I Want My MTV (book)

"Remember when MTV was just about music videos?" I Want My MTV chronicles the rise of MTV from its early inception at the beginning of cable television's advance into the suburbs and beyond. As an oral history, the authors interview over 400 artists, music industry, video disc-jockeys or VJs. The book follows the evolution of MTV from the first new wave videos imported from Britain, to the introduction of black artists, including Michael Jackson, and the rise of hair metal bands. The book concludes its history in 1992 when MTV first revealed the groundbreaking reality show The Real World, grunge music made its debut, and MTV broke away from its all-video format.

The book covers the hiring of the first VJ's based on Bob Pittman's analysis that the video channel needed human beings. The first five VJs were selected to match certain demographics.

The launch of MTV occurred on August 1, 1981 with the classic MTV promo of the Apollo 11 mission footage. The first video was the Buggles Video Killed the Radio Star. While only a handful of videos were available, and often played several times a day, it was not long before record executives understood the value of producing a video. This created a one-two effect, according to Tom Freston, where exposure on MTV could lead to more radio airplay and consequently record sales. The ability of MTV to influence record sales, combined with the "I Want My MTV" campaign, led to most cable operators picking up the independent network.

Several interviews reveal the artistic side of music video production, the reluctance of some artists to enter the fray, and the artists that ultimately capitalized on the exposure MTV gave them. One example is Men at Work, a band that the record executives had few expectations. Their videos ultimately placed their album at number one for 16 weeks. Ultimately, the inability to have a video played on MTV could make or break an artist.

The book also chronicles the introduction of metal bands to MTV, the criticism that no African-American artists were featured, and how Michael Jackson's "Thriller" turned the video music world on its head. The book concludes with an exploration of the end of programming focused on videos and the introduction of non-music programming, most notably The Real World.

This is a partial selection of the people interviewed or highlighted in the book who were instrumental to the creation of MTV:

• John Lack is credited with coming up with the idea for MTV. He was the executive vice president of the Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment Company. He envisioned video radio.
• Bob Pittman, Founder. The one-eyed programmer for NBC Radio who came to work on The Movie Channel. He was the first CEO of MTV Networks until 1987. He worked with the record labels to get free videos to play on MTV.
• Alisa Belletini, creator of House of Style[1]
• Cindy Crawford, supermodel and original host of House of Style
• Tom Freston was the CEO of MTV Networks from 1987 to 2006.
• Les Garland, executive vice president of programming from 1982 to 1987.
• Michael Nesmith, a member of the Monkees, Nesmith created the Pop Clips TV show, which was a precursor to MTV.
• Todd Rundgren, musical artist in his own right who with his manager came up with the idea for a 24-hour music video channel with a video DJ. He took his idea to Bob Pittman. A year later, MTV was announced.

Filmmaker James Ponsoldt will write and direct the film adaptation of I Want My MTV, which does not yet have a release date.[2]

I Want My MTV was named one of the Best Books of 2011 by NPR[3] and Spin.[4]

“As will be evident by now, I Want My MTV is compulsively entertaining, hugely edifying… and occasionally profound.” - Jessica Winter, Time.[5]

“I Want My MTV is an oral history of the network's first 10 years, chronicling its conception, its launch, its unprecedented rise to power, and finally its almost wholesale abandonment of the music video format.” - Stephen Deusner, Pitchfork.[6]

“I guarantee you'll have a tough time putting it down. Then, after you finish, your brain will be overloaded with random trivia to spout at dinner parties.” - Whitney Matheson, USA Today.[7]

“The book is full of nostalgia and inside tidbits, with lots of bizarre stories about animals on video sets, such as the doves that may or may not have been sucked into a fan, chopped up and then splattered all over Prince during a long-ago video shoot… you will want this book.” - J. Freedom du Lac, The Washington Post.[8]

• Original I Want My MTV Video