MTV has reached the quarter century mark this week. In the beginning, to put it simply, MTV put music on our TVs. What’s amazing is that at 25 years old, there are adults on this planet who do not know a time when MTV did not exist. It has become a staple in our existence (for those of us who watch TV). What started out as a channel that showed music videos has become a network that has consistently set the pace for pop-culture in our society. For 25 years the network has not only been broadcasting pop culture but in many ways, its helped define it.
The network has evolved over the years. When there simply weren’t enough hours in the day to contain all of its programming, the channel branched off to spawn sub-channels like MTV2. Many people have complained that MTV has broken away from music a bit too much. The channel used to be a haven for both popular music as well as new bands that could be discovered by the masses after their video was aired. Now-a-days people have begun to look elsewhere for new music. While MTV fills their hours with reality shows ranging from “unscripted dramas” like ‘Laguna Beach’ to their legendary ‘Real World’, people who are craving new music are going to myspace.com and iTunes as well as other internet-based music havens. This is not to say that MTV has lost touch with music or with young people. MTV is constantly reinventing itself.
The network became so huge that along with branching off, they also developed their own programming and even went as far as to create there own award shows. The MTV Movie awards and the Video Music Awards are a huge success among movie/music fans and artists alike. The Movie Awards provide a much more laid back event for fans and celebrities to celebrate movies that are adored by teens and 20-somethings but are unlikely to get any recognition at the Oscars or Golden Globes. Meanwhile, the VMA’s are in many ways, at Grammy level (in this writer’s opinion), at least as far as new music goes. The presenters, the performers and of course, the nominees consist of both veterans to the industry as well as many cutting edge musicians who, if they haven’t hit it big by the time they appear at the ceremony, are likely to shoot to the top of the charts in the weeks that follow.
How old were you when MTV first launched on August 1, 1981? Where you there watching at 12:01 am when John Lack first uttered the words “Ladies and Gentlemen, rock and roll.”? Where you even born yet? From Downtown Julie Brown to Thriller to ‘The Real World’ to ‘Road Rules’ to ‘Beavis and Butthead’ to ‘TRL’ to ‘The Osbournes’ to ‘The Newlyweds’ (I could go on and on), the network has helped give pop-culture a place on television and teenagers/young adults a channel to call their own.
