...1 It s Videos, Fool A Targeted History of MTV (1981 2004) W hen the twenty- four- hour music video based cable channel known as mtv first debuted on August 2, 1981, its primary purpose was, according to former mtv president Bob Pittman, to build a brand and an attitude (qtd. in Anson 2000...

...3 She s Gonna Always Be Known as the Girl Who Didn t Go to Paris Can- Do and At- Risk White Girls on MTV A s discussed in the previous chapter, The Real World was the first American reality series to select a group of strangers to live together in order to film the drama resulting from...

...4 If You Don t Tan, You re Pale The Regional and Ethnic Other on MTV I n 2009, a hot- dog restaurant in the college town of Greenville, North Carolina (home to East Caro- lina University, aka ecu), named Sup Dogs, hosted the first of what would become an annual spring con- cert called Doggie Jams...

...APPENDIX A MTV Reality Series since 1981 Precursors to MTV s Reality Identity Cycle The Real World (1992 ) (this series both predates and, eventually, makes up part of mtv s reality identity cycle) Road Rules (1995 2007) True Life (1998 ) Made (2002 2014) Sorority Life (2002 2004...

...CONCLUSION Catfish and the Future of MTV s Reality Programming (2012 ) W hen I interviewed Max Joseph, cohost of mtv s then wildly popular reality series Catfish, in November 2015, he had just wrapped up a shoot in Rochester, New York. Since it was fresh on his mind, I asked him to walk me...

...2 This Is the True Story . . . The Real World and MTV s Turn to Identity (1992 ) T he Real World was released in the wake of in-tense ideological debates about identity in American life revolving around race (the Rodney King beating [1991], the Los Angeles protests in re- sponse to the Rodney...

...5 That Moment Is Here, Whether I Like It or Not When MTV s Programming Fails W hen I interviewed Jonathan Murray, one of The Real World s cocreators, about his experiences producing one of the most influential and long- running reality series of all time, I asked him about the role of casting in...

... Hills (bet, 2007 2009) The Ben Stiller Show (mtv, 1992 1993) Beverly Hills 90210 (Fox, 1990 2000) Big Brother (cbs, 2000 ) The Biggest Loser (nbc, 2004 2016) The Big Record (abc, 1957 1958) Cajun Pawn Stars (History Channel, 2012 ) Candid Camera (abc, 1948 1949, 1974; nbc, 1954 1959...

...INTRODUCTION What Killed the Video Star? T his book s title, Millennials Killed the Video Star: mtv s Transition to Reality Programming, is a play on two significant moments in the cultural representation of American youth, albeit from two different moments in time. One alludes to the first music...

..., 61 62, 70, 78 80, 106 110, 126, 184, 197n8; serial- ized narrative creates bonds with, 21; voyeurism of, post World War II, 61, 63; white, suburban youth as mtv s focus, 9, 20, 24 26, 32, 37 40, 57 58, 70 71, 90, 149, 184 185 audience research, 56; for early music tv, 31 32; focus...

.... The Missing Black Millennial. New Republic, February 20. httpsnewrepublic.com/article/153122/missing- black- millennial. Alzayat, Dima. 2011. On Location: mtv s Buck Wild Denied West Virginia Tax Credit. Los Angeles Times, December 7. httparticles.latimes.com/2011 /dec/07/business/la- fi- ct- mtv...

... whom belong to Generation Z. 5 See Jones 2005 on the importance of mtv as an object of study. 6 To name just a few prominent examples of works that have focused on spe- cific series, see Grindstaff 2011a; Hargraves 2014; Hearn 2010; and Ouellette 2014b. 7 For more on the neoliberal utility of reality...

... the Demonization of Black Masculinity. Vio lence against Women 4 (3): 291 307. Dinh, James. 2010. Taylor Swift Sings to Kanye West, Maybe, at vmas. mtv News (September 12). http www . mtv . com / news / 1647666 / taylor - swift - sings - to - kanye - west - maybe - at - vmas / . Dodd, Claire. 2007...

...: 511). 6 The 2009 Video Music Awards were held at Radio City Music Hall in New York on September 13, 2009, and were broadcast live on mtv. The telecasts are copyrighted by mtv Networks. 7 Innocent, lyr ics by Taylor Swift, © 2010 Sony/atv Tree Publishing. 8 Mean, lyr ics by Taylor Swift, © 2010...

... roll! A trio of books arrived in 1991, reflecting metal s resurgence in the mtv 1980s. Deena Weinstein s Heavy Metal, written in sociology academese, hid a part- time rock critic who knew metal instruments must gleam, like polished metal, had fun proving Rush fans had no idea what 2112 was about...