When did MTV peak?

I'd say MTV peaked in the early 1990s. In my view, music videos in general were never better than the Guns N' Roses videos of that era.

I realize hard rock isn't for everyone. If you just turn off the sound and watch these videos as artistic creations, I think you'll see they're incredible.


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a reply to: Profusion

I'd say when they went from the awesome Live Unplugged in NY shows to the stupid 16 and pregnant or the jersey shore shows.

When they lost the vision of music. It was a music channel that bastardized its self with reality TV. I was thinking the same thing of CNN. I know there very biased, but when they have Anthony Bordan food related shoes on?? Sorry that's not news folks.

The Real World....that stupid reality show. Downhill from there.

It was it's best in 1988. All downhill from there.

Video killed the radio star. That was MTV.

Internet killed MTV.

People could watch their favorite videos at any time and not wait for MTV to play them. That's when they changed to the reality crap.

So they peaked around the mid 90s.

a reply to: Tekaran

Road rules was pretty good. Real world / Road Rules Challenges was cools too.

But when the music stopped being the focus of that channel, it was easy to stop turning it on.

a reply to: Profusion

GNR fan, obviously. You know their mentor band was Led Zeppelin, right?

Lots of good videos out there, asking the older generation they'll tell you MTV peaked in the 80's or began down sliding when they started playing advertisements.

Art is in the eye of the beholder. The best MTV videos were the ones with the best songs. GNR, okay...

Oh yah, ode to the 90's...

Live Aid - the "VJ'S" were all such cheese balls and so uncool...all commercial crapola after that.

It really, really died after we lost Kurt Cobain. Grunge and MTV were not a good fit, but that loss killed it for good.

December 1983. Debut of Michael Jackson's Thriller music video. It was MTV's first World Premiere. It was an event that all artists and their music videos would try to replicate from then on. In my opinion, Thriller would not have had the impact without MTV and MTV may have not had the staying power without the success of Thriller. It broke the boundaries of what could be done with the music video format.

originally posted by: Tekaran
The Real World....that stupid reality show. Downhill from there.

Yup, I think that was the literal turning point.

My brother used to watch that show all the time. Just walking into the room and hearing it for 15 seconds made me want to vomit.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
Video killed the radio star. That was MTV.

Internet killed MTV.

People could watch their favorite videos at any time and not wait for MTV to play them. That's when they changed to the reality crap.

So they peaked around the mid 90s.

Noone was watching videos in the 90's on internet...in fact not at all till 2003...MTV had already stopped playing music before then.

a reply to: Tekaran

100% agree. I remember when The Real World started and shaking my head wondering why they were running programming that had nothing to do with music or music videos. After that, it seemed to be a rapid decline into reality TV nonsense and it was not long before my TV never went to that channel again.

Used to love 120 Minutes and Unplugged back in the day.

Recently, my cable company added "MTV Live" to my lineup. This is really a great channel and totally devoted to showing live musical performances, concert movies, and performance based shows (Live at Daryl's House, etc.). I guess it only took them about 20 years to realize where they went wrong.

a reply to: Profusion

I was in a popular pat benatar video as a kid.
I am certain that's when it peaked!!!

Here's my sweet pic.

a reply to: Profusion

I was never exposed to MTV, at any location other than a clothing store called C&A, back when I was about twelve. They had a line there, which kind of branched out and did its own thing, when the C&A stores firm collapsed under the weight of its own stupidity. I cannot remember what it was called, but it had its own little logo... an old fashioned alarm clock, drawn in the style of a logo. Imagine one of those signs that tells you which toilet is the men's, and which the lady's, and then imagine that the same people who drew those, drew this clock . Trendy (for the time) clobber, aimed at mid teens and young adults was what they were selling. I have yet to figure out why the directors of the store thought that an alarm clock would be a good draw for those kids. I mean, no one likes getting up early, and everyone I knew when I was a kid hated two things more than anything. Doing ANYTHING they were told, and their alarm clock.

I remember going to one of their January sales when I was a nipper. It was the only time we could afford to shop there... or anywhere else for that matter, for things like new trousers, shirts, jumpers and so on. The discounts were bonkers, so in we went. I remember looking up at a TV that was hanging above shop floor, in the young adult section. It was silent, the piped music in the store having nothing to do with the image on screen. MTV was playing, I think the Spice Girls or some other monstrosity was on. I thought to myself "That MTV... heard an awful lot about it. Seems like a crock of crap to me!". After that I was whisking myself from rail to rail, hunting down some half decent threads to see me through the year. I think the discounts were something like seventy percent off at that place during the sales. This meant I could buy trousers that would not fall apart whilst on my body, at the same price that the bad clobber from the sweatshop stores (Primark and the like) would have cost normally.

a reply to: Profusion

Back in 1986 I was taping all kinds of music from MTV.I still have the VHS tape
but I don't know what condition it is in.I agree that MTV started going downhill
in the early to mid 1990's.

originally posted by: ParasuvO

originally posted by: Bluntone22
Video killed the radio star. That was MTV.

Internet killed MTV.

People could watch their favorite videos at any time and not wait for MTV to play them. That's when they changed to the reality crap.

So they peaked around the mid 90s.

Noone was watching videos in the 90's on internet...in fact not at all till 2003...MTV had already stopped playing music before then.

They stopped playing videos because they had better ratings on their stupid TV shows.
That and people were file sharing music.
Not so much videos but music.

a reply to: Slave2theTruth

In the late 90's early 2000's, there was a MTVX. It was a rock/alternative/grunge station. It was the best ever. They played anything from Journey, Oasis, ACDC, Creed, Led Zeppelin, Korn, Van Halen, Slipnot, Smashing Pumpkins, Limp Bizkit, you name it. I saw music on that station months before it ever hit mainstream radio. Best music station ever. Many a beer were drank sitting in front of the TV watching that station and rocking out.

The only reason for me to watch MTV at that time was YO! MTV Raps. I remember seeing Wu Tang Clan live and stuff.
For me MTV died when YO! MTV Raps died!