The rise and fall of MTV 

I hope reality television suffers the same fate music did when it was on the decline, and music itself makes a huge comeback.

@@Launchpad05 that would be amazing. Bring this country back to a time when we didn’t care about what the kardashians do

@@Launchpad05 I have a gut feeling it will.

@@kenxiong6830 god your not a kidding

At least we got vevo but mtv was great in the 80s and 90s after 2000s it just suked

Yep. Started with Road Rules.

So you are saying that you don't like and watch "teen moms"? 😂😂😂😂😂😂

@@yusufcali793 Why would I want to spend my time watching other peoples problems? I have my own I don't need to see their problems. Some you just want to kick them in the butt and tell them to get a job.

Same...

@@yusufcali793 I think that's when it truly died. When they kept showing teen mom and 16 and pregnant. The reality shows I did like were Next, Room Raiders, boiling point and silent library. Teen mom killed the network and it got worse from there

Gregory Butler : I was in the US Air Force the year MTV first aired. I got orders to Japan,so I decided to visit a cousin in California,before heading overseas. He had a VHS VCR and I had recorded 8 hours of MTV,carefully editing out the commercials. When I got to my duty station in Japan I told some of my co workers about MTV and the tape I made. I loaned the tape to a married guy in my shop and when I went to get it back,he told me his wife had accidently erased over it...

music today sucks anyway

That was the whole premise of the network in the first place.

Why? we have RU-vid. Why would I sit around and wait for my favorite videos to come on when I can go directly to RU-vid. Also this video didn't mention how racist MTV was in the beginning.

@@jakemiles1427 MTV is not racist now ? Just watch "2017 New Years Resolutions for White Guys" and tell me they are not racists.

It was cheap but brought in ratings. I worked in Reality T.V. after film school from 2003 to 2007 and loved the money, the laughs but hated what happened to MTV.

Actually watched that video the 1st time MTV ever aired.

@@TheWriterforhire It's not too late for you to escape Reality TV.

@@Launchpad05 I no longer work in t.v. at all due to a career change back in 2008.

Now it should be "Viacom killed the MTV Star" Where's Weird Al to make a parody when you need him?

VH1 was used as a transfer , a depository for most original MTV videos. It started just with the soft rock and romantic music, like Barry Manilo, Carpenters and such, and then eventually started adding the Duran Duran, Culture Club, Spandau Ballet, etc. from the original TV repertoire; then MTV started switching to rap and hip hop and those terrible reality shows. That is when I stopped...that’s stuff is not for me (although I admit to secretly enjoying Beavis and Butthead).

Same thing happened to BET

There were all owned by Viacom along with CMT.

OMG! I forgot all about VH-1... sheesh

The Box was my place for music videos

Bro that’s too much credit to give “us” lol

Yet they publicly embarrassed him after everything he did for them.

Well they sort of made each other, him, prince, and Madonna really was the 80s

Single-handedly? I liked MJ but come on now, we complaining about this too? I honestly don’t picture MJ and MTV... mtv to me was more of a rock and teen pop type of channel.

@@Elgringo2180 Well, Michael was the king of POP

that is historical that you were able to see that!

We all want the old MTV back.

At the beginning of 1984, I began to notice it got worse. It started to become more mainstream and less underground.

I remember waking up early during the late 2000s before school to watch headbands ball and the rest of the videos. Do some morning things to get ready and relax. But then jersey shore cane out and then began to invade everything, including life around me. And some mornings in the being of 2010, id wake up for headbangers ball and there that God awful tragedy was, taking over the morning music slots. I lost interest real quick after that became more frequent. Haven't watched mtv in about 11 years now.

Jersey shore, teen mom and 16 and pregnant.

Along with the music I used to also enjoy the animated shows like Beavis and Butt-head, and Daria. 😩 Those were some fun times too.

And Ridiculousness

@@joshuaholman7760 I HATED Jersey Shore. As a full blooded Jersain I was offended by it! Believe me, NO ONE from Jersey really acts or talks like that!!

_Aeon Flux_ got its start as a short in another show, _Liquid Television_ . That was fun.

I use to watch daria and the hills!!!

oh man, these three were gold!!! i never watch them on the original programming years though, only through streams

These helped MTV become a brilliant tv channel along with music programs 120minutes, Headbangers Ball, and The Party to name a few.

U seem to be German. That Ringtone thing was much more VIVA, not MTV

nah there were still popular shows during the 2000s

@@mas4583 Nah, that ringtone crap was everywhere back then, including MTV, you just couldn't escape it. What was even more annoying than the adverts themselves though, was that they would play at twice the volume. The 2000's were a dark period for music in general and it hasn't really improved ever since. One can blame illegal downloading for that as much as they like, but the real problem was the stolidity of the music industry and their incapability to come to grips with the latest developments. Their only way of responding to declining sales being those stupid talent shows propagating toothless shallow talents with the shelf life of fresh fish for short term profit instead of scouting for promising new talents and investing time in developing them, but instead dropping them as soon as their first album wouldn't sell enough copies, file lawsuits against file sharers, and yes, them bloody ringtones.

