History Creator / MTV

[[NewMediaAreEvil Like any new trend in popular culture]], it wouldn't be long before MTV was hit with its first criticism from both the left and the right. In its early years, it was ''all white.''[[note]]In its early days, only a handful of Black artists were played, on an incidental basis, and were mostly British or Caribbean acts associated with ska and new wave like Eddy Grant, Musical Youth, Creator/GraceJones, and the multi-racial groups like Music/TheSpecials, Thompson Twins, and Music/CultureClub.[[/note]] Music/DavidBowie among others sharply criticized the network [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGiVzIr8Qg during a live 1983 interview]] for not playing videos by black artists. Programming directors attributed this to the fact that they were playing rock[[note]]And uh... remind me, ''who'' created rock and roll?[[/note]], primarily AOR -- "album-oriented" rock[[note]]and [[SarcasmMode of course]] [[Music/LionelRichie there]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Baker weren't]] [[Music/MarvinGaye any]] [[Music/StevieWonder black]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokey_Robinson artists]] doing AOR[[/note]], and that they didn't want to "cater to fringe groups."[[note]] A not so subtle dig at the rising hip-hop scene.[[/note]] Various former [=VJs=] and executives at MTV (including Carolyn Baker, their former head of talent and acquisition who was herself black) have discussed the causes of this, noting on one hand that the record industry in general was giving black artists short shrift in the '80s[[note]]and coming under heavy fire from the Black Music Association for it[[/note]] (including when it came to funding music videos); but also that MTV, which could have used its influence to rectify the situation, was instead arguably fueling the problem with its reluctance to show videos by non-white artists. In any event, Music/MichaelJackson and Music/{{Prince}}, with their undeniable cross-racial appeal[[note]]''Salon'' senior writer Andrew Leonard, who had worked as a night club DJ in 1980s Taipei, [[https://www.salon.com/2009/06/26/remembering_michael/ observed]] that certain songs got all the foreigners on the floor, others appealed to Taiwanese women, and so on: but "'Billie Jean' was the song that you saved for when you needed to rejuvenate a dead night; a magic trick that could instantly transform a cemetery into a rave. As the first sinister notes pumped out of the speakers, you could see ears prick up and bodies tense all over the club, as if a meadow full of grazing deer had suddenly caught the scent of a pack of wolves. Except, instead of fleeing in terror, the mass reaction was to surge onto the dance floor." KHIL's Mark Lucke, in redneck-heavy Willcox, Arizona, [[https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jun/06/radio-silence-how-the-disappearance-of-rural-stations-takes-americas-soul-with-them noted]] that in the local honky-tonk bar, "you have your typical George Strait po-dunky songs, and there are people out there, but it’s boring. No one’s alive. And then all of a sudden, they put on Michael Jackson. And that dance floor was packed, like sardines. And then they went back to po-dunk, and it died."[[/note]] are often credited for laying the first cracks in MTV's color barrier (with CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff threatening to pull all of the label's videos from MTV if they didn't show Michael). By 1984, videos by black artists were in regular rotation on the network. In 1985, meanwhile, the HardcorePunk band Music/DeadKennedys released their classic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oCPNMZuWwI "MTV Get Off the Air",]] attacking the young network for devaluing the importance of music and for being a corporate shill. Feminists criticized the channel's videos for [[MaleGaze their sexualized depiction of women]], especially at the height of the HairMetal and later GlamRap booms. From the other direction, MTV's also long been a favorite whipping boy for conservative MoralGuardians, who have long felt it to be a den of {{filth}}, dangerous behavior, left-wing activism, and {{political correctness|GoneMad}}, leading MTV to adopt a strict policy prohibiting videos with Satanic or anti-religious themes. Of course, [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity none of this did anything to hurt the network's popularity]] -- famously, UsefulNotes/BillClinton's appearances on MTV provided a huge boost to his youth support during his Presidential campaign in 1992.

[[NewMediaAreEvil Like any new trend in popular culture]], it wouldn't be long before MTV was hit with its first criticism from both the left and the right. In its early years, it was ''all white.''[[note]]In its early days, only a handful of Black artists were played, on an incidental basis, and were mostly British or Caribbean acts associated with ska and new wave like Eddy Grant, Musical Youth, Music/GraceJones, and the multi-racial groups like Music/TheSpecials, Thompson Twins, and Music/CultureClub.[[/note]] Music/DavidBowie among others sharply criticized the network [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGiVzIr8Qg during a live 1983 interview]] for not playing videos by black artists. Programming directors attributed this to the fact that they were playing rock[[note]]And uh... remind me, ''who'' created rock and roll?[[/note]], primarily AOR -- "album-oriented" rock[[note]]and [[SarcasmMode of course]] [[Music/LionelRichie there]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Baker weren't]] [[Music/MarvinGaye any]] [[Music/StevieWonder black]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokey_Robinson artists]] doing AOR[[/note]], and that they didn't want to "cater to fringe groups."[[note]] A not so subtle dig at the rising hip-hop scene.[[/note]] Various former [=VJs=] and executives at MTV (including Carolyn Baker, their former head of talent and acquisition who was herself black) have discussed the causes of this, noting on one hand that the record industry in general was giving black artists short shrift in the '80s[[note]]and coming under heavy fire from the Black Music Association for it[[/note]] (including when it came to funding music videos); but also that MTV, which could have used its influence to rectify the situation, was instead arguably fueling the problem with its reluctance to show videos by non-white artists. In any event, Music/MichaelJackson and Music/{{Prince}}, with their undeniable cross-racial appeal[[note]]''Salon'' senior writer Andrew Leonard, who had worked as a night club DJ in 1980s Taipei, [[https://www.salon.com/2009/06/26/remembering_michael/ observed]] that certain songs got all the foreigners on the floor, others appealed to Taiwanese women, and so on: but "'Billie Jean' was the song that you saved for when you needed to rejuvenate a dead night; a magic trick that could instantly transform a cemetery into a rave. As the first sinister notes pumped out of the speakers, you could see ears prick up and bodies tense all over the club, as if a meadow full of grazing deer had suddenly caught the scent of a pack of wolves. Except, instead of fleeing in terror, the mass reaction was to surge onto the dance floor." KHIL's Mark Lucke, in redneck-heavy Willcox, Arizona, [[https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jun/06/radio-silence-how-the-disappearance-of-rural-stations-takes-americas-soul-with-them noted]] that in the local honky-tonk bar, "you have your typical George Strait po-dunky songs, and there are people out there, but it’s boring. No one’s alive. And then all of a sudden, they put on Michael Jackson. And that dance floor was packed, like sardines. And then they went back to po-dunk, and it died."[[/note]] are often credited for laying the first cracks in MTV's color barrier (with CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff threatening to pull all of the label's videos from MTV if they didn't show Michael). By 1984, videos by black artists were in regular rotation on the network. In 1985, meanwhile, the HardcorePunk band Music/DeadKennedys released their classic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oCPNMZuWwI "MTV Get Off the Air",]] attacking the young network for devaluing the importance of music and for being a corporate shill. Feminists criticized the channel's videos for [[MaleGaze their sexualized depiction of women]], especially at the height of the HairMetal and later GlamRap booms. From the other direction, MTV's also long been a favorite whipping boy for conservative MoralGuardians, who have long felt it to be a den of {{filth}}, dangerous behavior, left-wing activism, and {{political correctness|GoneMad}}, leading MTV to adopt a strict policy prohibiting videos with Satanic or anti-religious themes. Of course, [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity none of this did anything to hurt the network's popularity]] -- famously, UsefulNotes/BillClinton's appearances on MTV provided a huge boost to his youth support during his Presidential campaign in 1992.

