(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR")
THE BUGGLES: (Singing) Video killed the radio star.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
In 1981, The Buggles declared that video killed the radio star. For several decades, MTV became a cultural phenomenon and with it, the music video.
(SOUNDBITE OF MICHAEL JACKSON SONG, "THRILLER")
DETROW: Music videos are still thriving in different places these days - think YouTube and other social media. But as of today, MTV's global reach is shrinking just a little bit, officially ending its remaining 24-hour music channels in the U.K., according to the BBC. We asked writer Saul Austerlitz to join us to talk about MTV's reach over the years and where it fits, if anywhere, today. His book, "Money For Nothing: A History Of The Music Video From The Beatles To The White Stripes," looks at the history and power of the MTV era of music video. Thanks for joining us.
SAUL AUSTERLITZ: Thanks so much for having me.
DETROW: When I think about the music video, and I think most people are the same way, immediately, I think about MTV. But it's a good reminder, as the title of your book suggests, that this was happening long before MTV, right? The music video was a thing earlier on. What do we need to know about that earlier era?
AUSTERLITZ: Yeah. One of the things that I found most interesting in doing the research for my book was discovering the long prehistory of the music video, or what became the music video, ranging from musical shorts that preceded feature films, to a short-lived video jukebox that would be in nightclubs and restaurants, to more familiar kind of proto music videos by The Beatles.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER")
THE BEATLES: (Singing) Let me take you down 'cause I'm going to strawberry fields.
AUSTERLITZ: So, you know, this had been going on for a very long time and really for the entire length of the sound film, and that was sort of a fascinating discovery for me, at least.
DETROW: What are the top music videos in your mind when it comes to videos that aired on MTV and just kind of took over pop culture from there?
AUSTERLITZ: Definitely I think about the videos of Michael Jackson.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BEAT IT")
MICHAEL JACKSON: (Singing) Just beat it - beat it, beat it - beat it. No one wants to be defeated.
AUSTERLITZ: MTV really begins as a self-described video rock channel, and there's a racist bias against Black performers and really featuring any kind of Black musicians on the channel. And it takes Michael Jackson's album, "Thriller," and songs like "Beat It" and "Billie Jean" to kind of break down that barrier. Michael Jackson is so immensely popular that MTV is essentially forced to play those videos and really enters a new era afterwards.
DETROW: Yeah.
AUSTERLITZ: Then I also think about Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," which also kind of ushers in a revolutionary era.
(SOUNDBITE OF NIRVANA SONG, "SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT")
AUSTERLITZ: After Nirvana and after performers like Dr. Dre, the early '90s are a kind of harbinger of what becomes a more familiar, for us, genre agnostic future, where you might turn on MTV and see Cypress Hill...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "INSANE IN THE BRAIN")
CYPRESS HILL: (Singing) Insane in the membrane - insane in the brain.
AUSTERLITZ: ...Next to Pearl Jam, next to Mariah Carey, next to Metallica.
(SOUNDBITE OF METALLICA SONG, "ENTER SANDMAN")
AUSTERLITZ: And I think that kind of disinterest in the boundaries of genre feels quite familiar to us at the moment.
DETROW: Music videos play an interesting role in the world of film, too, because a lot of directors, like Spike Jonze, get their big break on music videos. So that's where they really start working with their artistry. Why do you think it is that a music video can be such a creative pipeline?
AUSTERLITZ: Well, I think that the music video is a really interesting phenomenon, and it's one that I compare in my book to the relationship between an architect and a client. The client might have an idea for the kind of thing they want to see built, but it's the architect who really is the one who can implement it and create it. And the music video, at its best, works in a similar fashion, where artists have a certain style or a certain set of imagery that is associated with them, but it's the directors who are the ones who actually create it.
You know, Jonze is really funny and satirical and playing off kind of a century of recorded imagery. So, you know, a video of his, like The Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" is somehow mocking every third-rate '70s cop show that we all ever have seen while at the same time creating something entirely new.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SABOTAGE")
BEASTIE BOYS: (Vocalizing).
DETROW: And then, of course, MTV has this long drift into reality TV. Fewer and fewer people watch it. And yet, music videos are still thriving today in a different form. Like, what do you think the state of the music video is in 2025 and 2026?
AUSTERLITZ: Yeah. I mean, clearly, you know, this news about MTV no longer having its 24-hour video channels, it feels like the end of an era, and also this era has been over for a very long time.
DETROW: Yeah.
AUSTERLITZ: You know, the - I don't think anyone really turns to MTV or has turned to MTV for a very long time to see what new music videos are playing. So it's really moved to the internet and moved to YouTube. And I think simultaneously, you know, the middle has kind of fallen out of the music video. There are still - you know, superstar performers make music videos, and indie artists make music videos on minimal or low budgets. But that kind of middle ground of performers looking to become big stars by virtue of shooting a splashy video - that's really fallen away to a large part. But I do think there's still a lot of artistry to videos, and the ability of fans to discover videos on their own, rather than being hemmed in by MTV's particular playlist makes it more open field for fans to find things that appeal to their own interests or just capture their attention, which is what MTV and music videos had been wanting to do all along.
DETROW: That is Saul Austerlitz talking about the history of the music video and of MTV. Thank you so much.
AUSTERLITZ: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MGMT SONG, "CONGRATULATIONS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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