MTV

MTV stands for Music Television and is an American television channel which is based in New York. MTV was launched on August 1, 1981 with the song ‘video killed the radio star’ however the beginning of MTV was in January 1977. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs (Video Jockeys) However in now MTV primarily broadcasts a variety of reality and scripted television programs targeted at a younger audience. The original purpose of MTV was to be "Music Television", playing music videos 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, guided by on-air personalities (video jockeys). The original taglines of the channel were "You'll never look at music the same way again," and "On cable. In stereo." Nowadays, MTV no longer plays music videos 24/7 however several of its franchise shows such as MTV Hits and MTV Jams do. In addition, viewers can play music videos on-demand at MTV.com.

History

MTV was a very important channel in the early 1980s as it broke the ‘colour barrier’ where other ethnic groups were on TV. During the first few years on the air, barely any black artists were on the channel; however those in rotation included Tina Turner and Eddy Grant. The very first non-white act played on MTV in the US was UK band The Specials, which featured an integrated line-up of white and black musicians and vocalists. The Specials' video "Rat Race" was played as the 58th video on the station's first day of broadcasting.

In 1987, MTV was launched in Europe; it was the 24-hour entertainment cable and digital television network. Initially, the channel served all regions within Europe being one of the very few channels that targeted the entire European continent. Today, the channel only serves a selection of European countries as MTV Networks Europe began to regionalise its network in 1997.

By the early 1990s, MTV was playing a combination of pop-friendly hard rock acts, chart-topping metal and hard rock acts such as Metallica, Nirvana and Guns N' Roses, pop singers such as Michael Jackson, Madonna, 2 Unlimited and New Kids on the Block, and R&B quartets such as New Edition, Bell Biv Devoe, Tony Toni Tone, and Boyz II Men, while introducing hit rappers Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer. MTV progressively increased its airing of hip hop acts, such as LL Cool J, and Naughty by Nature.

On the 1^st of August 2001 MTV celebrated its 20th anniversary, beginning with a 12-hour retrospective called MTV20: Buggles to Bizkit, which featured over 100 classic videos played chronologically, hosted by various VJs in reproductions of MTV's old studios. The day of programming culminated in a 3-hour celebratory live event called MTV20: Live and Almost Legal, which was hosted by Carson Daly and featured numerous guests from MTV's history, including the original VJs from 1981.

In January 2009 MTV started to edit a number of videos which removed references to drugs, violence, homophobia and many other issues. Many music videos aired on the channel were censored, moved to late-night rotation, or banned entirely from the channel.

Information from

http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/the-history-of-mtv