Be fair, as long as rock music had been around by the time MTV started, it was definitely already reaching the point of diminishing returns.
True. The bands that propelled rock through the late 60s to mid 70s were pretty much played out by 1980 anyway. There were a few acts that followed like Dire Straits, The Cars and The Pretenders, but nobody of the stature of The Who, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones in their prime, and Zeppelin.
I’ll give credit to Dire Straits for seeing what was coming with “Money for Nothing.”