@@mike04574 Just because they were "popular", it doesn't mean they were any good. If you keep feeding the people shit, they'll start putting ketchup on it at some point.

@@mondegreen9709 didnt say they were good, i'm just saying MTV wasnt dead yet

Damn cribs takes me back

Pimp my ride and Cribs were all fake! Lol.

@@marilynlucas5128 wdym by cribs was fake, as in celebs weren't actually the owners of those houses?

@@Mirsab Yeah it was just a tv production. Lol

What about the cartoons like Daria, Beavis & Butthead or Celebrity Deathmatch?

Preach Sonny Jim!! Ditto for me on everything u said. U even mentioned The Tarney Spencer Band. They were actually broken up by the time that video(No Time to Lose) aired.

Preach buddy, preach!

@@skinzz2573 I wasn't aware of that about Tarney Spencer but I lived in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area in the early 80s and even though there were several great progressive rock stations, they didn't play songs like No Time to Lose and many of the others I mentioned so if it weren't for MTV, many people would probably would never have been exposed to those songs. Stay safe.

That's what was stolen from everyone, they aren't giving new talented people a platform anymore.

@@hendo337 Excellent point Hendo337. The main reason why so many 80s bands got any airtime on radio stations was because they were first given exposure on MTV. Today's bands don't have that platform which means many of them may never be discovered by the wider public. Damn shame!!!

Which cancellation? The first one or the surprisingly good single season revival series??

I feel so lucky to have lived through it in the 80’s. It was a special time for music culture.

Final nail in the coffin!

Yeah, I know what you mean. I like the show, but enough is too much!!! They even celebrated it;s 40th anniversary with a 3 day Ridiculousness marathon!! Yeah, a channel once known for 24/7 music just celebrated a milestone anniversary with a 3 day Ridiculousness marathon!! I mean, if you HAVE to keep the show on that weekend, do something creative like having Rob introduce the most popular videos in a music special, something!!

I was 22, and quit watching when the original 5 were no longer VJ'ing.

So now you are about 56 years old now. 😃

boomer

Agreed!

@Camon Talen Agreed, so it really died in the 90s.

Hey, I still do!! Though I mainly watch game shows, Toonami and Impractical Jokers.

Guess he never paid taxes

I was of the ‘90s MTV generation when things like Beavis & Butthead, Daria, and The Real World were cool. I remember liking those shows, but I also remember that the commercial breaks were so long, I would forget what I was watching.

It was already in decline before napster and youtube existed.

@@pcdispatch You know what? You're right. In the early 90s Warner Communications (then the parent company) saw the future in reality TV.

​@@chrisbacos , They were just searching for better ways to earn money. It was the same story for many European channels. I think Jamba extended the life of some channels. They pumped a lot of money in advertisements.

Ok, I gave you a like. Now tell me where that quote is from.

@@DrCash7 Simpsons of course :)

I wasn’t very happy when the decision was made to rebrand VH1 Classic as MTV Classic. I enjoyed watching the former, especially when “That Metal Show” was in the lineup. Now I don’t have cable at all and don’t miss those cable bills one bit.

Wow I didn’t even remember that because I saw the first “inaugural” broadcast of “I want to break free”. Granted, even before MTV Ive seen Somebody to love, Bohemian and We are the champions videos in late 70s , god did I love that group!...so IWTBF wasn’t in anyway surprising or a rarity for me. Just more to expect from Freddy :) but you are right it was banned, but just in US, not UK. Not sure, do you know?

It was the default channel for get togethers and house partys. Kids would be glued to it, skip school, not sleep, because they didn't want to miss anything cool.

WOW 😳😳 That was the same year I stopped watching it. From there it went down 👎🏿👎🏿👎🏿

It wasn't expensive to have the VJs and guests in studio in-between videos. They just refuse to break new artists that aren't corporate approved anymore.

Actually not true and a bit offensive. ... .. . Some goldfishes have bigger attention span. And it is only going to get worst.

An absolute disrespect to goldfishes

p

That comment really killed me 🤣🤣🤣🤣

+++

The fact that they ignore that the station was racist and it was a black man who saved that shit show, is an epic fail for this video. Just mentioning Michael in passing.... stupse.

@@ktammz i fully agree with you it’s just a big shame and unforgivable

@@ktammz Probably has a deal with MTV not to speak about MJ. You know how these corporations are.

