On August 1, 1981, MTV went on the air as a 24-hour, non-stop, commercial cable channel beamed by satellite across the country and offered at no charge through cable companies. MTV offered music videos short films shot to one song. It became an instant success. Suddenly, rock music became something to look at, not just listen to, and a good video could make or break a band. MTV revitalized the record industry by giving play to new bands that the radio stations were ignoring. Its style influenced movies and TV shows. Even the working title for the Miami Vice original pilot film was MTV Cops. MTV also led to long-form videos, such as Flashdance and Purple Rain. Music videos have even become a postmodern art form, with its own ideology. Overall, MTV had a huge impact on culture in its first eight years.
In the late 1970s, rock music had become stagnant. Radio stations were cycling through the songs on their play lists. Revenues from record and tape sales had declined more than 10 percent from 1978 to 1979, and those in the industry did not know what to do. Bob Pittman, then employed by Warner Communications, came up with a solution:
There are people who grew up with TV, who learned to do their homework, listen to the radio and watch TV all at the same time. For these people, we needed to create a form that was non-linear, using mood and emotion to create an atmosphere.
Pittman added television to music. His idea for MTV was simple: "Get the record companies to produce video commercials for their records" and provide them free to MTV in much the same way the record companies provided albums free to the radio stations.
Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment introduced MTV in 1981, at a cost of $20 million. Viacom International purchased MTV in 1986 for $550 million, which was 11 times more than the 1986 estimated earnings. The next owner was Summer Redstone's National Amusements. The MTV Network includ...