2. The Purpose
MTV was created to showcase music videos
featuring primarily new wave artists just
coming out as well as the older established
rock acts, which the network did
initially, allowing audiences have the
opportunity to commune with their music
heroes in a different way then ever before,

3. Debut
Although the debut of the music channel was on
the 1st August 1981, the arrangement of MTV
went dates further back.
• In the 70’s creator of MTV, Robert W. Pittman
(who later became president and chief of MTV
networks) had tested the music format by
hosting and producing a show on WNBC.

4. • Pittman then later changed his idea with a
little persuasion from the head department of
WNBC, John Lack had help to promote a TV
series called PopClips, this then over the years
lead to the creation of MTV

5. The Launch of MTV
On August 1st 1981 at 12:01am MTV was
launched, from its base in New York. MTV started
with the legendary opening, “ladies and
gentleman, Rock and roll”, followed by the
network’s powerful chord fuelled guitar riff
theme tune that would soon become familiar.
This was then continued with the playing of the
first music video, to appear on the channel
“Video killed the radio star-The Buggles”. On the
first day of MTV they managed to play 87 music
videos.

6. The launch
footage The Opening
The first idea for MTV was to use the
famous words “one small step” Neil
Armstrong, however due to
Armstrong's refusal, MTV’s idea was
scrapped, however they managed to
use the Apollo 11 landing clip
because of it being public footage.
The MTV opening sequence was a
montage of the Apollo 11 moon
landing, with the MTV logo
changing, colour, font and textures.

7. VJ’s
• VJ’s is the abbreviation of video jockey’s, this
term is taken from DJ’s (disc Jockey’s). As MTV
believed that the host would play music
videos not records, which brought the term
VJ’s.
• MTV had taken the idea of VJ’s from the radio
show top 40. This lead to them hiring five men
and women to host MTV and to introduce the
video that was being played.

8. o MTV original five VJ’s were Nina
Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, J.J
Jackson and Martha Quinn
oAll the original VJ’s became
famous through their own
radio show or hosting TV
shows. All thought J.J.
Jackson who died from a
heart attack in 2004, are now
hosting on a radio show on
‘Sirus Xm radio’ called 80’s on
8.

9. • The Vj’s didn’t have much air time due to the
music videos taking up the bulk of MTV.
• As MTV became popular and recognisable the
record companied saw a promotion
opportunity, from then on they started putting
in their logo into music videos. This added a
system to which the gained publicity.
• This could have triggered the large amount of
Product placement, by advertising the latest
item/product in music videos so that the
companies can get funding to create the music
videos.

10. • One example of this is in the Lady Gaga ft
Beyonce-Telephone, which contains a vast
amount of product placement for the product
listed below:
 Heartbeats Earphones
 Virgin Mobile
 Diet Coke
 HP Envy beats Laptop
 PlentyofFish dating site
 Polaroid
 Wonderbread
 Miracle whip
 Chevrolet

11. Breaking the colour barrier
In the first few years MTV was on the air there
were very few black artists shown on the
channel. The first non-white act to play on
MTV were ‘the specials’ a white and black
integrated band of musicians and vocalists.
Apart from the specials many other black
artist’s videos were rejected by MTV as they
did not fit the strict Rock format of the
channel at the time.

12. Before 1983 Michael Jackson also struggled to
get shown on the channel. To break this colour
barrier the president of CBS Records, at the
time Walter Yetnikoff, spoke out against MTV
and threatened to take away MTV’s rights to
play any record from the CBS label. After this
Michael Jacksons ‘Billie Jean’ began to play
regularly on the channel amongst other black
artists.

13. Some Major 80’s MTV Supported Artists:
• Pat Benatar
• Michael Jackson
• Prince
• The Cars
• The Police
• Duran Duran
• Def Leppard
• Madonna
• Cyndi Lauper
• Van Halen
• Bon Jovi

14. MTV Programs of the 80’s:
• 120 Minutes
• Club MTV
• Headbangers Ball
• MTV Unplugged
• Yo! MTV Raps
• Remote Control
• Video Music Awards

15. In Septe,ber of 1984, the first “MTV video music
awards” aired, stating an annual tradition that
continues to this day.
In the winter of 1987, MTV aired the first
showing of it’s game shoe, entitled “Remote
control”
In the summer of ’88, the show MTV “YO!MTV
Raps!” aired.

16. The channels

17. Since then more and more music channels have
appeared which allows us to watch music
videos 24 hours of the day. MTV has a lot of
different channels under its name including
some which are not music channels. The
different music channels are used to appeal to
different demographics.
The 5 Main MTV channels have their own
individual characters which relate to the genre
of music played on the channel.

18. MTV Hits shows chart hits and very few MTV shows. The
channels character is a girl who looks very mainstream and up with times
remembering the current and up to date music hits.
MTV Base focuses mostly on R'n'B, Hip-Hop, Reggae, Soul
and Urban music and this is why the character is black, with a piercing and
baggy clothing as this is the stereo type of R'n'B, Hip-Hop, Reggae, Soul
and Urban artists.
MTV is a general music and entertainment channel and as
this was the first of the channels the character used to symbolise this is
wearing a crown so that it shows that this was the first channel and is the
“king”.

19. MTV Dance is a 24 hour dance music channel
and this is why the channels cartoon character is wearing
head phones and is in dance clothing.
MTV Rocks (formally known as MTV
Two) is focused on alternative and rock music
and this is why the channel character looks like a
stereotypical “Rocker” with long hair and black clothing.
VH1 tries to target a more mature sophisticated
audience of people between 25 and 44 year olds.

20. VH1 Classics (now rebranded as MTV Classics) shows
music videos and concert footage from the 60’s up to the 90’s and
sometimes feature footage from eras as early as the 40’s.
(a rebrand of TMF) when TMF was first launched it
was described as being “ designed to replicate
the rhythms of the whole family, playing the best pop
videos with the biggest pop stars to become the sound track to the
British family life." VIVA still uses this concept but films and
programs for the sister channels are also shown.
MTV R is purely an entertainment channel showing
reality television programs all day.

21. Mtv Also own the following channels:
• MTV +1
• MTV HD
• Comedy Central
• Comedy Central +1
• Comedy Central Extra
• Comedy Central Extra +1
• Nickelodeon
• Nick Replay
• Nick Jr.
• Nick Jr. 2
• Nicktoons
• Nicktoons Replay