On August 1st, 1981, MTV was launched in New York at 12:01 am E.T by CEO Bob Pittman. Becoming one of the most popular channels to watch on television, it slowly declined and become one of the least watched.
Let’s take a deep dive into MTV and see the rise and fall of its reign on TV.
The Rise
When MTV launched that first day in August, it’s first music video and song that was played was “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles. Ironically, MTV was a music-video channel, so it really had killed the “radio star.”
The idea of MTV was to play music videos all day long. It caught the attention of the younger generation at the time, and strived to change the media landscape.
The channel turned songs into visual experiences. Music videos such as “Thriller” by Michael Jackson and “Vogue” by Madonna became cultural phenomenons. Due to MTV, music media blew up and became such a spectacle during the 1980’s and 1990’s.
“Unplugged” aired by MTV showcased performers live an acoustic to a audience. Stars such as Kurt Cobain, Mariah Carey, and Jay-Z all performed for “Unplugged”. “Headbangers Ball” was also a channel that heavy metal fans could tune in to watch during the 90s. Fans enjoyed watching, not worrying about being judged. This was during the satanic panic, where listening to heavy metal could be seen as worshipping Satan.
Kurt Loder hosted MTV news starting in 1987 up until 2005. MTV news was where those who tuned in to watch MTV could find out what was going on in the world. They covered straight news as well as what was going on in the music industry and in Hollywood.
Furthermore, more artists were releasing their music videos onto MTV. It was a new way to market themselves, and many artists started to blow up. Teenagers at the time took inspiration to stars on MTV, wanting to look like them.
“I remember teasing my hair to look like Stevie Nick’s in high school.” Jennifer Midura, who grew up during MTV’s rise tells us. “All the girls in my grade were teasing their hair.”
Media in music was getting bigger by the day, all due to MTV.
The Fall
During the late 90s / early 2000s, MTV started to shift from music videos to reality TV with show like “Room Raiders”, “Cribs” and “Punk’d.” MTV even made “Jersey Shore,” which came out in 2009, a hit.
“Punk’d” was a very big show for its time. It ran for 9 seasons and Ashton Kutcher created it. The show aimed to catch celebrities being pranked and put into stressful situations, secretly filming them and getting their raw reactions.
“Jersey Shore” is a show that more of the millennial and gen-z generation has watched. The show was popular during its time, following a group of friends and their drama while living in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. It had blown up years later on TikTok from popular clips that had resurfaced, causing new fans to go back and watch the show.
While these shows did seem to have a new generation watching their channel, MTV did not have the viewers it once had. Digital platforms such as Youtube made it easy to access any music video, anytime. You no longer had to wait until a time of day to watch a video. Youtube gets around 2.5 to 2.7 billion monthly active users.
Spotify’s creators also released Spotify in 2006. It has become the biggest music streaming service out of any other site.
With these platforms, there was no need to stream on MTV anymore. These reality shows infiltrated the channel, and made it less appealing to watch. These days, the younger generation doesn’t watch MTV anymore.
“I don’t think I’ve ever even turned on the MTV channel.” Temera Francis, a senior at Colonia High states. “I’ve watched clips of ‘Jersey Shore’ off of Tiktok, but that’s it.”
Goodbye MTV
On December 31st, 2025, MTV decided to shut down all of its channels besides their reality TV channel. This ended an era of music video broadcasting, and made some older fans sad. The only way to watch MTV is on their reality channel and on their website.
While the MTV brand is still around, it has completely shifted from what they originally were. The name no longer adds up to the brand.
MTV ended the same way it started, broadcasting “Video Killed the Radio Star” as its last song.
