MTV In The 1980's

In the 1980’s, the entertainment industry had long been facing new challenges both in the home and publicly; one idea was the unification between the Music and Television industry. MTV soon became the new medium suited to consumers between the ages of 12 and 34, it changed the way we look at the world through television and music. From around the clock music videos in genre specific packages, then from the 1990’s shifting from just music to youth pop culture reality shows, cartoons, and game shows. MTV had always valued youth pop culture, music and spreading a message through to their young audience.

MTV debuted in August 1981 by MTV Networks (renamed Viacom Media Network) with the Buggles “Video Killed the Radio Star”, the new idea for a channel devoted music videos would end up revitalising and scandalising an industry that had no choice but to embrace the fact that music could not just sound good, it had to look good too. Although music videos were not a new concept and had been on TV shows like ‘Countdown’ and ‘Top of the Pops’, MTV was the concept of a cable channel devoted to 24 hours of music videos. The concept was very controversial and doubtful of success in the beginning but provided to be a success with a large young audience.

Record labels were at first blind to the growing impact of music

MTV stated they rejected black artists music because they did not fit the album-oriented rock format of the time. Even with all the backlash MTV stood by their defence until finally broad casting Michael Jackson on the Network. In the process, the airing of Jackson’s music on helped launch the him into one of the biggest performers of all time, and opened the door for other black musicians, like Prince, to be apart of the mainstream culture and