ICM - Leeds Design Agency

MTV was launched in the USA, 1st August 1981. The first music video it played was The Buggles song Video Killed the Radio Star but was this to be the case? In my creative insight I want to look at the changing style of MTV. I grew up with the channel in the UK, which as it became more popular with the masses it grew into a worldwide brand – MTV UK now has 16 channels! I even wrote a chapter of my dissertation about the role the MTV plays for music videos.

When MTV first launched they their ident was the big black and white M with TV stuck on the right hand side, it was simple – it stood for Music Television – MTV.

The first of promos for MTV are bright, colourful and fast paced. The “I want my MTV” campaign from 1982 used a variety of musicians including David Bowie, Cyndi Lauper and The Police to promote the year old channel. The fast growth of the music channel was highlighted in the Dire Straights song ‘Money for Nothing’ with the “I want my MTV” slogan being used.

The latest promos have stepped away from using musicians to promote the channel and uses fun animations instead.

The simpleness of the black and white MTV logo ensured that the it could be used in a variety of different colours and ways, but it was still recognizable to the audience. Today the original MTV logo is still used and featured in the idents for the whole family of MTV channels.

MTV has tried to cater to different audience needs by creating genre specific channels such as MTV2, MTV hits and MTV base which do show more music videos than the MTV1 channel.

The creation of MTV led to a huge change in popular culture with films, TV programmes and future music videos incorporating the MTV style. This new style also paved the way for new directors such as Spike Jonze and Hype Williams.

Originally set up to be a 24 hour music video channel, the content now on the main MTV1 channel in the UK is mainly reality TV shows with a few music videos in between. Shows like The Hills and Jackass had global success since being shown on MTV.

There have been many criticisms of MTV over the past 25 years, some saying they brainwashed the MTV generation but personally I think that people can accept what they want from MTV and its various channels. MTV do not show the most intellectual programmes, if the audience wanted that they would be watching another channel, but it is easy watching, and something that doesn’t require a great deal of concentration.