Could this be the end of an era? After more than forty years of music programming, MTV has decided to shutter five of its channels in the UK and Ireland by the end of 2025—MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, Club MTV, and MTV Live. Reports suggest that other international countries across the European continent and beyond, like France, Australia, and Brazil, will soon follow suit. However, the flagship MTV channel will remain in these markets but continue its reality lineup. It’s still MTV, but with no music.
Although these changes won’t directly affect MTV’s U.S. operations, it does beg the question: can “Music Television” exist without music?
Well, I suppose the simple answer is “yes,” considering MTV has functioned with relatively little music programming for well over a decade now. However, its relevance in the cultural zeitgeist has waned on account of shifts in media consumption thanks to online platforms like YouTube. But that’s merely a surface level assessment. The truth of the matter is that MTV’s relevancy was predicated on its proximity to cultural expressions—primarily music. By removing music entirely for its existence, the brand severs itself from the apparatus that actually gave it meaning.
If you’re furrowing your brow with incredulousness as you read that last line, it’s likely because MTVs’ meaning has already eroded in your mind. Perhaps you see it as a shell of itself and, therefore, you might wonder, “with such little music integrated into its programming, why not just pull the cord altogether on music?” And that’s essentially the point. If you pull the cord on something that’s on proverbial life-support, what happens? Its meaning dies. Consider MTV’s sister channel VH1 as evidence.
MTV burst onto the scene in 1981 and quickly became a cultural phenomenon. It revolutionized the way we consumed music and had a profound impact on popular culture, fashion and even social norms. When it first launched, MTV was a 24-hour music video channel that refashioned the visual aspect of a song to become just as important as the audio. Artists who embraced this new medium – Madonna, Michael Jackson and Prince – became the faces of the era. For the first time, cultural producers and television channels were in partnership. Their mutual success was co-dependent. It’s no wonder so many artists participated in the pull-marketing strategy that encouraged young folks to demand that their cable add MTV to its channel line-up. It seemed as though everyone was declaring, “I want my MTV.”
The impact on youth culture was immense. MTV became the voice of a generation, influencing not just the music young people listened to, but also how they dressed, spoke and viewed the world. The “I want my MTV” campaign became a rallying cry for youth insisting on access to this cultural touchstone. The story of MTV is really a story about the power of media to shape culture and how culture, in turn, shapes media. It’s a fascinating example of the symbiotic relationship between media and society. But the brand that once defined an era has seemingly decided to abandon it—and that’s the conundrum.
MTV’s proximity and curation of youth expression throughout the years enshrined the brand to produce its own cultural works that are informed and inspired by the works of others. It’s this proximity that gave it license to do The Real World, the primordial ooze that gave us Jersey Shore and Teen Mom. It’s because of MTV’s programming of music videos that imbued TRL with significance and gave the brand authority to produce the MTV Music Awards – its biggest ratings driver to-date. Not to mention, this curatorial practice from decades ago would set the stage for Ridiculousness years later, one of the three highest viewed shows on MTV currently, next to Caught In The Act and The Challenge—a descendant of Road Rules which was a relative of its forefather The Real World.
You see what’s happening here, right? MTV seems to have convinced itself that music is no longer their thing because we have these other properties that are outperforming its music programming, when it’s music that’s given the brand cultural permission to do said things. Abandoning music isn’t an evolution, it’s a cutting of the umbilical cord that actually feeds its evolution. MTV used to have a voice and a point of view on the world as expressed through its news editorial (MTV News with Kurt Loder), its VJs (like Sway, Ananda Lewis, and Fab 5 Freddy) and original programming (like Cribs, Bevis and Butt-Head, and Jackass). That was all made possible because of the musical flag it planted in our collective consciousness. To remove said flag entirely is to erase the legitimacy the brand had garnered over the years that gave it meaning.
Yes, media consumption has changed, which presents certain business realities that forces a company to shift its operations. It’s easy to blame the internet but that’s a scape goat. There’s no reason in the world that MTV couldn’t fare well in today’s music backdrop. The popularity of NPR’s online series Tiny Desk Concerts is, at its core, an extension of MTV Unplugged. There’s no reason why MTV couldn’t have done the popular online property Versuz founded by Swiss Beats and Timbaland, which pits two artists against each other in a hit-vs-hit battle—an idea not too distant from Wild ‘n Out. Music is still relevant. Video killed the radio star, and the internet killed the video star. But music still matters. What MTV failed to realize is that its curation of music programming is what gave them permission to do programming outside of music. Music was its flag, and when you remove the flag, it’s hard to find its home.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author, Marcus Collins – best-selling author of For The Culture and clinical professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan – and do not necessarily reflect the views of Brand Innovators.
