Reality Killed The Video Star
The 1980s really didn’t begin in earnest until August 1, 1981. That’s when a fledgling cable television station called MTV (Music Television) signed on with a music video by The Buggles called Video Killed The Radio Star. That’s also when the way we experienced music changed as well. We had pictures to go along with our favorite songs which was sometimes a good thing and sometimes a bad thing. It was a period of experimenting with the new mix of music,video and performance. It was all new, wonderful and fun. It was the 80s and we had a dedicated video-based outlet for music! Like, awesome!
The music video gave us a new way to shop for music instead of radio and record shops. The airwaves soon filled up with shows competing for the audience that MTV had captured with their new way of presenting music to music fans. People called VJs were hired to introduce the music videos and further elaborate on the bands and music news in general. The musicians and their fans found a place where they could both meet and indulge in music, music events, music news and music promotions. The creation called MTV gained a huge amount of moxie as it shaped and created pop culture before our very bleary eyes.
As time went on, MTV must have realized its influential power over the moral lives of it target audience – adolescents and young adults. Because, slowly, over time, MTV experimented with various types of programming for its cable outlet from game shows to Spring Break get drunk and dance fests. Eventually, MTV came across something in 1992 that would pave the way for the cheap, meager and very mediocre television programming that exists to this day all over the television dial. That discovery, of course, was MTV’s The Real World, which still in production is one of MTV’s most popular shows and is credited as being the first reality show.
The discovery of reality television caused the music content on MTV to finally dwindle down to one little show on their 24/7 cable network. The show, called Total Request Live (TRL) ended up being the only semblance of what MTV was meant to be – music television. On November 16, 2008, the last show of TRL was broadcast on MTV signaling the end of music on Music Television (MTV).
It took from 1981 to 2008, but MTV is now a cable network based upon reality programming and really nothing else. Telling us what song was playing during Lauren and Audrina’s latest fight is not music television by any means. Goodbye to music television. What happened MTV? Gee, reality really did kill the video star…so, at least take the M out of your name please.