[[NewMediaAreEvil Like any new trend in popular culture]], it wouldn't be long before MTV was hit with its first criticism from both the left and the right. In its early years, it was ''all white.'' Music/DavidBowie among others sharply criticized the network [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGiVzIr8Qg during a live 1983 interview]] for not playing videos by black artists. Programming directors attributed this to the fact that they were playing rock[[note]]And uh... remind me, ''who'' created rock and roll?[[/note]], primarily AOR -- "album-oriented" rock[[note]]and [[SarcasmMode of course]] [[Music/LionelRichie there]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Baker weren't]] [[Music/MarvinGaye any]] [[Music/StevieWonder black]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokey_Robinson artists]] doing AOR[[/note]], and that they didn't want to "cater to fringe groups."[[note]] A not so subtle dig at the rising hip-hop scene.[[/note]] Various former [=VJs=] and executives at MTV (including Carolyn Baker, their former head of talent and acquisition who was herself black) have discussed the causes of this, noting on one hand that the record industry in general was giving black artists short shrift in the '80s[[note]]and coming under heavy fire from the Black Music Association for it[[/note]] (including when it came to funding music videos); but also that MTV, which could have used its influence to rectify the situation, was instead arguably fueling the problem with its reluctance to show videos by non-white artists. In any event, Music/MichaelJackson and Music/{{Prince}}, with their undeniable cross-racial appeal[[note]]''Salon'' senior writer Andrew Leonard, who had worked as a night club DJ in 1980s Taipei, [[https://www.salon.com/2009/06/26/remembering_michael/ observed]] that certain songs got all the foreigners on the floor, others appealed to Taiwanese women, and so on: but "'Billie Jean' was the song that you saved for when you needed to rejuvenate a dead night; a magic trick that could instantly transform a cemetery into a rave. As the first sinister notes pumped out of the speakers, you could see ears prick up and bodies tense all over the club, as if a meadow full of grazing deer had suddenly caught the scent of a pack of wolves. Except, instead of fleeing in terror, the mass reaction was to surge onto the dance floor." KHIL's Mark Lucke, in redneck-heavy Willcox, Arizona, [[https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jun/06/radio-silence-how-the-disappearance-of-rural-stations-takes-americas-soul-with-them noted]] that in the local honky-tonk bar, "you have your typical George Strait po-dunky songs, and there are people out there, but it’s boring. No one’s alive. And then all of a sudden, they put on Michael Jackson. And that dance floor was packed, like sardines. And then they went back to po-dunk, and it died."[[/note]] are often credited for laying the first cracks in MTV's color barrier (with CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff threatening to pull all of the label's videos from MTV if they didn't show Michael). By 1984, videos by black artists were in regular rotation on the network. In 1985, meanwhile, the HardcorePunk band Music/DeadKennedys released their classic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oCPNMZuWwI "MTV Get Off the Air",]] attacking the young network for devaluing the importance of music and for being a corporate shill. Feminists criticized the channel's videos for [[MaleGaze their sexualized depiction of women]], especially at the height of the HairMetal and later GlamRap booms. From the other direction, MTV's also long been a favorite whipping boy for conservative MoralGuardians, who have long felt it to be a den of {{filth}}, dangerous behavior, left-wing activism, and {{political correctness|GoneMad}}, leading MTV to adopt a strict policy prohibiting videos with Satanic or anti-religious themes. Of course, [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity none of this did anything to hurt the network's popularity]] -- famously, UsefulNotes/BillClinton's appearances on MTV provided a huge boost to his youth support during his Presidential campaign in 1992.

The results were fantastic. In TheEighties, MTV was the iTunes, Website/YouTube, ''and'' Spotify of the day, a revolution in pop culture and how music was enjoyed. Countless bands and artists (Music/{{Madonna}}, Music/MichaelJackson, Music/DuranDuran, Music/RickAstley, and just about every HairMetal band) saw their careers [[ColbertBump launched or furthered]] because of the heavy video rotation of some of their songs. If they were popular in the '80s, they were on MTV. Later in the decade, the network would also receive acclaim for devoting time to bands that played what was then called "[[CollegeRadio college rock]]" (now known as AlternativeRock) on their ''120 Minutes'' series, as well as HeavyMetal on ''Series/HeadbangersBall'' and [[HipHop hip-hop/rap]] on ''Yo! MTV Raps''. While image, style, and appearance were important parts of the music world long before MTV (just look at Music/DavidBowie, Music/TheBeatles, or even Music/ElvisPresley,) the network's rise elevated those things into an art form almost on par with the music itself.

See also Creator/MuchMusic, a similar Canadian network that previously launched an American feed, now known as Fuse.[[note]]CFMT-TV (now known as OMNI) in Toronto also branded itself as "MTV" for a time during the 1980s, though in this case the "M" stood for "multicultural" and not "music." The channel did, though, air some programming under the American MTV branding.[[/note]]

See also Creator/MuchMusic, a similar Canadian network that previously launched an American feed, now known as Fuse.

Today, the main MTV network has all but abandoned playing music outside of special occasions like the [[UsefulNotes/MTVVideoMusicAward Video Music Awards]].[[note]] As of December 5, 2016, the network no longer airs music video blocks, with videos now being seen during commercial breaks, video premieres, and special occasions; For instance, the death of Music/{{Prince}} in April 2016 saw the channel pre-empt its afternoon programming to devote several hours worth of airtime to playing his videos.[[/note]] Even [=MTV2=], which used to play only a few hours of music a day in the early morning hours, eventually dropped its video blocks in November 2017. Despite music videos being the first to film consistently in the format, they didn't even air any videos in UsefulNotes/HighDefinition until '''August 2012''', long after rival network Fuse (which was created partly in response to MTV's decay) had converted to HD. The kids of the "MTV Generation" have grown up to have kids of their own, the network's popularity amongst music fans has faded a great deal since its heyday in the '80s and '90s, the aforementioned rise of online music services, and the current erosion of cable ratings across the television landscape doesn't help the network's case either.

