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