MTV: Music Television is a young adult cable television network headquartered in New York City and London. Originally devoted to music videos, especially popular music videos, MTV has since opted to show less music oriented programming, and has became an outlet for a variety of different television shows aimed at adolescents and young adults. Contrary to popular belief, the channel's name has nothing to do with music, and is not actually called Music Television. Music Television was an invention of fans because the channel played mostly music at the time it came out.
Broadcast began on August 1, 1981 as an operation of Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment Company, a joint venture of Warner Communications and American Express. WASEC, as it was known, consisted of two channels before the MTV launch: Nickelodeon, and The Movie Channel. In 1983, Warner and Amex spun off The Movie Channel to a company in partnership with Viacom, who contributed the pay TV channel Showtime. The new entity became known as Showtime/The Movie Channel.
In 1984, Warner and Amex attempted to take some cash out of their WASEC investment. The companies divested WASEC and it was renamed MTV Networks Inc. The parent companies registered for a stock IPO, which eventually went public at $15.00 per share. A year later, MTV saw the introduction of a sister channel, VH-1, short for Video Hits One. In 1986, MTV Networks Inc. was acquired by Viacom Inc., and was renamed MTV Networks, still a division of Viacom today. By 1987, Viacom itself was the target of a successful hostile takeover by National Amusements.
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 musical pop culture, but this influence has dramatically declined.
MTV was created in 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.
On August 1, 1981, MTV: Music Television launched with a programming format created by the visionary music producer, Bob Pittman (who later became president and chief executive officer, of MTV Networks *).
A previous venture, a TV series under the name was created by Pittman and former Monkee-turned solo artist Michael Nesmith, the latter of whom by the late 1970's was turning his attention to the music video format. A disagreement between Nesmith and Pittman over the show's direction led Nesmith to relinquish control to Pittman soon after. [http://living.scotsman.com/music.cfm?id=854582006
It went to air with the words (by original COO John Lack) "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll!" 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". (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 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 had died in 2004) was reunited as hosts on Sirius Satellite Radio. The original MTV theme song was a crunching guitar riff created by Jonathan Elias, played over a montage of moon landing and astronaut images. Other promotional spots featured animated MTV logos created by numerous animation studios, including work by such artists as Steve Fiorilla and Ken Brown.
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. Madonna is the most successful video performer in MTV history, and to this day she uses MTV to market 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 started off showing music videos nearly full-time, but as time passed they introduced a variety of other shows. Many of these shows were originally intended for such channels such as the Disney Channel, Discovery Channel, Spike, and Fox Reality. The new genres include 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 airing. It ran for three seasons and was ended after Jessica and Nick 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 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, * thereby reaching the world's last major populated area previously not served by MTV.
In 2006, MTV plans to launch MTV Ukraine, to pursue the emerging music market. In September, 2006 also planned to launch Baltic states as MTV Estonia, MTV Latvia and MTV Lithuania, with MTV Türkiye launching for the Turkish speaking market.
In June 2006, MTV also announced the creation of MTV K, the first music and pop-culture destination for young Korean-Americans. The channel will import the hottest and latest superstars from Korea, artists like BoA, Rain, and Se7en and will introduce new and emerging Korean-American artists making noise of their own. This will provide a chance for Korean and Korean-Americans artists alike to gain U.S. exposure.
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. Robert Bartz is CEO of MTV enterprises. MTV recently broadcast a University-oriented channel mtvU.
MHD — Music: High Definition is a high definition channel that MTV Networks launched on January 16, 2006. Originating from a studio in Vail, Colorado, MHD features programming from all three music-themed channels owned by MTV Networks — MTV, VH1 and CMT. Thusfar, only Verizon's FiOS TV , Comcast, and Cox Cable have agreed to carry the channel. Cox systems carrying MHD as of March 2006 include Atlanta, New Orleans, Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Phoenix with Boston getting MHD through Comcast. In June 2006, Cox began carrying MHD in the Fairfax market. Mitsubishi Electric Digital Televisions (http://www.mitsubishielectric.com/tv) is the exclusive sponsor of MHD.
MTV.com, the website of the channel, has expansion on it's broadcasts (including music videos), as well as an abundance of unique content. It has particularly expanded in it's podcasts, including MTV News RAW, with interviews various musical artists. MTV Overdrive, a video steaming service supported by ads, also has content on movies, recording artists, and even clips from MTV television programs.
These channels include (but are not limited to): MTV Canada, formerly talktv; MTV UK; MTV Ireland; MTV Spain; MTV France; MTV Germany; MTV Europe; MTV Portugal; MTV Adria; MTV Denmark; MTV Finland; MTV Italy; MTV Netherlands; MTV Norway; MTV Poland; MTV Romania; MTV Sweden; MTV Asia; MTV Japan; MTV China; MTV Korea; MTV Philippines; MTV Taiwan/Hong Kong; MTV Pakistan; MTV India; MTV Latin America; MTV Brasil; MTV Australia; MTV New Zealand and MTV Russia.
Some critics from 1981 to 1985 complained that the channel frequently aired videos by Hall & Oates—a white act with Motown and Philly soul influences, and heavy airplay on black radio—but not the black artists with whom they shared the R&B and dance charts.
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". Later, sister channel VH1 (introduced in 1985) would specialize in heavy rotation of black acts as part of its format.
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, in part because many young African Americans would rather watch BET than MTV. In recent years, MTV has been criticized for playing too much rap and R&B.
The same criticism has also been made of MTV in the USA, with its death of music videos, and its stronger focus on reality shows such as Road Rules, The Real World, The Real Orange County, 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.
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 are also critics of MTV and their reality shows such as NEXT, the game dating show that involves making the daters complete various tasks and games to avoid being "Nexted" on the basis of looks.
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 heavily edited a number of music videos to remove references to drugs, sex, or weapons. Edits include, but are not limited to:
However, MTV have also left certain words uncensored:
Gun references have been edited out of MTV videos as early as 1997 after the deaths of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G., when they were casualties of the East Coast-West Coast rap war.
Other politically diverse programs include True Life, which documents people's lives and problems, and shows an epilogue of after the show was shot (True Life); 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 (Sherman). MTV worked with P. Diddy's "Vote or Die" campaign, designed to encourage young people to vote. Allegedly, P. Diddy did not vote in the 2004 election (Vargas).
Cartoons produced by MTV include:
MTV2 created two animated shows in mid-2006
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