* ''Series/SixteenAndPregnant'' (2009-14, 2020)
* ''WesternAnimation/AeonFlux'' (1991-92, 1995)

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'' (1993-97, 2011)

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' (1997-2002)

* ''Film/DemiLovatoStayStrong''

* ''Series/GeordieShore'' (2011-present; aired on MTV UK)

* ''Series/TheHills'' (2006-10)

* ''Series/RoadRules'' (1995-2004, 2007)

* ''Series/VivaLaBam'' (2003-05)
* ''Series/{{Wildboyz}}'' (2003-04; moved to [=MTV2=] for an additional two seasons)

At the same time, a new focus was placed on pop culture in general rather than just music, following the success of non-music shows like ''Series/RemoteControl'' (MTV's first non-video program, a game show revolving around inane TV factoids), ''Series/TheRealWorld'', ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'', and others. MTV still played a lot of music, just not as much as it used to. MTV became home to a variety of offbeat original live-action and animated programs, most notably the anthology program ''WesternAnimation/LiquidTelevision'' that [[MorePopularSpinoff spawned]] a number of MTV's best-remembered non-music programs from the '90s, including ''WesternAnimation/AeonFlux'', ''WesternAnimation/TheHead'', and the aforementioned ''B&B''. Other shows from this era include the SketchComedy show ''Series/TheState'', the BloodyHilarious {{claymation}} show ''WesternAnimation/CelebrityDeathmatch'', and the ''B&B'' {{spinoff}} ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}''. ''TRL'' itself quickly became more focused on the Times Square studio antics than the music videos, which would in many cases only get ''30 seconds'' of airtime. Nevertheless, for many Gen-Xers and millennials, the argument over whether the '80s or the '90s was MTV's GoldenAge can be a heated one, and boils down largely to whether one prefers the purely music-driven format of the '80s or the edgy, countercultural non-music shows of the '90s. In any event, in 1996 MTV created a sister network, initially known as [=M2=] but later known as [=MTV2=], that would be dedicated entirely to music to answer concerns over the main network's shift in programming.

Today, the main MTV network has all but abandoned playing music outside of special occasions like the Video Music Awards.[[note]] As of December 5, 2016, the network no longer airs music video blocks, with videos now being seen during commercial breaks, video premieres, and special occasions; For instance, the death of Music/{{Prince}} in April 2016 saw the channel pre-empt its afternoon programming to devote several hours worth of airtime to playing his videos.[[/note]] Even [=MTV2=], which used to play only a few hours of music a day in the early morning hours, eventually dropped its video blocks in November 2017. Despite music videos being the first to film consistently in the format, they didn't even air any videos in UsefulNotes/HighDefinition until '''August 2012''', long after rival network Fuse (which was created partly in response to MTV's decay) had converted to HD. The kids of the "MTV Generation" have grown up to have kids of their own, the network's popularity amongst music fans has faded a great deal since its heyday in the '80s and '90s, the aforementioned rise of online music services, and the current erosion of cable ratings across the television landscape doesn't help the network's case either.

[[NewMediaAreEvil Like any new trend in popular culture]], it wouldn't be long before MTV was hit with its first criticism. In its early years, it was ''all white.'' Music/DavidBowie among others sharply criticized the network [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGiVzIr8Qg during a live 1983 interview]] for not playing videos by black artists. Programming directors attributed this to the fact that they were playing rock[[note]]And uh... remind me, ''who'' created rock and roll?[[/note]], primarily AOR -- "album-oriented" rock[[note]]and [[SarcasmMode of course]] [[Music/LionelRichie there]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Baker weren't]] [[Music/MarvinGaye any]] [[Music/StevieWonder black]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokey_Robinson artists]] doing AOR[[/note]], and that they didn't want to "cater to fringe groups."[[note]] A not so subtle dig at the rising hip-hop scene.[[/note]] Various former [=VJs=] and executives at MTV (including Carolyn Baker, their former head of talent and acquisition who was herself black) have discussed the causes of this, noting on one hand that the record industry in general was giving black artists short shrift in the '80s[[note]]and coming under heavy fire from the Black Music Association for it[[/note]] (including when it came to funding music videos); but also that MTV, which could have used its influence to rectify the situation, was instead arguably fueling the problem with its reluctance to show videos by non-white artists. In any event, Music/MichaelJackson and Music/{{Prince}}, with their undeniable cross-racial appeal[[note]]''Salon'' senior writer Andrew Leonard, who had worked as a night club DJ in 1980s Taipei, [[https://www.salon.com/2009/06/26/remembering_michael/ observed]] that certain songs got all the foreigners on the floor, others appealed to Taiwanese women, and so on: but "'Billie Jean' was the song that you saved for when you needed to rejuvenate a dead night; a magic trick that could instantly transform a cemetery into a rave. As the first sinister notes pumped out of the speakers, you could see ears prick up and bodies tense all over the club, as if a meadow full of grazing deer had suddenly caught the scent of a pack of wolves. Except, instead of fleeing in terror, the mass reaction was to surge onto the dance floor." KHIL's Mark Lucke, in redneck-heavy Willcox, Arizona, [[https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jun/06/radio-silence-how-the-disappearance-of-rural-stations-takes-americas-soul-with-them noted]] that in the local honky-tonk bar, "you have your typical George Strait po-dunky songs, and there are people out there, but it’s boring. No one’s alive. And then all of a sudden, they put on Michael Jackson. And that dance floor was packed, like sardines. And then they went back to po-dunk, and it died."[[/note]] are often credited for laying the first cracks in MTV's color barrier (with CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff threatening to pull all of the label's videos from MTV if they didn't show Michael). By 1984, videos by black artists were in regular rotation on the network. In 1985, meanwhile, the HardcorePunk band Music/DeadKennedys released their classic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oCPNMZuWwI "MTV Get Off the Air",]] attacking the young network for devaluing the importance of music and for being a corporate shill. Feminists criticized the channel's videos for [[MaleGaze their sexualized depiction of women]], especially at the height of the HairMetal and later GlamRap booms. From the other direction, MTV's also long been a favorite whipping boy for conservative MoralGuardians, who have long felt it to be a den of {{filth}}, dangerous behavior, left-wing activism, and {{political correctness|GoneMad}}, leading MTV to adopt a strict policy prohibiting videos with Satanic or anti-religious themes. Of course, [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity none of this did anything to hurt the network's popularity]] -- famously, UsefulNotes/BillClinton's appearances on MTV provided a huge boost to his youth support during his Presidential campaign in 1992.