Not true. I’m part of early 80s MTV generation and we were doing great without MJ. We were romantics, wanting a return of good all rock and the new wave brought by The Police, Duran Duran, Ultravox, OMD, etc really filled the gap and our hearts. Then suddenly even our beloved 60s and 70s heroes joined the party (Bowie, Fleetwood, Pink Floyd, the Stones, Kinks, etc) However, the album Thriller really rocked but it wasn’t even Thriller the one that stood the tallest was Billy Jean. And then of course the racism charges...so MTV had not choice but to go woke (not a term in those days) but you get the point. MJ was a demigod, but so was Madonna. I still preferred the Britons.

True. Nothing mentioned about that. MJ made MTV. Period.

It was actually good timing when MTV came out as that was the era of the first stereo TVs to be made.

It was for teenage kids trying to be edgy on their "rebellious phase", after that it was for pop culture.

Faith No More by Epic is a song that always comes to mind when I think of HBB.

Ah, might as well jump! Jump!

Thanks for the chuckle. 'Pure' nostalgia would be from the beginning when they had 5 VJ's - ALL MUSIC. This 90's stuff - okay . . . . .

@@terrylandess6072 huh? Lol you must be 60, MTV didn’t hit its stride until the 90s. Trust me they aren’t catering to your age group, too old.

@@Nightowl333 MTV took over the 80s in terms of music the 90s was when it was known for its edgy shows and then eventually teen idol pop culture that then bled into the early 00s MTVs time in the sun is over because no one watches Television anymore.

Occasionally they do this with '90s/00s throwback weekend'. They did it twice during quarantine.

I couldn't agree more.

Truth music died with MTV

The 80's music was great in general. Now there is little to rescue, I am pretty sure only a small amount of bands like the Artic Monkeys will be remembered and played 20 years from now

On the other hand, MTV changed the format while great new music was still available.

its all about the benjamins

@@mike04574 those bands were selling really well in the UK and Europe so it would have been worth the risk atleast

MTV has always been discriminatory to many even in their earliest days. There was a video of an interview where David Bowie confronted an MTV guy why they rarely shown black musicians video

Duran Duran had a bunch of videos and they started their career during early mtv days. They were played quite a bit. But I know it's true that there were few artists being played as I remember Rod Stewart had TONS of videos and was on all the time. I do believe a lot of artists were angry that mtv even existed, because they didn't want to make videos. Dio was not happy about it at all (have you seen him lol?). It didn't do any favors for artists who were unattractive or didn't want their appearance to be a marketing factor.

What area, NJ by chance? We had a UHF channel U68 that played interesting songs but they just ran on a loop, no VJs, even more repetitive than MTv, so they didn't make it.

Would you be talking about Video Music Box?

More like streaming services lol

Me too, and Metallica's Enter Sandman.👍

@@wizardofahhhs759 Good old days for MTV and Cartoon Network, and affordable video games like SNES which didn't cost your kidney!

mtv died in 1995

Hell yeah, tons of kids would stay up all night, skip school, almost never sleep because they didn't want tonmiss anything cool.

problem is the new music is utter garbage. MTV died when they said no more metal music will be played. we went from van halen type metal music and hot chicks to third eye blind and dudes wearing bees costumes. it did not last long after that i know it was my go to channel back in the day. once the music turned into grunge garbage it wasnt long after i quit watching.

Reality shows saved MTV the music content is what created MTV's decline that's why they moved away from music related content because nobody was watching it if you actually did research on the history and decline of MTV you would know that and metal rock music has been dead since the mid-90s I can tell you people are really old that are in this comment section and out of touch with what's actually popular back then and now and music opinions are subjective

@@Princeofdarkness45682 thats because the music sucked. back when the music was good everyone watched it. here is what we are trying to say music became shit early to mid 90's that they decided to play. and thus the reason for the decline.

@@dvvaughn564 that's your opinion not a proven fact. a lot of people think the 90s and 2000s were the Golden Age of music as well. music opinions are subjective not proven facts. just cuz you don't like something or your Boomer friends don't like something doesn't mean it's bad. I suggest you go listen to several songs back from the '80s '70s and '60s and a lot of them have not aged well. 90s and 2000s music triumphs over older music from 60s 70s and 80s in my opinion. even some curent music triumphs over old music from the 2000s 90s '80s and'70s and '60s and vice versa in my opinion. the reason MTV died was because of internet and social media it has nothing to do with the quality of the music or genres. since everybody has different tastes. next time do research please. the decline started when they only stuck to airing music videos and music related shows. reality shows bring in more ratings than music programming does. that's why there was a decline if MTV stuck to music videos and music really content their channel would have been gone way earlier.

