Death of the MTV Generation [MTV Shutting Down]

Chronicles ^ | December 8, 2025 | Noel Yaxley

[dfwgator]

And yet, A-ha’s “Take On Me”, has over 2 Billion views on YouTube.

YouTube rendered MTV obsolete.

[God luvs America]

MTV rendered MTV obsolete...they went from playing music videos, primarily rock videos, to producing idiot shows then went totally woke the past half dozen years...

[dfwgator]

True, but YouTube was the final blow.

[lee martell]

What you just described is exactly what happened to Christopher Cross and his music career.
Christopher wrote and sang some wonderful, uplifting and musically precise popular music. Some liked to call it Yacht Music as a mild put down, but it still sold. “Ride Like The Wind”, “Never Be The Same”, “Sailing”, all monster hits.
He won five Grammy Awards in 1980. John Lennon once said “Sailing” is a song he wishes he had thought of to write and perform.

Then, MTV happened, and Chris just didn’t fit the visual image of a Countertenor; A male singer with a high falsetto or alto voice, singing that type of music. He looked more like a truck driver than a soloist for whimsical love songs.
After that armful of Grammy’s Christopher’s career, sank like a rock. He’s still around, but at a fraction of his former fame.

[dfwgator]

More people now associate “Ride Like The Wind” with the SCTV skit with Michael McDonald.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

There was (or is?) an “MTV Generation”? Who knew?

[doorgunner69]

I gather (not being a TV watcher back then) that MTV was not bad with Rock stuff it covered. Apparently had a really cute chick named Martha Quinn or something that made it worth watching?

I heard it morphed to ghetto jungle chanting and went to hell.

[ealgeone]

The death of Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain in 1994 signaled the beginning of the end of MTV’s golden age.

It began dying before that. I'd say around the time they introduced Yo, MTV Raps and then moved into reality tv.

[ConservativeMind]

Great music video!

[Gil4]

The thing probably peaked around 1985...

1985 ... sounds about right

[Secret Agent Man]

Martha Chin.

[Secret Agent Man]

Yup

We are the sigmas of the generations

[T.B. Yoits]

After MTV it became processed music presented by model like performers.

Motörhead 1977
Bomber 1979
On Parole 1979
Overkill 1979
Ace of Spades 1980
No Sleep 'til Hammersmith 1981
Iron Fist 1982
Another Perfect Day 1983
What's Words Worth? 1983
Orgasmatron 1986
Rock 'n' Roll 1987
Nö Sleep at All 1988
Blitzkrieg on Birmingham '77 1989
Lock Up Your Daughters 1990
1916 1991
March ör Die 1992
Bastards 1993
Live at Brixton '87 1994
Sacrifice 1995
Overnight Sensation 1996
Snake Bite Love 1998
Everything Louder than Everyone Else 1999
We Are Motörhead 2000
Hammered 2002
25 & Alive: Live at Brixton Academy 2003
Inferno 2004
BBC Live & In-Session 2005
Kiss of Death 2006
Better Motörhead than Dead: Live at Hammersmith 2007
Motörizer 2008
The Wörld Is Yours 2010
The Wörld Is Ours - Vol. 1: Everywhere Further Than Everyplace Else 2011
The Wörld Is Ours – Vol. 2: Anyplace Crazy as Anywhere Else 2012
Aftershock 2013
Bad Magic 2015
Clean Your Clock 2016

[Dilbert San Diego]

Perhaps what they should have said is that the television channel MTV on cable TV abandoned music videos long ago.

There is still a channel called MTV, but it no longer has programming that it had originally.

[dfwgator]

Oh, no one ever left alive in nineteen hundred and eighty five
Will ever do

[T.B. Yoits]

Martha Quinn. Married her childhood heartthrob Bobby Brady.

Just to be clear, that was a role she played in 'The Bradys', the short-lived sequel to "The Brady Bunch".

In real life, she married Jordan Tarlow from the Fuzztones.

[Larry Lucido]

Detroit was slow getting cable so I had no idea what HBO or MTV were (except from the song Money for Nothing) until I spent four months in Anniston, Alabama, in 1983 courtesy of the U.S. Army. The motel on Quintard Ave had a pool, working AC, and cable. Spent days at Fort McClellan and nights catching up on movies and these new-fangled “music videos.” After I finally got my own cable, both music channels had started to go downhill.

[gundog]

[RightWingNut]

I only got to watch MTV at someone else’s house. Parents were too cheap for cable. I survived !! LOL

Come to think of it, I’m so old I remember all those Rod Stewart videos on early MTV.

I also remember when Saturday Night Live was funny.

I’M OLD !!!

[Angelino97]

MTV rendered MTV obsolete...they went from playing music videos, primarily rock videos, to producing idiot shows then went totally woke the past half dozen years...

MTV was "woke" from the start.

I recall reading an article on MTV in the 1990s. It quoted an insider as saying that MTV saw itself as having a mission to transform America, to make it more progressive.

MTV used to have "Rock the Vote" specials and Presidential Inaugural Balls to encourage young people to vote. MTV claimed these events were non-partisan.

Yet when Bush won win 2000, MTV canceled its Inaugural Ball Special. They claimed it was because of the "controversy" over the 2000 election. But I think MTV would have celebrated a Gore win, controversy or no.