Like any new trend in popular culture, it wouldn't be long before MTV was hit with its first criticism. In its early years, it was ''all white.'' Music/DavidBowie among others sharply criticized the network [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGiVzIr8Qg during a live 1983 interview]] for not playing videos by black artists. Programming directors attributed this to the fact that they were playing rock[[note]]And uh... remind me, ''who'' created rock and roll?[[/note]], primarily AOR -- "album-oriented" rock[[note]]and [[SarcasmMode of course]] [[Music/LionelRichie there]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Baker weren't]] [[Music/MarvinGaye any]] [[Music/StevieWonder black]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokey_Robinson artists]] doing AOR[[/note]], and that they didn't want to "cater to fringe groups."[[note]] A not so subtle dig at the rising hip-hop scene.[[/note]] Various former [=VJs=] and executives at MTV (including Carolyn Baker, their former head of talent and acquisition who was herself black) have discussed the causes of this, noting on one hand that the record industry in general was giving black artists short shrift in the '80s[[note]]and coming under heavy fire from the Black Music Association for it[[/note]] (including when it came to funding music videos); but also that MTV, which could have used its influence to rectify the situation, was instead arguably fueling the problem with its reluctance to show videos by non-white artists. In any event, Music/MichaelJackson and Music/{{Prince}}, with their undeniable cross-racial appeal[[note]]''Salon'' senior writer Andrew Leonard, who had worked as a night club DJ in 1980s Taipei, [[https://www.salon.com/2009/06/26/remembering_michael/ observed]] that certain songs got all the foreigners on the floor, others appealed to Taiwanese women, and so on: but "'Billie Jean' was the song that you saved for when you needed to rejuvenate a dead night; a magic trick that could instantly transform a cemetery into a rave. As the first sinister notes pumped out of the speakers, you could see ears prick up and bodies tense all over the club, as if a meadow full of grazing deer had suddenly caught the scent of a pack of wolves. Except, instead of fleeing in terror, the mass reaction was to surge onto the dance floor." KHIL's Mark Lucke, in redneck-heavy Willcox, Arizona, [[https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jun/06/radio-silence-how-the-disappearance-of-rural-stations-takes-americas-soul-with-them noted]] that in the local honky-tonk bar, "you have your typical George Strait po-dunky songs, and there are people out there, but it’s boring. No one’s alive. And then all of a sudden, they put on Michael Jackson. And that dance floor was packed, like sardines. And then they went back to po-dunk, and it died."[[/note]] are often credited for laying the first cracks in MTV's color barrier (with CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff threatening to pull all of the label's videos from MTV if they didn't show Michael). By 1984, videos by black artists were in regular rotation on the network. In 1985, meanwhile, the HardcorePunk band Music/DeadKennedys released their classic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oCPNMZuWwI "MTV Get Off the Air",]] attacking the young network for devaluing the importance of music and for being a corporate shill. Feminists criticized the channel's videos for [[MaleGaze their sexualized depiction of women]], especially at the height of the HairMetal and later GlamRap booms. From the other direction, MTV's also long been a favorite whipping boy for conservative MoralGuardians, who have long felt it to be a den of {{filth}}, dangerous behavior, left-wing activism, and {{political correctness|GoneMad}}, leading MTV to adopt a strict policy prohibiting videos with Satanic or anti-religious themes. Of course, [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity none of this did anything to hurt the network's popularity]] -- famously, UsefulNotes/BillClinton's appearances on MTV provided a huge boost to his youth support during his Presidential campaign in 1992.

* MTV Classic: Originally a throwback channel that featured older MTV programming and music videos, both primarily from the 1990s, but is now dedicated solely to the latter. Before 2016, it was Creator/VH1 Classic, which focused on older music (and occasionally new music from classic artists) primarily from the 1970s and 1980s.

* ''Series/TheShannaraChronicles'' (2016; moved to [[Creator/ParamountNetwork Spike]] for its second season)

* ''WesternAnimation/LiquidTelevision'' (1991-95; a revival was streamed online in 2017)

* ''Series/{{Punkd}}'' (2003-07, 2012; a revival series aired on Creator/{{BET}} in 2015)

* ''Series/SixteenAndPregnant''
* ''WesternAnimation/AeonFlux''
* ''Series/TheAndyMilonakisShow''
* ''Series/{{Awkward}}''
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Bamimation}}'' (failed {{pilot}})
* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead''
* ''Series/TheBenStillerShow''
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBrothersGrunt''
* ''WesternAnimation/CartoonSushi''
* ''Series/CatfishTheTVShow''
* ''WesternAnimation/CelebrityDeathmatch''
* ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh''
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}''
* ''Series/DeadAt21''
* ''WesternAnimation/DeadtimeStories'' (failed pilot)
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Downtown}}''
* ''Series/FakingIt''
* ''Series/FindingCarter''
* ''Series/GeordieShore''
* ''Series/GirlCode''
* ''WesternAnimation/GoodVibes''
* ''WesternAnimation/TheHead''
* ''Series/HeadbangersBall''
* ''Series/TheHills''
* ''Series/{{Jackass}}''
* ''Series/JerseyShore''
* ''[[Series/KidnappedMTV Kidnapped]]''
* ''Series/LagunaBeach''
* ''WesternAnimation/LiquidTelevision''
* ''ComicBook/TheMaxx''
* ''ComicStrip/MigraineBoy''
* ''Series/TheMonkees''
* ''Series/MTVLive''
* ''Series/MySuperSweetSixteen''
* ''Series/NewlywedsNickAndJessica''
* ''Series/PimpMyRide''
* ''Series/{{Punkd}}''
* ''Series/TheRealWorld''
* ''Series/RemoteControl''
* ''Series/RoadRules''
* ''Series/{{Scream|TVSeries}}''
* ''Series/TheShannaraChronicles''
* ''Series/TheSiflAndOllyShow''
* ''Series/SingledOut''
* ''Series/{{Skins}}'' (The [[TransatlanticEquivalent American remake]])
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''
* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheNewAnimatedSeries''
* ''WesternAnimation/SpyGroove''
* ''Series/TheState''
* ''WesternAnimation/StationZero''
* ''Series/SweetVicious''
* ''Series/TeenWolf''
* ''Series/TheTomGreenShow''
* ''Series/{{Trashed}}''
* ''Series/TrueLife''
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Undergrads}}''
* ''Series/{{Undressed}}''
* ''Series/VivaLaBam''
* ''Series/{{Wildboyz}}''
* ''Series/ZachStoneIsGonnaBeFamous''

