The most famous American TV channel, originally specialized exclusively in music. Nationwide broadcasting began on August 1st, 1981. The first words spoken on the air were "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll". Today, the MTV brand is licensed to various broadcasters around the world.
The TV channel quickly became popular, a year later 2.1 million people from all over the country were subscribed to it, it became a real symbol of youth culture. The very first video shown on MTV was "Video Killed the Radio Star" from the debut album by the British band The Buggles. And since 1984, the channel began to conduct its own charts, the very first of which was the Top 20 Video Countdown.
At the dawn of its existence, the channel was repeatedly accused of racism, motivating this by showing clips of exclusively white performers. Representatives of MTV explained this by the lack of popular clips from performers with a different skin color. But everything changed in 1983, when the music video "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson was shown, which was later recognized as one of the most revolutionary in the history of pop music.
In 1987, a European branch of the channel appeared, called MTV Europe. His career began with the video "Money for Nothing" by the British rock band Dire Straits.
Initially, the channel only broadcast clips of various groups around the clock, but over time it also began to show thematic programs, shows and even series. So, it broadcasts the famous animated series "Beavis and Butt-head", invented by screenwriter Michael Judge and owned by MTV.
