MTV - Revision history

Spider of Destiny at 14:19, 12 July 2026

2026-07-12T14:19:24Z

Spider of Destiny at 20:59, 12 June 2026

2026-06-12T20:59:25Z

Spider of Destiny at 20:54, 12 June 2026

2026-06-12T20:54:28Z

Spider of Destiny at 20:12, 12 June 2026

2026-06-12T20:12:51Z

Spider of Destiny: /* See also */

2026-06-11T20:24:24Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 16:48, 5 December 2021

2021-12-05T16:48:47Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 04:19, 30 September 2021

2021-09-30T04:19:26Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 04:14, 30 September 2021

2021-09-30T04:14:54Z

Spider of Destiny at 10:56, 27 May 2011

2011-05-27T10:56:23Z

Spider of Destiny: /* Links with Zappa */

2010-12-09T17:09:54Z

Links with Zappa

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 [[File:Mtv.jpg|right]]
-'''MTV''', launched on August 1, 1981, was the first music video channel. In a few years after its launch, this American cable television network based in New York City, grew into a dominant and influential force in the development of the music industry. 24/7 young people could watch music videos by their favorite artists or discover knew ones. Particularly the success of [[Michael Jackson]]'s ''Thriller'' made every record company aware that, in order to make their single releases hits, they needed to give each one of them accompanying music video, preferably as sensational as possible. Within a few years, MTV had become a global phenomenon and an entire generation couldn't imagine music without some video attached to it. Naturally, it became very easy to make the music video itself the prime marketing tool to popularize hairstyles, fashions, dance moves and intrigueing imagery. Any artist or band who couldn't afford or refused to jump on this bandwagon had a far greater challenge ahead to break through.
+'''MTV''', launched on August 1, 1981, was the first music video channel. In a few years after its launch, this American cable television network based in New York City, grew into a dominant and influential force in the development of the music industry.
 Apart from their music videos, MTV was also known for broadcasting regular TV shows, like their annual award programs, the ''MTV Video Music Awards'', experimental animated shorts and animated comedy series ''[[Beavis and Butt-head]]'', ''[[Daria]]'' and ''Celebrity Death Watch''. By the early 1990s, they also started broadcasting reality TV shows, like ''MTV - The Real World'', and by 2002 ''The Osbournes'' (with [[Ozzy Osbourne]]). By the mid-2000s, MTV slowly but surely devoted less airtime to music videos in favor of reality TV shows. As of today, it is basically a reality TV show channel aimed at young audiences.
@@ Line 8: / Line 10: @@
 [[File:MTV Topps card.jpg|500px|thumb|right|Frank Zappa, interviewed by Nina Blackwood, on MTV (1981). Topps card from 2011.]]
-Zappa criticized MTV and the influence it had on making images more important than the music itself. ''[[Be In My Video]]'' is a vicious satire of MTV. During the version of ''[[Trouble Every Day]]'' on ''[[Does Humor Belong In Music?]]'', Zappa sang: ''"Well I'm about get sick from watchin' MTV / I been checkin' out the HO HO HO! / until my eyeballs fail to see / I mean to say that every day is just another rotten group (right you are, girl) / and when it's gonna change, my friend / will probably make you stoop, I don't know."'' He also criticized MTV in his ''[[Z-Pack - PMRC Letter]]'' (1984). The show ''"Yo! MTV Raps"'' is referenced in ''[[This Ain't CNN]]''.
+Zappa criticized MTV and the influence it had on making images more important than the music itself. ''[[Be In My Video]]'' is a vicious satire of MTV. During the version of ''[[Trouble Every Day]]'' on ''[[Does Humor Belong In Music?]]'', Zappa sang: ''"Well, I'm about get sick from watchin' MTV / I been checkin' out the HO HO HO! / until my eyeballs fail to see / I mean to say that every day is just another rotten group (right you are, girl) / and when it's gonna change, my friend / will probably make you stoop, I don't know."'' He also criticized MTV in his ''[[Z-Pack - PMRC Letter]]'' (1984). The show ''"Yo! MTV Raps"'' is referenced in ''[[This Ain't CNN]]''.
 Despite his criticisms one of his concerts have been shown on MTV (like the ''[[Halloween 81]]'' concert of [[81/10/29-11/01 New York NY US Palladium]]). Zappa has also been interviewed a few times on MTV, like in 1984 and 1986 (''[["My Pet Theory"]]''). Zappa's ''[[Night School]]'' concept would've involved MTV too, but it never came fruition. Both [[Moon Zappa|Moon]] and [[Dweezil Zappa|Dweezil]] appeared as veejays for the channel during the 1980s. [[Rolling Stone Interview, 1986|Interviewed by David Fricke for Rolling Stone (1986)]], Zappa defended Dweezil's success as a MTV VJ: ''"If his fan mail is any indication, they got the right guy for the job. The thing that's cool about Dweezil is he's just turned seventeen. He IS a kid. He's not a guy pretending to be a kid. He's the age of the audience, and he's a genuine music fan. He knows something about the groups he's putting on. And he also knows them as individuals. The little stories he tells don't come off like showbiz stories."''
@@ Line 17: / Line 19: @@
 ==Zappa about MTV==
 [[File:Frank Zappa, MTV, 1984.jpg|500px|thumb|right|Frank Zappa, interviewed on MTV in 1984.]]
 ''"As far as appearing on MTV, that is tied mostly to the way you look and, of course, a certain amount of promotional consideration. And the fact is, the videos are so expensive to make, one video costs more than a whole album. I'm self-financed, so I can't afford to spend a lot of money doing these things."'' - [[Frank Zappa On... The '80s Guitar Clone]]'', Dan Forte, Guitar Player, January 1987.
@@ Line 29: / Line 33: @@
 ''"The beginning of the '80s gave us MTV, and music changed and switched from an audio to a video medium. (...) For worse, because I believe that the way music is to be consumed is through your ears, and it shouldn't be too important whether the person performing it looks like a model. The record companies thought it was the greatest thing that ever happened to them because it was a way for them to get cheap commercials. And so the tail started wagging the dog. The record companies stopped signing groups that could play in favor of groups that looked good in pictures because they figured we could always get a producer to sing their songs and do their stuff for them, and that happened plenty of times. So you get a bunch of models to make the video and forget about the music. So that part of that worked. A young audience who never experienced any music to speak of started watching MTV the same way they watched Saturday morning cartoons. And it caught on. There was no competition. Before MTV if you wanted to have a hit record, there were probably 10,000 stations in America where you could break something regionally and have it spread. Now there is one MTV with a short playlist, and because of that the record companies put their own balls into the bear trap and sprung it on themselves, now they can't make a move without calling MTV and getting permission, they call up in advance to say we are getting ready to make a video, we are going to have such and such pictures in it, what do you think, and MTV is a total censorship organization and it has all the major record companies at its mercy. I started getting really weary of MTV when they started inventing rock'n'wrestling, where we're seeing videos of Hulk Hogan urging kids to take their vitamins, urging kids to grow up big and strong like him, and be an American. It really was on the level of a Saturday morning cartoon."'' - ''[[Signs Of The Times]]'', Bob Guccione, Jr., Spin, July 1991.
 ==See also==

