Tu MTV".

"MTV Ayos" (MTV Philippines). "MTV Gue Banget"(MTV indonesia,2001-present). "Nongkrong di MTV" (Slogan in MTV Asia for MTV Indonesia before MTV Indonesia aired (1997-2001). "MTV Enjoy".

"Just See MTV". "Best Watch Your MTVs". "Not on TV, on M-TV". "Think".

Best watch your MTV's". "Don't let Jerry Win. "I Like..." (MTV Asia). The fact that since then MTV has played very little music may also add to why this slogan was dropped.).

"The Number One Music Channel" (slogan used for MTV UK from 2000 to 2002 as the channel broadcasts on digital cable and digital satellite, the slogan was axed in 2003. "I love my MTV". "MT-blah: Blah-blah Tele-blah". "MTV News: You Hear it First".

"M-m-m-m T-t-t-t V-v-v-v". "Watch and Learn". "Some People Just Don't Get It". "MTV Lives In Your Music".

Proud as a Moon Man" ("Weird Al" Yankovic's spoof of NBC's 1979-1981 slogan Proud as a Peacock). "MTV.. "I want my MTV". 3 South.

Liquid Television. Spy Groove. The Maxx. Æon Flux.

Cartoon Sushi. Undergrads. Quads!. Downtown.

Daria. Clone High. Celebrity Deathmatch. Beavis and Butt-head.