In 1975, Queen astonished audiences with a then-novel video for “Bohemian Rhapsody” on “Top of the Pops.” Two years later, songwriter Michael Nesmith, a member of the made-for-TV band The Monkees, became an early champion of the idea after making a cinematic video for the song “Rio.” As the ’80s drew near, music videos increasingly captivated television executives and radio producers who sensed their commercial potential. Kris Connor/Getty Images The Birth of MTVīy the late 1970s, the concept of a “video radio” television channel floated on the entertainment industry’s periphery. “And then all of a sudden, they were in your living room.”Ī MTV t-shirt was on display during the grand opening of the National Museum Of American History's Innovation Wing in 2015. “A lot of these movements, consciously or unconsciously, came together in MTV,” says Smithsonian curator emeritus and visual music expert Kerry Brougher. For roughly two decades, audiences relied on MTV as a gateway to new music, fashion, experimental film and visual effects. This image of MTV-washed up, hungover, and grimly partying on-has come to define the channel’s diminished relevance in 2021.īut when MTV first launched 40 years ago, it both captured and created the zeitgeist of teenage culture. “ You’re watching MTV Spring Break live, at Miami Beach,” a voice-over announced, “ where the party don’t stop until the government-mandated curfew!” On March 27, 2021, roughly one year into the pandemic, “Saturday Night Live” opened with a cringey skit that mocked pandemic-era spring breakers as lusty, dead-eyed degenerates who had remorselessly triggered a coronavirus surge the previous year.

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