Like any new trend in popular culture, it wouldn't be long before MTV was hit with its first criticism. In its early years, it was ''all white.'' Music/DavidBowie among others sharply criticized the network [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGiVzIr8Qg during a live 1983 interview]] for not playing videos by black artists. Programming directors attributed this to the fact that they were playing rock[[note]]And uh... remind me, ''who'' created rock and roll?[[/note]], primarily AOR -- "album-oriented" rock[[note]]and [[SarcasmMode of course]] [[Music/LionelRichie there]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Baker weren't]] [[Music/MarvinGaye any]] [[Music/StevieWonder black]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokey_Robinson artists]] doing AOR[[/note]], and that they didn't want to "cater to fringe groups."[[note]] A not so subtle dig at the rising hip-hop scene.[[/note]] Various former [=VJs=] and executives at MTV (including Carolyn Baker, their former head of talent and acquisition who was herself black) have discussed the causes of this, noting on one hand that the record industry in general was giving black artists short shrift in the '80s[[note]]and coming under heavy fire from the Black Music Association for it[[/note]] (including when it came to funding music videos); but also that MTV, which could have used its influence to rectify the situation, was instead arguably fueling the problem with its reluctance to show videos by non-white artists. In any event, Music/MichaelJackson and Music/{{Prince}}, with their undeniable cross-racial appeal[[note]]''Salon'' senior writer Andrew Leonard, who had worked as a night club DJ in 1980s Taipei, [[https://www.salon.com/2009/06/26/remembering_michael/ observed]] that certain songs got all the foreigners on the floor, others appealed to Taiwanese women, and so on: but "'Billie Jean' was the song that you saved for when you needed to rejuvenate a dead night; a magic trick that could instantly transform a cemetery into a rave. As the first sinister notes pumped out of the speakers, you could see ears prick up and bodies tense all over the club, as if a meadow full of grazing deer had suddenly caught the scent of a pack of wolves. Except, instead of fleeing in terror, the mass reaction was to surge onto the dance floor." KHIL's Mark Lucke, in redneck-heavy Willcox, Arizona, [[https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jun/06/radio-silence-how-the-disappearance-of-rural-stations-takes-americas-soul-with-them noted]] that in the local honky-tonk bar, "you have your typical George Strait po-dunky songs, and there are people out there, but it’s boring. No one’s alive. And then all of a sudden, they put on Michael Jackson. And that dance floor was packed, like sardines. And then they went back to po-dunk, and it died."[[/note]] are often credited for laying the first cracks in MTV's color barrier (with CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff threatening to pull all of the label's videos from MTV if they didn't show Michael). By 1984, videos by black artists were in regular rotation on the network. In 1985, meanwhile, the HardcorePunk band Music/DeadKennedys released their classic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oCPNMZuWwI "MTV Get Off the Air",]] attacking the young network for devaluing the importance of music and for being a corporate shill. Feminists, meanwhile, criticized the channel's videos for [[MaleGaze their sexualized depiction of women]], especially at the height of the HairMetal and later GlamRap booms. From the other direction, MTV's also long been a favorite whipping boy for conservative MoralGuardians, who have long felt it to be a den of {{filth}}, dangerous behavior, left-wing activism, and {{political correctness|GoneMad}}, leading MTV to adopt a strict policy prohibiting videos with Satanic or anti-religious themes. Of course, [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity none of this did anything to hurt the network's popularity]] -- famously, UsefulNotes/BillClinton's appearances on MTV provided a huge boost to his youth support during his Presidential campaign in 1992.

Like any new trend in popular culture, it wouldn't be long before MTV was hit with its first criticism. In its early years, it was ''all white.'' Music/DavidBowie among others sharply criticized the network [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGiVzIr8Qg during a live 1983 interview]] for not playing videos by black artists. Programming directors attributed this to the fact that they were playing rock[[note]]And uh... remind me, ''who'' created rock and roll?[[/note]], primarily AOR -- "album-oriented" rock[[note]]and [[SarcasmMode of course there aren't any black artists doing AOR]][[/note]], and that they didn't want to "cater to fringe groups."[[note]] A not so subtle dig at the rising hip-hop scene.[[/note]] Various former [=VJs=] and executives at MTV (including Carolyn Baker, their former head of talent and acquisition who was herself black) have discussed the causes of this, noting on one hand that the record industry in general was giving black artists short shrift in the '80s[[note]]and coming under heavy fire from the Black Music Association for it[[/note]] (including when it came to funding music videos); but also that MTV, which could have used its influence to rectify the situation, was instead arguably fueling the problem with its reluctance to show videos by non-white artists. In any event, Music/MichaelJackson and Music/{{Prince}}, with their undeniable cross-racial appeal[[note]]''Salon'' senior writer Andrew Leonard, who had worked as a night club DJ in 1980s Taipei, [[https://www.salon.com/2009/06/26/remembering_michael/ observed]] that certain songs got all the foreigners on the floor, others appealed to Taiwanese women, and so on: but "'Billie Jean' was the song that you saved for when you needed to rejuvenate a dead night; a magic trick that could instantly transform a cemetery into a rave. As the first sinister notes pumped out of the speakers, you could see ears prick up and bodies tense all over the club, as if a meadow full of grazing deer had suddenly caught the scent of a pack of wolves. Except, instead of fleeing in terror, the mass reaction was to surge onto the dance floor." KHIL's Mark Lucke, in redneck-heavy Willcox, Arizona, [[https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jun/06/radio-silence-how-the-disappearance-of-rural-stations-takes-americas-soul-with-them noted]] that in the local honky-tonk bar, "you have your typical George Strait po-dunky songs, and there are people out there, but it’s boring. No one’s alive. And then all of a sudden, they put on Michael Jackson. And that dance floor was packed, like sardines. And then they went back to po-dunk, and it died."[[/note]] are often credited for laying the first cracks in MTV's color barrier (with CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff threatening to pull all of the label's videos from MTV if they didn't show Michael). By 1984, videos by black artists were in regular rotation on the network. In 1985, meanwhile, the HardcorePunk band Music/DeadKennedys released their classic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oCPNMZuWwI "MTV Get Off the Air",]] attacking the young network for devaluing the importance of music and for being a corporate shill. Feminists, meanwhile, criticized the channel's videos for [[MaleGaze their sexualized depiction of women]], especially at the height of the HairMetal and later GlamRap booms. From the other direction, MTV's also long been a favorite whipping boy for conservative MoralGuardians, who have long felt it to be a den of {{filth}}, dangerous behavior, left-wing activism, and {{political correctness|GoneMad}}, leading MTV to adopt a strict policy prohibiting videos with Satanic or anti-religious themes. Of course, [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity none of this did anything to hurt the network's popularity]] -- famously, UsefulNotes/BillClinton's appearances on MTV provided a huge boost to his youth support during his Presidential campaign in 1992.

