When MTV was created, a new form of programming was introduced. This new media concentrated more on the format of the channel rather than the schedule. The purpose of this new structure of media was to grab the attention of young viewers.
In its early years, MTV rarely ran programs, but alternated music videos, video-jockey segments, bumpers, which are small time filler spots in-between shows like ‘I Want My MTV’, and commercials, many of which were similar in form and style (Newman 589). Time magazine put MTV on its cover in 1983 and, in the accompanying story, made clear that its appeal had to do with the way it addressed a TV-made audience: Michael Newman quotes J. Cocks saying, “Whole generations have had their brains fried with a cathode ray tube, a condition that creates a certain impatience and shortness of attention when limited to aural input” (589). Robert Pittman, the designer behind MTV, believed that his audience for the new channel would be made up of quote, “TV Babies”, viewers who had come of age in a TV-saturated culture, and whose mode of perception was thus uniquely generational (Newman 590). According to Pittman, TV Babies don’t pay attention to one thing at a time like their parents did when they were younger. This young generation can multitask like never before. For example, they are able to do their homework, watch TV, listen to music, and even eat all at the same time. For a piece of media to become popular today, it must be able to as Michael Newman puts it, “hit them [the young generation] in the gut” with dazzling pieces of work (591).
When MTV was created, a new form of programming was introduced. This new media concentrated more on the format of the channel rather than the schedule. The purpose of this new structure of media was to grab the attention of young viewers. In its early years, MTV rarely ran programs, but alternated music videos, video-jockey segments, bumpers, which are small time filler spots in-between shows like ‘I Want My MTV’, and commercials, many of which were similar in form and style (Newman 589). Time magazine put MTV on its cover in 1983 and, in the accompanying story, made clear that its appeal had to do with the way it addressed a TV-made audience: Michael Newman quotes J. Cocks saying, “Whole generations have had their brains fried with a cathode ray tube, a condition that creates a certain impatience and shortness of attention when limited to aural input” (589). Robert Pittman, the designer behind MTV, believed that his audience for the new channel would be made up of quote, “TV Babies”, viewers who had come of age in a TV-saturated culture, and whose mode of perception was thus uniquely generational (Newman 590). According to Pittman, TV Babies don’t pay attention to one thing at a time like their parents did when they were younger. This young generation can multitask like never before. For example, they are able to do their homework, watch TV, listen to music, and even eat all at the same time. For a piece of media to become popular today, it must be able to as Michael Newman puts it, “hit them [the young generation] in the gut” with dazzling pieces of work (591).
MTV’s popularity is a result of this amazing image production, but moreover the popularity of MTV has come from its connection to the young generation. Within the teen world there is hardly a socializing factor force as great as popular music. This was the focus of MTV when it was first created. For teens, music, in the form of music videos, recordings, and radio broadcasts is the dominant form of entertainment, higher than television, film and media print (Williams 23). While growing up and becoming socialized into the mainstream of society, adolescents require a means of self-expression that breaks and confines of their parents’ values; music provides a media through which one’s identity can be articulated. Music, in general, can be used as a socially building force claims Williams: “Music helps create a culturally binding consciousness among the young people who in the process develop an awareness of the things that they are motivated to learn about” (24). Thus, MTV, by providing this type of media, became and has remained a focal point of the youth culture and young generations.