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RIP MTV (Patreon)

Published:
2026-01-03 09:15:22
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Oof

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/mtv-music-only-channels-off-air-1235492854/

I have never written about MTV because it feels, maybe, as a kid of the 80s, writing about the sky, or toast. It was just there and of course and hard to describe. But it was so, so, so important. Media doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Things come to be. The printing press.

The Internet. MTV.

The New York Times. Twitter.

Things come and they go but they are not to be taken for granted and they are not forever. MTV was there on the plastic glass box in the family room when I was home and the adults were at work and I was alone and it was Madonna and Michael Jackson and The Cure and The Clash and Prince and Duran Duran and Cyndi Lauper and Yes (Owner of a Lonely Heart, truly a short film of magnitude) and 120 Minutes and Liquid Television recorded on VHS tapes to be watched later again and again.

And all hail Weird Al and his special AL TV segments which created a parody of the whole thing and gave it all meta meaning. He existed within it on a parallel plane. It didn’t have to exist but it did and some people had the idea and made it happen. To those people; from the weirdos you helped birth, thank you. Without you we may not have been. Gratitude, as well, for playing The Dresden Dolls’ first music videos.

We will be forever indebted to the souls you brought to our albums and shows. ♥️

🎹

Send memories, links, sadness

###

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Comments

Molly McEnerney

I have been thinking for years that MTV ought to just start again from the beginning. Let the kids experience what the glory days were like, and maybe they will love it as much as we did! I feel like at the beginning, the MTV executives were doing whatever they thought was cool, and us 11 year olds agreed with them, but after a while, they started to chase the idea of what they thought the kids would think was cool, and it all started to feel fake and manipulative rather than joyous. I remember listening to the local top 40 radio station before MTV, and then MTV opening up whole new worlds of different styles of music that would never be played together on the same radio station. Maybe while waiting for my favorite songs, I would hear a song I didn't like, but I knew that someone genuinely liked it. Maybe I would hear a song that I had never imagined, and I would learn about things which had been unknown to me. Looking back, I think that the decline of MTV started when they put different styles of music in their own time slots, so there was one hour a day when you could hear your favorites, and then the rest of the day just wasn't for you. At its peak, MTV was about just loving and celebrating music, any music, all music, and their weird, anarchic artistry of trying to make that feeling visual. I really miss that feeling of wonder.

Terry Green

I had a part-time job with the local cable company which paid badly but did come with free cable. Having MTV on in the background was great. One of the tag lines in the early days was "On Cable. In Stereo" – years before HDTV, only top-of-the-line TV sets had two speakers! MTV had a *lot* of flaws but I think the humans curating the channel's music videos made for a more satisfying experience than the algorithms funneling music to the masses today...

Scott Meekins

I can remember the very first MTV music video that I ever laid eyes on. It was Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer. Say what you will of MTV, but it revolutionized music and elevated our understanding of complex lyrical content. For me, it took music to catastrophic heights. I was a boy in a small southern town and it gave me the biggest cultural shock imaginable.

Katherine May Williams

I will confess I had no idea MTV still existed. Nor (sorry) Rolling Stone magazine. (MTV memories: I remember Pat Smear announcing he was leaving the Foo Fighters live on stage at the MTV music awards? I think they were performing out front during the pre-show and after the first song Pat took the mic and said “that was my last song with the Foo Fighters!”, waved, handed his guitar over to a new guy and left the stage. The band just launched into the next song like nothing happened. I remember watching that live and thinking “what?!”)

DebbieG

I had one friend with cable back then and we used to spend a lot of time at her house watching MTV for *hours*. I found so many new bands and artists in those early days, like U2, that I still love today. And actually there is a US channel, MTV Classic, that is still alive and playing old videos. So not quite RIP.

Kirk Coughlin

One of my favorite vocalists reviewed one of the songs I remember tearing up to while watching MTV back in the day... Close My Eyes Forever by Lita Ford and Ozzy Osbourne. I had some time where I must have been cutting onions or something. I don't miss the channel as much as I miss it in the time, being positive and not at all being the horrible things that happened around that television in that room or the other room that is was in at the other house.

Marc Jeray

Just turned on my tv and I was greeted with “I love rock n roll” on Mtv Classic! The listing claims to be I Want My 80s. Perhaps the demise has been misreported?

Sarah

I am weighing in so late on this but I read a New Yorker article on it and it made me so sad. We had MTV at home from 89-93 and it introduced me to Guns n Roses, Nirvana, RH Chilli’s and headbangers ball, music that just wouldn’t have come into my 8-12 year old orbit otherwise. As a 21 year old art graduate I went to New York with my portfolio and fellow students to visit potential clients. We scheduled a meeting with MTV and Rolling Stone in the same time slot. It was a tough choice, but of course I went with MTV, where my classmates and I met the great Abi Terkule who created Beavis and Butthead. The kindest guy. I will never forget sipping Starbucks and looking out from his office at the view over the city. Rest in peace MTV🪦 ❤️❤️❤️❤️