Like any new trend in popular culture, it wouldn't be long before MTV was hit with its first criticism. In its early years, it was ''all white.'' Music/DavidBowie among others sharply criticized the network [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGiVzIr8Qg during a live 1983 interview]] for not playing videos by black artists. Programming directors attributed this to the fact that they were playing rock[[note]]And uh... remind me, ''who'' created rock and roll?[[/note]], primarily AOR -- "album-oriented" rock[[note]]and [[SarcasmMode of course there aren't any black artists doing AOR]][[/note]], and that they didn't want to "cater to fringe groups."[[note]] A not so subtle dig at the rising hip-hop scene.[[/note]] Various former [=VJs=] and executives at MTV (including Carolyn Baker, their former head of talent and acquisition who was herself black) have discussed the causes of this, noting on one hand that the record industry in general was giving black artists short shrift in the '80s[[note]]and coming under heavy fire from the Black Music Association for it[[/note]] (including when it came to funding music videos); but also that MTV, which could have used its influence to rectify the situation, was instead arguably fueling the problem with its reluctance to show videos by non-white artists. In any event, Music/MichaelJackson and Music/{{Prince}}, with their undeniable cross-racial appeal[[note]]''Salon'' senior writer Andrew Leonard, who had worked as a night club DJ in 1980s Taipei, [[https://www.salon.com/2009/06/26/remembering_michael/ observed]] that certain songs got all the foreigners on the floor, others appealed to Taiwanese women, and so on: but "'Billie Jean' was the song that you saved for when you needed to rejuvenate a dead night; a magic trick that could instantly transform a cemetery into a rave. As the first sinister notes pumped out of the speakers, you could see ears prick up and bodies tense all over the club, as if a meadow full of grazing deer had suddenly caught the scent of a pack of wolves. Except, instead of fleeing in terror, the mass reaction was to surge onto the dance floor."[[/note]] are often credited for laying the first cracks in MTV's color barrier (with CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff threatening to pull all of the label's videos from MTV if they didn't show Michael). By 1984, videos by black artists were in regular rotation on the network. In 1985, meanwhile, the HardcorePunk band Music/DeadKennedys released their classic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oCPNMZuWwI "MTV Get Off the Air",]] attacking the young network for devaluing the importance of music and for being a corporate shill. Feminists, meanwhile, criticized the channel's videos for [[MaleGaze their sexualized depiction of women]], especially at the height of the HairMetal and later GlamRap booms. From the other direction, MTV's also long been a favorite whipping boy for conservative MoralGuardians, who have long felt it to be a den of {{filth}}, dangerous behavior, left-wing activism, and {{political correctness|GoneMad}}, leading MTV to adopt a strict policy prohibiting videos with Satanic or anti-religious themes. Of course, [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity none of this did anything to hurt the network's popularity]] -- famously, UsefulNotes/BillClinton's appearances on MTV provided a huge boost to his youth support during his Presidential campaign in 1992.

Like any new trend in popular culture, it wouldn't be long before MTV was hit with its first criticism. In its early years, it was ''all white.'' Music/DavidBowie among others sharply criticized the network [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGiVzIr8Qg during a live 1983 interview]] for not playing videos by black artists. Programming directors attributed this to the fact that they were playing rock[[note]]And uh... remind me, ''who'' created rock and roll?[[/note]], primarily AOR -- "album-oriented" rock[[note]]and [[SarcasmMode of course there aren't any black artists doing AOR]][[/note]], and that they didn't want to "cater to fringe groups."[[note]] A not so subtle dig at the rising hip-hop scene.[[/note]] Various former [=VJs=] and executives at MTV (including Carolyn Baker, their former head of talent and acquisition who was herself black) have discussed the causes of this, noting on one hand that the record industry in general was giving black artists short shrift in the '80s[[note]]and coming under heavy fire from the Black Music Association for it[[/note]] (including when it came to funding music videos); but also that MTV, which could have used its influence to rectify the situation, was instead arguably fueling the problem with its reluctance to show videos by non-white artists. In any event, Music/MichaelJackson and Music/{{Prince}}, with their undeniable cross-racial appeal[[note]]''Salon'' senior writer Andrew Leonard, who had worked as a night club DJ in 1980s Taipei, observed that certain songs got all the foreigners on the floor, others appealed to Taiwanese women, and so on: but "'Billie Jean' was the song that you saved for when you needed to rejuvenate a dead night; a magic trick that could instantly transform a cemetery into a rave. As the first sinister notes pumped out of the speakers, you could see ears prick up and bodies tense all over the club, as if a meadow full of grazing deer had suddenly caught the scent of a pack of wolves. Except, instead of fleeing in terror, the mass reaction was to surge onto the dance floor."[[/note]] are often credited for laying the first cracks in MTV's color barrier (with CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff threatening to pull all of the label's videos from MTV if they didn't show Michael). By 1984, videos by black artists were in regular rotation on the network. In 1985, meanwhile, the HardcorePunk band Music/DeadKennedys released their classic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oCPNMZuWwI "MTV Get Off the Air",]] attacking the young network for devaluing the importance of music and for being a corporate shill. Feminists, meanwhile, criticized the channel's videos for [[MaleGaze their sexualized depiction of women]], especially at the height of the HairMetal and later GlamRap booms. From the other direction, MTV's also long been a favorite whipping boy for conservative MoralGuardians, who have long felt it to be a den of {{filth}}, dangerous behavior, left-wing activism, and {{political correctness|GoneMad}}, leading MTV to adopt a strict policy prohibiting videos with Satanic or anti-religious themes. Of course, [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity none of this did anything to hurt the network's popularity]] -- famously, UsefulNotes/BillClinton's appearances on MTV provided a huge boost to his youth support during his Presidential campaign in 1992.

