I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution

I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution
Cover of paperback edition
Author	Craig Marks Rob Tannenbaum
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject	Video
Genre	Music
Publisher	Dutton Penguin (hardback) Plume (paperback)
Publication date	October 27, 2011 (first edition)
Media type	Print (Hardcover) Paperback ebook
Pages	608 (hardback), 592 (paperback)
ISBN	978-1-101-52641-5

I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution (usually shortened to I Want My MTV) is a 2011 book about the rise of American cable television channel MTV, its heyday, and its transformation from a strictly music video channel. The book relies almost entirely on interviews and anecdotes from the cable channel’s founders and the artists whose videos appeared on the channel. Over 400 artists, directors, and staff of MTV were interviewed by the authors, music journalists Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum. The book's name is derived from a marketing campaign launched by the channel in 1981 that featured many of the artists appearing on the channel at the time exclaiming “I Want My MTV!” The primary purpose of the campaign was to encourage cable subscribers to request the channel on their cable TV lineup. The book is published by Dutton Penguin in the United States.

The authors

Craig Marks has been the editor of three influential publications: Spin, Blender, and Billboard. In addition, he has written for Rolling Stone, GQ, and the New York Times. He is the co-founder of the pop music site Popdust.

Rob Tannenbaum has written for GQ, New York, the New York Times Magazine, Details, Rolling Stone, Spin, the Village Voice, the New York Observer, Harper’s Bazaar, George, Premiere, and Playboy. He was the music editor of Blender.

Summary

"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.

Two great stories in the book detail the MTV contest with Van Halen and a lucky fan and possibly the worst video ever made, Billy Squier's "Rock Me Tonite".

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.

Cast of characters

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.

Film adaptation

Director Brett Ratner will direct the film adaptation of I Want My MTV. Jody Lambert will write the screenplay. Sony Pictures is producing the movie.^[2]

Critical acclaim

I Want My MTV was named one of the Best Books of 2011 by NPR,^[3] Spin,^[4] USA Today, CNBC, Pitchfork, The Onion, The Atlantic, The Huffington Post, VEVO, the Boston Globe, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Individual reviews detail the overall reception to the book:

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

“For those who came of age during the glory days of the music video era - from the early ’80s to the early ’90s - this oral history, woven together by music journalists Marks and Tannenbaum, evokes nostalgia and illuminates some interesting behind the scenes action at the then-burgeoning music network.” - Boston Globe.

“More than 400 incisive interviews with music video directors, executives, managers, producers and, of course, every musician from George Michael to Gerardo. Marks and Tannenbaum make business meetings sound as fascinating as UFC Fighting with anecdote upon anecdote about models, midgets and coke-fueled mayhem.” - Spin.

“From the hilarious (for years Run DMC only knew "Walk this Way" as "Toys in the Attic," Track 4), to the infuriating (the Rashomon-esque accounts of how "Billie Jean" finally broke the channel's race barrier) to the poignant (Michael Jackson didn't taste pizza until he was 25!), these stories are strangely compelling. Have YouTube at the ready when you reach Chapter 21, which chronicles the "world's worst video." Whether you agree or not, you will not be disappointed.” - Elizabeth Allin, NPR (Best Music Books of 2011).

“This is the perfect gift for that person in your life who won't shut up about MTV not playing music videos anymore. 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]

“In I Want My MTV, Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum craft a smart, decadently entertaining oral history in the tradition of Live From New York, 2002’s Saturday Night Live epic.” - Jess Walter, Playboy.

“Music journalists Marks and Tannenbaum vibrantly chronicle the first decade of MTV… The sheer entertainment value within these pages is priceless.” - Publisher's Weekly.

“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]

“Just as MTV hypnotized viewers with rolling hours of three-minute fragments, so the bitty, jump-cut structure of I Want My MTV swiftly compels.” - Andrew Mueller, Business Week.^[9]

References

External links

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