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MTV
(Music Television) is a cable television network owned
by Viacom. It is a network which was originally devoted
to music videos, musical movie awards and news. However,
given the growing popularity of reality shows, MTV later
became an outlet for a variety of different material aimed
at adolescents and young adults such as The Real World,
Inferno, Jackass, Pimp My Ride, Laguna Beach and others.
The network was founded on August 1, 1981 as an operation
of MTV Networks, with investments from such companies
as Warner Communications and American Express. It was
subsequently acquired by Viacom, Inc., 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 as well as a driving
force in pop culture. MTVs official website is at mtv
.com
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; and with the interactive QUBE service,
viewers could vote for their favorite songs and artists.
The popularity of the channel on the QUBE system prompted
Warner Amex to market the channel nationally to other
cable services. That happened at midnight on August 1,
1981, with the adoption of a music video format, and a
name change to "MTV - Music Television," an
event that started a pop culture phenomenon.
MTV
started in New York City in 1981 and became available
in most of the United States in the mid-1980s with the
nationwide expansion of cable. Ironically, the first music
video shown on MTV was "Video Killed the Radio Star"
by The Buggles (with similar tongue-in-cheek humor, the
first video shown on MTV Europe was "Money for Nothing",
by Dire Straits, which starts with the line "I want
my MTV"). 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.
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 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 she is still heavily dependent on 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 an important music-industry showcase, and
a hip antidote to the often-stuffy Grammy awards. After
MTV's programming changed to include more heavy metal
and rap music, MTV Networks launched a second network,
Video Hits 1 (VH1), in 1985. VH1 features more popular
music than MTV. MTV Networks also owns Nickelodeon, a
cable channel airing children's and family programming.
In 1991, the network would add a movie award show to similar
success.
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 sitcoms such
as Undressed. By the second half of the 1990s, MTV programming
consisted primarily of non-music programming. 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 programme 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 present a talk show on
US 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 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 heartland. 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.
MTV
has produced many television shows since its 1981 founding.
Here is an incomplete list of MTV shows that have made
this network notable:
12
Angry Viewers, 120 Minutes, 2gether, AL-TV, Alternative
Nation, Amp (MTV), Apartment 2F, Austin Stories, Beavis
and Butthead, Big Urban Myth Show, BIOrhythm, Buzzkill,
Cartoon Girl, Cartoon Sushi, Celebrity Deathmatch, Clone
High USA, Club MTV, Cribs, Damage Control, Daria, Date
My Mom, Dead at 21, DFX, Diary, Dismissed, Doggy Fizzle
Televizzle, Downtown, Fame or Shame, FANatic, FM Nation,
Fraternity Life, Greatest Bands, Greatest Hits, Greatest
MC's, Greatest Videos, Headbanger's Ball, Idiot Savants
(television show), I Want A Famous Face, Jackass, Just
Say Julie, Kathy's So Called Reality, Lip Service, Live
Through This, Liquid Television, Loveline, Lunch with
Jesse, Made, Making the Video, MC Battle, Motel California,
MTV Live, MTV Movie Awards , MTV Europe Music Awards ,
MTV Video Music Awards , My So-Called, Life , Newlyweds
, Oddities , Oddville MTV , Pimp My Ride , Pirate TV ,
Punk'd (AKA Punked), Remote Control , Room Raiders , Road
Rules , Rock Line , Rude Awakening , Say What? Karaoke
, Sifl and Olly , Singled out , Sorority Life , Spider-Man
, Spy Groove, Squirt TV, Station Zero , The Andy Dick
Show , The Ben Stiller Show , The Blame Game , The Brothers
Grunt , The Global Groove , The Grind , The Head , The
Idiot Box , The Jenny McCarthy Show , The Jon Stewart
Show , The Kathy Griffin Show , The Lyricist Lounge Show
, The Maxx , The New Tom Green Show , The Osbournes ,
The Real World , The State , The Super Adventure Team
, The Tom Green Show , Tough Enough , Totally Pauly ,
Total Request , Trashed , True Life , TRL , Undergrads
, Undressed , UNfiltered , Up North , Unplugged , Video
Clichés , Viva la Bam , webRIOT , Wildboyz , Yo!
MTV, Raps, You Wrote It, You Watch It and more.
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 US, MTV2 focuses on playing music videos and other
music-related programming; 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 the older market segments with more
focus on music from the 1970s and 1980s; and CMT, which
targets the country music market. MTV is wireless content
available on Virgin Mobile USA phones. It can be accessed
from both of Virgin Mobile USA's online portals; VirginXtras
or VirginXL. MTV provides news, games, artist information,
and other music-related features through this wireless
site. MTV has been a partner of Virgin Mobile USA since
the carrier's launch in the summer of 2002. Virgin Mobile
also has a partnership with Comedy Central, which is owned
by MTV Networks, the parent company of both networks.
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",
which became two of the all-time most popular videos on
the network. Subsequently, MTV would delve heavily into
black musical acts, including developing several hip-hop
music-themed programs such as Yo! MTV Raps, and a digital
cable channel called MTV Jams. 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. 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
music videos at all, focusing 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 in-between shows and at night.
The
same criticism has also been said with MTV in the USA,
with its dearth of music videos, and its stronger focus
on reality shows such as Road Rules, Real World, and others
as well. The primary US MTV channel does still play videos
(albeit in the late night hours), instead of relegating
them to their genre channels, as is the case with MTV
UK. 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. There have also been some critics who
have said that MTV promotes bad behavior 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!' since later in the evening
and during the night, MTV tends to show slightly more
adult-themed programming.
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