Like any new trend in popular culture, it wouldn't be long before MTV was hit with its first criticism. In its early years, it was ''all white.'' Music/DavidBowie among others sharply criticized the network [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGiVzIr8Qg during a live 1983 interview]] for not playing videos by black artists. Programming directors attributed this to the fact that they were playing rock[[note]]And uh... remind me, ''who'' created rock and roll?[[/note]], primarily AOR -- "album-oriented" rock[[note]]and [[SarcasmMode of course there aren't any black artists doing AOR]][[/note]], and that they didn't want to "cater to fringe groups.[[note]] A not so subtle dig at the rising hip-hop scene[[/note]]" Various former [=VJs=] and executives at MTV (including Carolyn Baker, their former head of talent and acquisition who was herself black) have discussed the causes of this, noting on one hand that the record industry in general was giving black artists short shrift in the '80s[[note]]and coming under heavy fire from the Black Music Association for it[[/note]] (including when it came to funding music videos); but also that MTV, which could have used its influence to rectify the situation, was instead arguably fueling the problem with its reluctance to show videos by non-white artists. In any event, Music/MichaelJackson and Music/{{Prince}}, with their undeniable cross-racial appeal[[note]]A night club DJ observed, "When I played Lionel Ritchie or Rick James, all the black people got up and danced. When I played Springsteen or Genesis, all the white people got up and danced. When I put on "Billie Jean", ''everybody'' danced."[[/note]] are often credited for laying the first cracks in MTV's color barrier (with CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff threatening to pull all of the label's videos from MTV if they didn't show Michael). By 1984, videos by black artists were in regular rotation on the network. In 1985, meanwhile, the HardcorePunk band Music/DeadKennedys released their classic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oCPNMZuWwI "MTV Get Off the Air",]] attacking the young network for devaluing the importance of music and for being a corporate shill. Feminists, meanwhile, criticized the channel's videos for [[MaleGaze their sexualized depiction of women]], especially at the height of the HairMetal and later GlamRap booms. From the other direction, MTV's also long been a favorite whipping boy for conservative MoralGuardians, who have long felt it to be a den of {{filth}}, dangerous behavior, left-wing activism, and {{political correctness|GoneMad}}, leading MTV to adopt a strict policy prohibiting videos with Satanic or anti-religious themes. Of course, [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity none of this did anything to hurt the network's popularity]] -- famously, UsefulNotes/BillClinton's appearances on MTV provided a huge boost to his youth support during his Presidential campaign in 1992.

Like any new trend in popular culture, it wouldn't be long before MTV was hit with its first criticism. In its early years, it was ''all white.'' Music/DavidBowie among others sharply criticized the network [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGiVzIr8Qg during a live 1983 interview]] for not playing videos by black artists. Programming directors attributed this to the fact that they were playing rock[[note]]And uh... remind me, ''who'' created rock and roll?[[/note]], primarily AOR -- "album-oriented" rock[[note]]and [[SarcasmMode of course there aren't any black artists doing AOR]][[/note]], and that they didn't want to "cater to fringe groups." Various former [=VJs=] and executives at MTV (including Carolyn Baker, their former head of talent and acquisition who was herself black) have discussed the causes of this, noting on one hand that the record industry in general was giving black artists short shrift in the '80s[[note]]and coming under heavy fire from the Black Music Association for it[[/note]] (including when it came to funding music videos); but also that MTV, which could have used its influence to rectify the situation, was instead arguably fueling the problem with its reluctance to show videos by non-white artists. In any event, Music/MichaelJackson and Music/{{Prince}}, with their undeniable cross-racial appeal[[note]]A night club DJ observed, "When I played Lionel Ritchie or Rick James, all the black people got up and danced. When I played Springsteen or Genesis, all the white people got up and danced. When I put on "Billie Jean", ''everybody'' danced."[[/note]] are often credited for laying the first cracks in MTV's color barrier (with CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff threatening to pull all of the label's videos from MTV if they didn't show Michael). By 1984, videos by black artists were in regular rotation on the network. In 1985, meanwhile, the HardcorePunk band Music/DeadKennedys released their classic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oCPNMZuWwI "MTV Get Off the Air",]] attacking the young network for devaluing the importance of music and for being a corporate shill. Feminists, meanwhile, criticized the channel's videos for [[MaleGaze their sexualized depiction of women]], especially at the height of the HairMetal and later GlamRap booms. From the other direction, MTV's also long been a favorite whipping boy for conservative MoralGuardians, who have long felt it to be a den of {{filth}}, dangerous behavior, left-wing activism, and {{political correctness|GoneMad}}, leading MTV to adopt a strict policy prohibiting videos with Satanic or anti-religious themes. Of course, [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity none of this did anything to hurt the network's popularity]] -- famously, UsefulNotes/BillClinton's appearances on MTV provided a huge boost to his youth support during his Presidential campaign in 1992.

The TurnOfTheMillennium was when the NetworkDecay that had been setting in at MTV for the last decade really began to take over. Carson Daly's departure from ''TRL'' in 2003 set that show on a slow decline, finally being cancelled in 2008 (before it was revived again in 2017). Non-music-related shows took over the schedule, pushing music videos into the late night and early morning hours. Most importantly, the rise of online sources such as [=YouTube=], iTunes, Pandora, Spotify and even MTV's own [[http://www.mtvhive.com/ MTV Music]] meant that people no longer needed to watch MTV to get their music video fix, which led to MTV diverting even more hours away from music programming. One could say that [[MeaningfulEcho the internet killed the video star]]--indeed, The Limousines [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx5tSmOY_iM say so]]. In 2010, the network officially dropped the "Music Television" subtitle.

** ''Film/MySuperPsychoSweet16''

Like any new trend in popular culture, it wouldn't be long before MTV was hit with its first criticism. In its early years, it was ''all white.'' Music/DavidBowie among others sharply criticized the network [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGiVzIr8Qg during a live 1983 interview]] for not playing videos by black artists. Programming directors attributed this to the fact that they were playing rock[[note]]And uh... remind me, ''who'' created rock and roll?[[/note]], primarily AOR -- "album-oriented" rock[[note]]and [[SarcasmMode of course there aren't any black artists doing AOR]], and that they didn't want to "cater to fringe groups." Various former [=VJs=] and executives at MTV (including Carolyn Baker, their former head of talent and acquisition who was herself black) have discussed the causes of this, noting on one hand that the record industry in general was giving black artists short shrift in the '80s[[note]]and coming under heavy fire from the Black Music Association for it[[/note]] (including when it came to funding music videos); but also that MTV, which could have used its influence to rectify the situation, was instead arguably fueling the problem with its reluctance to show videos by non-white artists. In any event, Music/MichaelJackson and Music/{{Prince}}, with their undeniable cross-racial appeal[[note]]A night club DJ observed, "When I played Lionel Ritchie or Rick James, all the black people got up and danced. When I played Springsteen or Genesis, all the white people got up and danced. When I put on "Billie Jean", ''everybody'' danced."[[/note]] are often credited for laying the first cracks in MTV's color barrier (with CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff threatening to pull all of the label's videos from MTV if they didn't show Michael). By 1984, videos by black artists were in regular rotation on the network. In 1985, meanwhile, the HardcorePunk band Music/DeadKennedys released their classic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oCPNMZuWwI "MTV Get Off the Air",]] attacking the young network for devaluing the importance of music and for being a corporate shill. Feminists, meanwhile, criticized the channel's videos for [[MaleGaze their sexualized depiction of women]], especially at the height of the HairMetal and later GlamRap booms. From the other direction, MTV's also long been a favorite whipping boy for conservative MoralGuardians, who have long felt it to be a den of {{filth}}, dangerous behavior, left-wing activism, and {{political correctness|GoneMad}}, leading MTV to adopt a strict policy prohibiting videos with Satanic or anti-religious themes. Of course, [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity none of this did anything to hurt the network's popularity]] -- famously, UsefulNotes/BillClinton's appearances on MTV provided a huge boost to his youth support during his Presidential campaign in 1992.