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 [[File:Mtv.jpg|right]]
-'''MTV''', launched on August 1, 1981, was the first music video channel. In a few years after its launch, this American cable television network based in New York City, grew into a dominant and influential force in the development of the music industry. 24/7 young people could watch music videos by their favorite artists or discover knew ones. Particuarly the success of [[Michael Jackson]]'s ''Thriller'' made every record company aware that, in order to make their single releases hits, they needed to give each one of them accompanying music video, preferably as sensational as possible. Within a few years, MTV had become a global phenomenon and an entire generation couldn't imagine music without some video attached to it. Naturally, it became very easy to make the music video itself the prime marketing tool to popularize hairstyles, fashions, dance moves and intrigueing imagery. Any artist or band who couldn't afford or refused to jump on this bandwagon had a far greater challenge ahead to break through.
+'''MTV''', launched on August 1, 1981, was the first music video channel. In a few years after its launch, this American cable television network based in New York City, grew into a dominant and influential force in the development of the music industry. 24/7 young people could watch music videos by their favorite artists or discover knew ones. Particularly the success of [[Michael Jackson]]'s ''Thriller'' made every record company aware that, in order to make their single releases hits, they needed to give each one of them accompanying music video, preferably as sensational as possible. Within a few years, MTV had become a global phenomenon and an entire generation couldn't imagine music without some video attached to it. Naturally, it became very easy to make the music video itself the prime marketing tool to popularize hairstyles, fashions, dance moves and intrigueing imagery. Any artist or band who couldn't afford or refused to jump on this bandwagon had a far greater challenge ahead to break through.
 Apart from their music videos, MTV was also known for broadcasting regular TV shows, like their annual award programs, the ''MTV Video Music Awards'', experimental animated shorts and animated comedy series ''[[Beavis and Butt-head]]'', ''[[Daria]]'' and ''Celebrity Death Watch''. By the early 1990s, they also started broadcasting reality TV shows, like ''MTV - The Real World'', and by 2002 ''The Osbournes'' (with [[Ozzy Osbourne]]). By the mid-2000s, MTV slowly but surely devoted less airtime to music videos in favor of reality TV shows. As of today, it is basically a reality TV show channel aimed at young audiences.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 [[File:Mtv.jpg|right]]
-'''MTV''', launched on August 1, 1981, was the first music video channel. This American cable television network based in New York City has grown into an international media imperium and a dominant and influential force on the development of the music industry. Apart from their music videos MTV is also known for broadcasting regular TV series, including the animated comedy series ''[[Beavis and Butt-head]]'', ''[[Daria]]'' and the reality series ''The Osbournes'' with [[Ozzy Osbourne]].
+'''MTV''', launched on August 1, 1981, was the first music video channel. In a few years after its launch, this American cable television network based in New York City, grew into a dominant and influential force in the development of the music industry. 24/7 young people could watch music videos by their favorite artists or discover knew ones. Particuarly the success of [[Michael Jackson]]'s ''Thriller'' made every record company aware that, in order to make their single releases hits, they needed to give each one of them accompanying music video, preferably as sensational as possible. Within a few years, MTV had become a global phenomenon and an entire generation couldn't imagine music without some video attached to it. Naturally, it became very easy to make the music video itself the prime marketing tool to popularize hairstyles, fashions, dance moves and intrigueing imagery. Any artist or band who couldn't afford or refused to jump on this bandwagon had a far greater challenge ahead to break through.
 ==Links with Zappa==

