MTV is discontinuing music channels at the end of the year

Disappointed fans and former MTV hosts lament the end of an era. But everything that made MTV a culturally “revolutionary” channel no longer exists, says film and media scholar Kirsty Fairclough from Manchester Metropolitan University. Digital platforms like YouTube and TikTok “have completely changed the way we interact with music and images.” Today’s audience expects “immediacy” and “interactivity” that videos on television cannot offer, explains the popular culture expert.

The channel was successful when the Internet was still in its infancy, says James Hyman, who produced dance shows for MTV Europe in the 1990s. “It was so exciting because that was basically all people had.”

MTV launched in Germany in 1997

Hyman and presenter Simone Angel were the creators of MTV Party Zone – a show that celebrated club culture and played then-new techno, house and trance music. Both left the channel when MTV Europe was split into regional affiliates in the early 2000s and reoriented away from music programs and towards reality shows. “I was heartbroken when it was divided into different regions. For me it was like the beginning of the end,” says the Dutchwoman.

According to her, the reason for MTV’s waning popularity was the move away from original, innovative music content, which was crucial for the breakthrough of little-known artists. “In the beginning, MTV Europe wasn’t just about making as much money as possible. It was the willingness to experiment that made the channel so exciting.”

The German-language MTV channel launched in 1997 and made presenters such as Kristiane Backer, Ray Cokes, Nora Tschirner and Christian Ulmen known to an audience of millions.

Since Paramount merged with Skydance at the beginning of the year, the company has been trying to cut costs and announced in October that it would cut 1,000 jobs. Other cable television offerings are also being put to the test.

In Germany, MTV HD is now focusing on entertainment

Some MTV music channels will continue to be broadcast in the United States, and in Germany, according to media reports, MTV HD will remain available, although with a focus on entertainment rather than music.

“The ‘M’ in MTV stood for music, and that’s gone now,” laments Hyman. “MTV really changed pop music,” concludes researcher Fairclough. The channel brought both famous and unknown artists into the living rooms of music fans around the world. The shutdown of channels in many countries “definitely marks the end of an era in the way we experience music, both visually and culturally,” she says.

Moments like the premiere of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” music video and Madonna’s performance of “Like a Virgin” at the first MTV Video Music Awards in 1984 shaped the cultural debate. “MTV was so powerful that it defined youth culture,” says Hyman, recalling the channel’s far-reaching influence on fashion, film and music.

In Hyman’s living room in London, the old MTV comes back to life. He has carefully stored the VHS cassettes of the shows he produced and slides them into the player: clips from the 90s, experimental music videos, interviews are playing.

Since it was announced that the music channels were about to go out of business, Hyman and former presenter Angel have been pushing Paramount to make archive tapes available to the public. “To me it feels like MTV has been artificially kept alive for a long time,” says Angel. “But now that the plug is actually about to be pulled, we all suddenly realize how much this means to us.”