Like any new trend in popular culture, it wouldn't be long before MTV was hit with its first criticism. In its early years, it skewed heavily towards album-oriented rock music, and as such it was targeted for not playing many black artists, with Music/DavidBowie criticizing the network [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGiVzIr8Qg during a live 1983 interview]] for not playing such videos. Various former [=VJs=] and executives at MTV (including Carolyn Baker, their former head of talent and acquisition who was herself black) have discussed the causes of this, noting on one hand that the record industry in general was giving black artists short shrift in the '80s (including when it came to funding music videos) but also on the other hand that MTV, which could have used its influence to rectify the situation, was instead arguably fueling the problem with its reluctance to show videos by non-white artists. In any event, Music/MichaelJackson and Music/{{Prince}} are often credited for laying the first cracks in MTV's color barrier (with CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff threatening to pull all of the label's videos from MTV if they didn't show Michael), and by 1984, videos by black artists were in regular rotation on the network. In 1985, meanwhile, the HardcorePunk band Music/DeadKennedys released their classic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oCPNMZuWwI "MTV Get Off the Air",]] attacking the young network for devaluing the importance of music and for being a corporate shill. Feminists, meanwhile, criticized the channel's videos for [[MaleGaze their sexualized depiction of women]], especially at the height of the HairMetal and later GlamRap booms. From the other direction, MTV's also long been a favorite whipping boy for conservative MoralGuardians, who have long felt it to be a den of {{filth}}, dangerous behavior, left-wing activism, and {{political correctness|GoneMad}}, leading MTV to adopt a strict policy prohibiting videos with Satanic or anti-religious themes. Of course, [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity none of this did anything to hurt the network's popularity]] -- famously, UsefulNotes/BillClinton's appearances on MTV provided a huge boost to his youth support during his Presidential campaign in 1992.

Like any new trend in popular culture, it wouldn't be long before MTV was hit with its first criticism. In its early years, it skewed heavily towards album-oriented rock music, and as such it was targeted for not playing many black artists, with Music/DavidBowie criticizing the network [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGiVzIr8Qg during a live 1983 interview]] for not playing such videos. Various former [=VJs=] and executives at MTV (including Carolyn Baker, their former head of talent and acquisition who was herself black) have discussed the causes of this, noting on one hand that the record industry in general was giving black artists short shrift in the '80s (including when it came to funding music videos) but also on the other hand that MTV, which could have used its influence to rectify the situation, was instead arguably fueling the problem with its reluctance to show videos by non-white artists. In any event, Music/MichaelJackson and Music/{{Prince}} are often credited for laying the first cracks in MTV's color barrier (with CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff threatening to pull all of the label's videos from MTV if they didn't show Michael), and by 1984, videos by black artists were in regular rotation on the network. In 1985, meanwhile, the HardcorePunk band Music/DeadKennedys released their classic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oCPNMZuWwI "MTV Get Off the Air",]] attacking the young network for devaluing the importance of music and for being a corporate shill. Feminists, meanwhile, criticized the channel's videos for [[MaleGaze their sexualized depiction of women]], especially at the height of the HairMetal boom. From the other direction, MTV's also long been a favorite whipping boy for conservative MoralGuardians, who have long felt it to be a den of {{filth}}, dangerous behavior, left-wing activism, and {{political correctness|GoneMad}}, leading MTV to adopt a strict policy prohibiting videos with Satanic or anti-religious themes. Of course, [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity none of this did anything to hurt the network's popularity]] -- famously, UsefulNotes/BillClinton's appearances on MTV provided a huge boost to his youth support during his Presidential campaign in 1992.

Like any new trend in popular culture, it wouldn't be long before MTV was hit with its first criticism. In its early years, it was targeted for not playing many black artists, and Music/DavidBowie criticized the network [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGiVzIr8Qg during a live 1983 interview]] for not playing such videos. That eventually ended once Music/MichaelJackson and Music/{{Prince}} became superstars. Later, in 1985, the HardcorePunk band Music/DeadKennedys released their classic "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oCPNMZuWwI MTV Get Off the Air]]," attacking the young network for devaluing the importance of music and for being a corporate shill. Feminists criticized the channel's videos for [[MaleGaze their sexualized depiction of women]]. From the other direction, MTV's also long been a favorite whipping boy for conservative MoralGuardians, who have long felt it to be a den of {{filth}}, dangerous behavior, left-wing activism, and {{political correctness|GoneMad}}. Of course, [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity none of this did anything to hurt the network's popularity]] -- famously, UsefulNotes/BillClinton's appearances on MTV provided a huge boost to his youth support during his Presidential campaign in 1992.

In TheNineties, MTV started bringing hip-hop acts into regular rotation, and the {{grunge}} and AlternativeRock that had been popularized on ''120 Minutes'' started displacing HairMetal. Later in the decade, MTV was instrumental in the rise of BoyBand[=s=], GirlGroup[=s=], and IdolSinger[=s=] like Music/BritneySpears, Music/ChristinaAguilera, Music/{{TLC}}, Music/DestinysChild, the Music/BackstreetBoys, and Music/{{NSYNC}}, which themselves partly displaced rock music. Grunge pressed on into PostGrunge, with Music/{{Nickelback}} and Music/{{Creed}} leading the way, and NuMetal bands like Music/LinkinPark, Music/{{Korn}}, and Music/{{Slipknot}} emerged to bring a harder sound into the mainstream -- and act as [[GatewaySeries Gateway Music]] to a whole generation of metalheads [[OldShame no matter how loath]] they are to admit it. The music videos became more professional, having evolved from marketing tools to encourage album sales into the main attraction; price tags of over a million dollars for short films just three or four minutes long were not unheard of. ''Total Request Live'', or ''TRL'', a program where viewers got to call in and vote for their favorite music videos to air, became a sensation, turning host Carson Daly into a celebrity in his own right. It was with the launch of this show that MTV opened its famous studio in [[BigApplesauce Times Square]].

On August 1, 1981, at 12:01 AM, pop culture was changed forever by a new cable network that introduced a brand new idea -- a TV channel that played [[MusicVideoTropes music videos]], 24/7. That network was MTV. Ironically, the first video they ever showed was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ffoTMBlAOA "Video Killed the Radio Star"]] by Music/TheBuggles.