For what does the "M" in MTV stand?

Christopher Suleske

Did the "M" in MTV not once stand for Music? Whatever happened to that?

If pop culture frowns on the hackneyed notion that rock-n-roll music leads to promiscuity and lewd behavior, MTV certainly has done little to debunk this assertion. Rather, it is today something of a poster child for bacchanalia among the teen set. Had it stayed a channel dominated by music, perhaps we could debate the merits of this theory. But the channel has since morphed into something quite different.

Turning 12 on the very day MTV first went on the air - August 1, 1981 - I recall many parents up in arms relatively soon after. What followed was a careful dance with concerned parents, with MTV at least entertaining their concerns, if pooh-poohing them behind closed doors. But something happened in the meantime: information exploded - that is, the cost of producing and disseminating video-driven information plummeted while the ease of doing so skyrocketed. Competition for fickle eyes and attentions became fierce. And no channel was dedicated to a more fickle and attention-deprived demographic than MTV.

What, better possibly than crack cocaine, holds the attention of hormone-ladened proto-adults (regardless of their age)? Sex. Witness CKE Restaurant’s (the parent company of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s chains) recent advertisement featuring Paris Hilton and their unapologetic defense of that ad following the somewhat anachronistic protests. Those protests, to the visage of a writhing Hilton cavorting in a full-body version of a thong, seemed all too reminiscent of the concerns about sexual promiscuity espoused in the mid 1980s by the likes of the Parents Music Resource Center. There’s that word again – Music.

Regarding MTV's distinct (de)evolution in its mission, from championing music to video to titillation, its origins and motives are not difficult to discern. But how did the channel succeed in transitioning to something that never would have been launched in the format it exists today?

Coupled to the explosion in video was an implosion in something far more basic, though evanescent: time. Parents routinely spent less and less time meaningfully invested in their children’s lives. Profligate divorce and profligate spending by governments robbed families of this greatest of treasures. Many families, whether nuclear or fissional, had both parents working long hours out of necessity. Rather than protest ever-increasing taxes and easy divorce, many just went to work. So went the attention to lesser concerns, such as MTV.

So, back to my original question: for what does the "M" in MTV stand today? "Masturbation" comes to mind. Gauging the level of soul contentment visible in the lives of those on the channel, "Misery" also seems appropriate.

How very ironic it is that the first video aired on MTV was "Video killed the Radio Star", by the Buggles. Its jingoistic chorus reverberates today as a tongue-in-cheek prophecy of the pop-culture end times:

“Video killed the radio star.
In my mind and in my car, we can't rewind we've gone to far.
Pictures came and broke your heart, put the blame on VTR.
You are a radio star.
You are a radio star.
Video killed the radio star.”