• The Guardian, Friday, July 28, 2006 12:31 PM

While MTV sparked a revolution that changed the music industry, as it ages, the cable net faces fierce challenges from younger upstarts, like MySpace, YouTube and Flickr. Once thought of as a "dangerous revolution that could destroy the recording industry," MTV hit when pop stars Madonna, Michael Jackson, and George Michael broke through, thanks to the medium's marketing clout. MTV's launch in 1979 was one of the defining factors in shaping today's celebrity culture, writes Owen Gibson in The Guardian. But change is inevitable. "As it gears up to celebrate the 25 years since 'Video Killed the Radio Star' heralded its arrival," there has been a culture shift. The original MTV generation is now in their 30s and 40s, "and rather than the recording industry, the iconic brand is, itself, under siege." After several reinventions to fight the threat of other music channels, and with the increased availability of music across the media spectrum, "some wonder whether its top-down approach has had its day." MTV, Gibson notes, might still be a presence in the bedrooms of today's teenagers, "but they'll also have a tinny track coming out of their mobile that was bluetoothed to them by a friend." They are grazing for hours on social networking sites like MySpace or Bebo and "self-selecting the videos they want to see on Yahoo's Launchcast."

Read the whole story at The Guardian »