I Want My MTV (book)

I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution is a book about the rise of American cable television channel MTV, its heyday, and its transformation away from a strictly music video channel. It was written by music journalists Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum and published in 2011 by Dutton Penguin in the United States. The book's name is borrowed from a marketing campaign launched by the channel in 1981 where the catchphrase "I Want My MTV!" was used to encourage cable subscribers to request the channel on their cable TV lineup.

I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution
Paperback edition
AuthorCraig Marks
Rob Tannenbaum
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SubjectVideo
GenreMusic
PublisherDutton Penguin (hardcover)
Plume (paperback)
Publication date
October 27, 2011 (first edition)
Media typeHardcover
Paperback
ebook
Pages608 (hardcover)
592 (paperback)
ISBN978-1-101-52641-5

Summary

I Want My MTV chronicles music video channel MTV from its inception August 1, 1981 and follows the evolution of the channel from the first new wave videos imported from Britain, 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 reality show The Real World and MTV broke away from its all-video format.

Over 400 artists, directors, and staff of MTV were interviewed by the authors. Interviews reveal the artistic side of music video production, the reluctance of some artists to enter the fray, and the artists that ultimately capitalized on the exposure MTV gave them.

Film adaptation

In 2017 it was announced that James Ponsoldt will write and direct a film adaptation of the book, which does not yet have a release date.[1]

Reception

I Want My MTV was named one of the Best Books of 2011 by NPR[2] and Spin.[3]

Time magazine wrote, "As will be evident by now, I Want My MTV is compulsively entertaining, hugely edifying...and occasionally profound."[4] The Washington Post described it as "full of nostalgia and inside tidbits, with lots of bizarre stories about animals on video sets."[5]

Amanda Mark, writing for the New York Review of Books, found it to lack an overall flow. She commented, "I Want My MTV reads like the world’s longest magazine article", concluding that "all these fun facts get lost in the choppiness of I Want My MTV as a whole, and very few people will be willing to read 600+ pages of sound bytes."[6]

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References
  1. Nolfi, Joey (April 19, 2016). "I Want My MTV becoming a movie with James Ponsoldt". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved February 20, 2017.
  2. Staff Picks: The Best Music Books Of 2011 : NPR
  3. SPIN's 10 Best Music Books of 2011 | SPIN | Year-End Lists | Best Books
  4. Book Review: Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum’s I Want My MTV | Entertainment | TIME.com
  5. ‘I Want My MTV,’ by Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum -The Washington Post
  6. Mark, Amanda. "I Want My MTV". New York Review of Books.
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