Music Channels

MTV and where it began…MTV was first launched in 1981

where footage of the first Space Shuttle launch countdown of Columbia was played (from earlier on in the year) with John Lack saying:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Rock and Roll”.

Those words were immediately followed by MTV’s official theme song a crunching rock tune composed by Jonathan Elias and John Petersen, playing over photos of the Apollo 11 moon landing, with the flag featuring MTV's logo changing various colours, textures, and designs.

MTV’s Purpose (1980–1994)At the time, MTV’s sole purpose was

to play music videos 24/7, guided by on-air personalities known as video jockeys.

Original taglines of the channel were:

"You'll never look at music the same way again.“

"On cable. In stereo.”Although the original MTV channel no longer plays music videos 24/7, several of its spin-off channels do, including MTV Hits and MTV Jams. In addition, viewers can play music videos on-demand at MTV.com. MTV continues to support a broad selection of music videos on its international channels as well.

MTV VJS (Video Jockeys)The VJs would record "intro" and "outro" segments to music videos, along with music news, interviews, concert dates and promotions. These segments would appear to air "live" and debut across the MTV program schedule 24/7, though the segments themselves were pre-taped within a regular work week at MTV's studios.

The original five MTV VJs in 1980

were Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, J.J. Jackson and Martha Quinn.

The MusicDuring this period of time, MTV music ranged from new wave, rock and heavy metal.

Artists included Duran Duran, The Police, Bon Jovi, Van Halen etc…

MTV also played and featured classic Rock acts such as

Journey, Rush, Linda Ronstadt, Genesis, Billy Squier, Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones,

Fewer Music Videos… (2000-08)

From 1995 to 2000, MTV played 36.5% fewer music videos.

MTV president Van Toeffler quotes:

"Clearly, the novelty of just showing music videos has worn off. It's required us to reinvent ourselves to a contemporary audience.“The rise of the internet has clearly had an impact on the reduction of music videos that are played on MTV daily. In 2000, it is reported that there used to be 8 hours of music playing everyday compared to 2008 where there were only 3 hours.

MTV TodayMTV in the recent years has mainly aired reality TV shows more than actual music videos now.

For example:

Run’s House, My Sweet Sixteen, Punk’d etc…