MTV (pre-2006)

MTV (originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television channel, launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks division of ViacomCBS, also headquartered in New York City.

Overall

 * 1) They were known for screwing good artists and bands by messing around with their rotation of videos and focusing on low-quality music genres like R&B, emo, commercial hip-hop, hair metal, arena rock, and post-grunge.
 * 2) They distributed many mediocre/awful shows like True Life, The Real World, The Brothers Grunt, and Headbangers' Ball.
 * 3) Their first theatrical feature film, Joe's Apartment, was utterly disgusting.
 * 4) *Luckily, their second theatrical feature film, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, was a major improvement.

1981-1990

 * 1) Many of the music videos and VJs were awful for the reasons listed below.
 * 2) The network was accused of having a racial bias in music selection. The worst offender of this issue is when they initially refused to play Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean". Allegedly, the network made a lousy excuse for it, claiming that they wanted to play Jackson's more rock-oriented track "Beat It" first.
 * 3) They had a huge emphasis on two low-quality music genres throughout this era: arena rock and hair metal. Speaking of which...
 * 4) Many rock bands and artists whose videos played in heavy rotation on MTV ripped off or tried to emulate others. It doesn't help that some of them were already maligned by rock critics and fans, which gave these artists even less of an excuse to try copying them.
 * 5) The videos and the bands who appeared in them often lacked any creativity or uniqueness. No influence from world or international music, blues, folk, jazz, funk, boogie-woogie, ambient, electronica, psychedelia, country, or dance music. Only mainstream rock.
 * 6) Quantity Over Quality (see #2, #3, and #4 for more information).
 * 7) The videos often suffered from slick production and overdubbing. Drum machines, gated drums, and synthesizers were also way too prevalent.
 * 8) *Because of this, along with every single glam metal band's goofy sense of fashion, the videos were incredibly cheesy and not in a "so bad, it's good" manner.
 * 9) *Journey started to use synthesizers more prominently after Gregg Rollie left. Though keyboardist Jonathan Cain was a good piano player like Rollie was, the band went so far as to bury synthesizers underneath the piano.
 * 10) A ton of awful, maligned, and overrated bands and artists were overplayed on MTV, such as:
 * 11) *Bon Jovi
 * 12) *Phil Collins
 * 13) *Bad English
 * 14) *AC/DC
 * 15) *38 Special
 * 16) *Extreme
 * 17) *Whitesnake
 * 18) *Journey
 * 19) *Night Ranger
 * 20) *REO Speedwagon
 * 21) *Styx
 * 22) *Dokken
 * 23) *Mötley Cruë
 * 24) *Def Leppard
 * 25) *Europe
 * 26) *Poison
 * 27) *Cheap Trick
 * 28) *Lita Ford
 * 29) *Warrant
 * 30) *The Bangles
 * 31) *Cinderella
 * 32) *Mr. Big
 * 33) *Vixen
 * 34) *Winger (the worst of the glam/hair bands, and so awful that they were even made fun of on Beavis and Butt-Head)
 * 35) *RATT
 * 36) *Kix
 * 37) *Damn Yankees
 * 38) *Great White
 * 39) *FireHouse
 * 40) *Bryan Adams
 * 41) *White Lion
 * 42) *Starship
 * 43) *Faster Pussycat
 * 44) *Sammy Hagar
 * 45) *Kenny Loggins
 * 46) *Hall and Oates
 * 47) *Pat Benatar
 * 48) *Billy Squier
 * 49) *Madonna
 * 50) *Cyndi Lauper
 * 51) *Skid Row (pre-1991)
 * 52) *Mr. Mister
 * 53) *Cutting Crew
 * 54) **MTV even turned older, much better artists and bands like Heart (who suddenly adopted a glam metal look and arena rock sound in 1985), ZZ Top, Mötley Crüe (who betrayed their early '80s heavy metal roots to make their songs more MTV-friendly), Dire Straits, Scorpions, and Van Halen (which completely turned into a synth-pop band after David Lee Roth left) into huge sellouts, which is not good at all.
 * 55) The network was so cheesy during this era and everything about it just screamed '80s.
 * 56) Too many power ballad videos, which were only made either because of corporate contracts or because many rock bands and artists during this era only cared about radio play, sales, and attracting girls. These songs were inspired by soft rock and adult contemporary, and many of them were horrible for being overly sentimental. They also sounded too smooth and clean like contemporary R&B, almost as if they were produced in a factory.
 * 57) *Winger's ballads were so annoyingly sappy that they instantly became the worst of the worst glam metal bands when their videos premiered on MTV.
 * 58) Their stupid "Bon Jovi Hedonism Weekend" contest.
 * 59) Many videos featured stupid, asinine, hateful, and incredibly hedonistic lyrics about having sex, doing drugs, driving around in L.A., and partying wildly.
 * 60) *Among the worst offenders was Warrant's "Cherry Pie", which had such immature and sexual lyrics as "Tastes so good, makes a grown man cry / Sweet cherry pie, yeah".
 * 61) *Another offender was "Kickstart My Heart", which was about how doing drugs was awesome (which is 100% false) and would make you hyper.

1991-2005

 * 1) They still supported and overplayed crappy artists and bands like Third Eye Blind, 3 Doors Down, Garbage, Nickelback, Jimmy Eat World, Avril Lavigne, Good Charlotte, Beyoncé, My Chemical Romance, James Blunt, 50 Cent, Eminem, Sum 41, Panic! at the Disco, Evanescence, Justin Timberlake, the Backstreet Boys, Limp Bizkit, Ricky Martin, and Christina Aguilera.
 * 2) With the launch of MTV2 in 1996, MTV gradually started showing fewer and fewer music videos until they became non-existent. At one point, they even made fun of it with the tagline "MTV: We Don't Play Music".

Good Qualities

 * 1) The network was initially rock-oriented in the '80s but added more genres like alternative rock, electronica, and punk rock as the years progressed, which was a major improvement.
 * 2) The logo was very creative.
 * 3) MTV was one of the earliest TV channels in full stereo sound.
 * 4) The network helped further merge radio stations with television.
 * 5) Awesome theatrical feature films made from their MTV Films division, especially Beavis and Butt-Head Do America.
 * 6) Tons of music video-themed shows like MTV Unplugged, Total Request Live, and MTV First.
 * 7) It aired some good award shows like MTV Video Music Awards, MTV Movie & TV Awards, MTV Europe Music Awards and mtvU Woodie Awards.
 * 8) Supported and was responsible for the successful careers of artists and bands who weren't metal-in-name only, were cheesy in a fun manner, or cared about creativity and not corporate contracts. Examples include Nirvana, Green Day, Blink-182, DEVO, Tears for Fears, Skid Row (post-1990), Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister, Judas Priest, the B-52's, the Cars, Depeche Mode, and Foo Fighters.
 * 9) Hilarious, zany, laugh-filled original animated series like Beavis and Butt-Head, Daria, and Celebrity Deathmatch.

Reception
MTV received backlash during its prime in the 1980s from rock critics and fans, who believed that they were causing artists and bands to focus more on looks and money than music. They also saw MTV, its music videos, and adult contemporary/soft rock as artificial, sanitized, and soulless. The network's reception improved marginally in 1991, when grunge ended the dominance of glam metal. Since the turn of the millennium, however, the network has received backlash for its lack of music videos and emphasis on reality shows.