I Want My MTV

At the end of December 2025, that is soon upon us, Paramount Skydance is shutting down all MTV musical channels. No music videos, no unplugged, no more premieres. This is the end of an era.

MTV launched in 1981 with “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles. Instead of DJs, there were VJs, and Martha Quinn was my fave. MTV changed the way people found music, marking the evolution of music discovery away from radio. Oddly, radio is still here, though waning, as our own music from our phones can be plugged in and played almost anywhere.

The Real World was MTV’s first reality show, and one of the first across all platforms, launching a new era of bad TV. Rock the Vote was a response to the censorship of young rap artists and energized youth to register and get involved, reeling in celebrities to highlight the importance of government engagement.

At the end of the day, it was all about the music. Before MTV, music from abroad made the hit list a year after playing nonstop overseas. Now, hits were streaming simultaneously. When I lived in London in the fall of 1981, Soft Cell’s Tainted Love hit the charts, and when I returned to the States, this song began to get traction. I listened to that song endlessly for an entire year, and what spoke to me is that the world was beginning to connect simultaneously.

Both my siblings were in the music video business, producing videos from Push the Little Daisies with Ween to All I Wanna Do with Sheryl Crow. I got an insider’s view of a new industry producing short-form storytelling content and music videos to promote songs vs. albums.

MTV’s impact took time because conservative operators were wary until, of course, the ratings came in. The cost of these videos is not low, and, like everything, it has gone up over the years. I remember when Bad by Michael Jackson launched on MTV, and although groundbreaking, it was costly to make, almost the cost of putting on a concert, but at a concert, the ROI might be higher.

How do you keep a channel running for less? You create shows like Snooki that rate high, and then we saw more stations jump on this bandwagon. Video obviously did not kill the radio star, but Snooki might have.

I did love my MTV.