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 [[File:Mtv.jpg|right]]
-MTV, launched on August 1, 1981, was the first music video channel. This American cable television network based in New York City has grown into an international media imperium and a dominant and influential force on the development of the music industry. Apart from their music videos MTV is also known for broadcasting regular TV series, including the animated comedy series ''[[Beavis and Butt-head]]'' and the reality series ''The Osbournes'' with [[Ozzy Osbourne]].
+'''MTV''', launched on August 1, 1981, was the first music video channel. This American cable television network based in New York City has grown into an international media imperium and a dominant and influential force on the development of the music industry. Apart from their music videos MTV is also known for broadcasting regular TV series, including the animated comedy series ''[[Beavis and Butt-head]]'', ''[[Daria]]'' and the reality series ''The Osbournes'' with [[Ozzy Osbourne]].
 ==Links with Zappa==
-Zappa criticized MTV and the influence it had on making images more important than the music itself. [[Be In My Video]] is a vicious satire of MTV. Despite his criticisms one of his concerts have been shown on MTV (81/10/29-11/01 New York NY US Palladium) and both [[Moon Zappa|Moon]] and [[Dweezil Zappa|Dweezil]] appeared as veejays for the channel during the 1980s.
+Zappa criticized MTV and the influence it had on making images more important than the music itself. ''[[Be In My Video]]'' is a vicious satire of MTV. During the version of ''[[Trouble Every Day]]'' on ''[[Does Humor Belong In Music?]]'', Zappa sang: ''"Well I'm about get sick from watchin' MTV / I been checkin' out the HO HO HO! / until my eyeballs fail to see / I mean to say that every day is just another rotten group (right you are, girl) / and when it's gonna change, my friend / will probably make you stoop, I don't know."'' He also criticized MTV in his ''[[Z-Pack - PMRC Letter]]'' (1984). The show ''"Yo! MTV Raps"'' is referenced in ''[[This Ain't CNN]]''.
-The show ''"Yo! MTV Raps"'' is referenced in [[This Ain't CNN]].
+Despite his criticisms one of his concerts have been shown on MTV (like the ''[[Halloween 81]]'' concert of [[81/10/29-11/01 New York NY US Palladium]]). Zappa has also been interviewed a few times on MTV, like in 1984 and 1986 (''[["My Pet Theory"]]''). Zappa's ''[[Night School]]'' concept would've involved MTV too, but it never came fruition. Both [[Moon Zappa|Moon]] and [[Dweezil Zappa|Dweezil]] appeared as veejays for the channel during the 1980s. [[Rolling Stone Interview, 1986|Interviewed by David Fricke for Rolling Stone (1986)]], Zappa defended Dweezil's success as a MTV VJ: ''"If his fan mail is any indication, they got the right guy for the job. The thing that's cool about Dweezil is he's just turned seventeen. He IS a kid. He's not a guy pretending to be a kid. He's the age of the audience, and he's a genuine music fan. He knows something about the groups he's putting on. And he also knows them as individuals. The little stories he tells don't come off like showbiz stories."''
 ==See also==
@@ Line 13: / Line 32: @@
 * [[Beavis and Butt-head]]
 * [[Daria]]
 [[Category:Targets]]

@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 * [[Michael Jackson]]
 * [[Beavis and Butt-head]]
 [[Category:Targets]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:48, 5 December 2021
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	* [[Beavis and Butt-head]]		* [[Beavis and Butt-head]]

−	~~[[Category:The Real Frank Zappa Book (The List)]]~~
	[[Category:Targets]]		[[Category:Targets]]
−	~~[[Category:Them Or Us (The List)]]~~

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 Zappa criticized MTV and the influence it had on making images more important than the music itself. [[Be In My Video]] is a vicious satire of MTV. Despite his criticisms one of his concerts have been shown on MTV (81/10/29-11/01 New York NY US Palladium) and [[Moon Zappa]] was a veejay for the channel during the 1980s.
-The show ''"MTV Raps"'' is referenced in [[This Ain't CNN]].
+The show ''"Yo! MTV Raps"'' is referenced in [[This Ain't CNN]].
 ==See also==