For roughly two decades, audiences relied on MTV as a gateway to new music, fashion, experimental film and visual effects.
This image of MTV-washed up, hungover, and grimly partying on-has come to define the channel’s diminished relevance in 2021.īut when MTV first launched 40 years ago, it both captured and created the zeitgeist of teenage culture. “ You’re watching MTV Spring Break live, at Miami Beach,” a voice-over announced, “ where the party don’t stop until the government-mandated curfew!” On March 27, 2021, roughly one year into the pandemic, “Saturday Night Live” opened with a cringey skit that mocked pandemic-era spring breakers as lusty, dead-eyed degenerates who had remorselessly triggered a coronavirus surge the previous year.