@@Princeofdarkness45682 but IF the late 90's and 2000 were the "golden" age of music. one would think people would watch MTV more not less. Truth is mid 90's was the decline of music to this garbage we have now. now i liked my fathers generation of music motown in the 60's was good stuff temptations, fourtops. i would rather listen to that music then this new shit and or late 90's 2000. i was there in the 70 and 80's no need to go back and listen to them. i suggest YOU go back and listen to that music. 80's were the golden age of music ya know the music that started MTV. that grew MTV to the mega behemoth it once was. not going to argue about it anymore you clearly have no clue WTF you are talking about.

I grew up watching mtv through the 2000s. Mainly before school since they played music videos in the early morning hours while I had to get ready. But the 9ne show that finally killed any semblance of the mtv of old was Jersey whores. By 2010, that show was on constant repeat and eventually started swallowing the morning music blocks. Which killed the channel for me. Haven't watched mtv in 11 years now and I dobt feel im missing a thing.

@@joshuaholman7760 We true Jersians do NOT speak of that show!! Believe me, that is NOT how real Jersians behave!!

Unlike Mtv Nokia will rise from it's ashes someday.

But unlike Nokia, MTV is not even close to what it was even 15 years ago. Let alone what it was before I was born in the early 90s.

Wall of Voodoo. Great tune/video and I wouldn’t have known about it either. Here’s another one...welcome to the house of fun, now I’ve come of age. Can you name that tune?

@@jackb348 LOL, didn't remember that one from the lyrics, had to look it up but yeah, now I remember it. I remember one of the original VJ's saying that people would praise MTV for being so original and inventive with the videos they were showing, but he said they were so desperate for videos they would show anything.

Which MTV did you get -- US or Europe?

@@lawrencedoliveiro9104 we have a mix of both as far as I remember but Majority were Indian music of those day which includes solo artist, Group songs and bollywood music

@@swordfish_0219 Perhaps an India-specific MTV channel, then. Judging from other comments, it seems there were many regional MTV channels around the world, and just about all of them were much more successful at being pure music channels than the US one.

They are available in the US as well, on one of the free TV streaming services, maybe Pluto TV...

And they are limited to those eras

@@radicaledwards3449 Actually, they have several other channels, all genre based, at least on the streaming service that I saw...

@@radicaledwards3449We used to have VH1 Classic which plays 70s,80s,90s and 00s music videos. But it has since been replaced with MTV 80s.

All channels are Money Television though, except if they were a public service channel.

IT is RU-vid now just like RU-vid replace ESPN Classic, and Cartoon network also

I remember in the late 80s when they had dial MTV. That was so popular. Those were the days. I’d have MTV on for hours after I got home from school.

Thank you!

Some odd pauses and phrasing, like he ran out of script on his cue cards...

@@AndrewAMartin you mean like he's has run out to ...pause... CUE CARDS. haha

Glad you enjoyed!

and let’s not forget about the MTV Europe Music Awards. I grew up watching that show annually since 2008 when it used to bring some of the biggest names in the world of music. But (like MTV itself) it has become a total joke. The 2019 and 2020 EMAs were lacking in star power and MTV’s ideas of “big artists” are Niall Horan, NCT 127, Tate McRae and Jack Harlow. It’s become a big bad joke.

That was a channel actually worth watching.

Let's not forget yo MTV rap to great show

Great insight, and I totally agree!

Agree. I wish "cringey" was a word in the 1980's because that is what those VJ's were. Such pompous assholes talking about something that needs no discussion. The music videos were good though. Van Halen, ZZ Top, Robert Palmer, tons of others. I had to get off the couch and too a job in the 90's, so it didn't really leave me, I left it.

Yes

I'm 42 and in the 90' S MTV was my favorite channel.

@@heraldomedrano851 Here ya go Bud! ru-vid.com/group/PLm_2bCOAKGApoXQRAdzh3mWh4YEdBz4vU

Now that's interesting

If they were smart (sorry I'll stop laughing in a minute) They would dedicate one day a week to replaying the original programming from day one - of course it would be bloated with crap commercials so maybe it's just best to let it die from it's mutations.

True asf

Rap city was on bet

🤣 rap city was on bet not MTV

💀💀💀💀

You must not be old enough to remember (or even born) when that song came out, because that is Captain Obvious to those of us who remember. And the line is I want my MTV.

Yes, my young padewan (Hehehehe...Yoda )

Imagine if the song stated with the phrase 'I Want My Reality TV'.

Now look at them yo yo's that's the way you do it. You play the guitar on the mtv.

@@jackb348 so captain obvious, fo you feel good about yourself? How does it feel like to be the only person able to use Google to correct a tiny typo on a meaningless comment on RU-vid? Did you sleep better that night? Did you got a Pulitzer prize for that? My gods! It must feel amazing to be you!

My favorite VJ.......