My vote is for 1995.

1997, last year of "MTV500", started to neglect the 1980's, and lacking more videos than ever!!!

Though 1992, the debut of "The Real World"

1987 to present..."Remote Control", "Week In Rock", "House of Style", and other non music shows started...


Though I only like a couple cartoons & "The State"

Other.
I stopped watching and got burned out with it around...1986!

I preferred BET's videos and music from then until the very early '90s.

1998, by then I wasn't watching at all!

Tanya

I'd say around 1988.

Not necessarily in the 90s IMO, though it did play more shows than videos still.  I'd say 2002 when they started piling on all the bad rap videos, or 2004 when they stopped playing videos altogether(at least everytime I turn it on).

Once they dumped Adam Curry as a VJ

And when the ORIGINAL Headbangers ball ended....

i would say 2000 in the 1990's they stillplayed videos but in 2000 all these shows started to come on like jack@ss and such now i only see videos on late at night most of the time VH1 Plays Videos late at night and MTV 2 dose to but still

I voted for 1997, although more of an approximate.

To be honest, I more watched VH1 for videos in the early to mid 90's (that was when they kinda broke out of their initial soft rock format they started with--hard to believe now, LOL!) although I split my time between the two.

In the 80's, unfortunately, I only saw little pieces of programming when my parents tuned into it sometimes (but I liked it). I didn't really "get" what it was all about until say, 1991, and I would watch it sometimes through the mid 90's.

By 1995 to 97, I stopped caring as much just because it already was focused on more rap and less 80's stuff (although that still wasn't quite dead like it is now). But I did tune in for Beavis & Butthead and the like.

I voted for 1997, although more of an approximate.

To be honest, I more watched VH1 for videos in the early to mid 90's (that was when they kinda broke out of their initial soft rock format they started with--hard to believe now, LOL!) although I split my time between the two.

In the 80's, unfortunately, I only saw little pieces of programming when my parents tuned into it sometimes (but I liked it). I didn't really "get" what it was all about until say, 1991, and I would watch it sometimes through the mid 90's.

By 1995 to 97, I stopped caring as much just because it already was focused on more rap and less 80's stuff (although that still wasn't quite dead like it is now). But I did tune in for Beavis & Butthead and the like.


I said other because it's more or less gone down hill now.

Remote Control was the beginning of the end for Mtv.  The cancellation of Headbangers Ball was a sad day for me. The first time I saw Real World I had a little vomit in my mouth..it was so bad!  VH1 is also heading down the road to non-music videos as well,although Behind the Music was interesting to watch. Bring back Martha Quinn!!!! NOT!!!!  Just give me some music!!!!

1997.  Beavis and Butthead was cancelled and we were getting close to Teen Pop and New School Rap.  :P

Remote Control was the beginning of the end for Mtv.  The cancellation of Headbangers Ball was a sad day for me. The first time I saw Real World I had a little vomit in my mouth..it was so bad!  VH1 is also heading down the road to non-music videos as well,although Behind the Music was interesting to watch. Bring back Martha Quinn!!!! NOT!!!!  Just give me some music!!!!


I remember "Headbangers Ball". Who presented the UK version of it? It's been bugging me for ages.

1988-1989

My vote was for 1992, since "Real World" was the first show that didn't have at least a loose connection to music...only connection I can ever see with The Real World is a)  Usually at least one house member is an aspiring musician and b)  Well...like many TV shows, they play music during much of the show to set a mood. 

I guess my answer would be more when they started to go downhill, or at least when the seed was planted for the long slide downhill, if that makes any sense.  ;)  To be honest, I didn't ditch watching MTV except for random channel surfing until maybe...1995 or 1996.


As an aside, one of my friends has written/typed it out as "mTV" for years now, saying that they don't deserve the "Big M" until they actually have some music on the network again.

I also agree that headbangers ball was very good and if it was still on i would watch it. THINGS CHANGE WE GET OLDER AND LIFE GOES ON BUT IT MIGHT NOT CHANGE FOR THE BETTER AS WE CAN C MTV NEEDS TO RETHINK THE WAY THEY HAVE GONE! That was my opion but all thes 13 year old kids who never seen real mtv dont know any different any way so who cares cool topic though

1995 fo sho'!  I started watching BET for my hip hop pleasure.

1995 fo sho'!  I started watching BET for my hip hop pleasure.


I'm not into Hip-Hop, but I know of a lot of people who in the early to mid 90's abandoned mTV due to lack of music for other channels, ...especially, using the example you give, when one considers that BET is an entertainment channel in general, not a music specific channel, like mTV still tries to claim to be.

RIP Good MTV 1981-1997/98 :\'(

1985
















AN

Definitely late 1991. It was when MTV forced grunge down everyone's throats. Alot of you are too young to remember, but Nirvana didnt set the world on fire when people first heard Smells like teen spirit. It was played and basically ignored. So they kept it in heavy rotation for weeks(if not months) until it finally caught on. It was the first fabricated musical movement in history. The rock world still hasn't recovered from it. This was when MTV realized the power they had over the young generation, and they sunk to an even lower level when they shoved rap/hip hop down everyone's throats, and this "movement" had even more serious repercussions than the fake grunge movement. Low moral standards,people wearing pants down to their ankles, east coast vs west coast,etc. were all pathetic and unnecessary consequences to this style of music. I cringe at the thought of the next fabricated "movement".

Definitely late 1991. It was when MTV forced grunge down everyone's throats. Alot of you are too young to remember, but Nirvana didnt set the world on fire when people first heard Smells like teen spirit. It was played and basically ignored. So they kept it in heavy rotation for weeks(if not months) until it finally caught on. It was the first fabricated musical movement in history. The rock world still hasn't recovered from it. This was when MTV realized the power they had over the young generation, and they sunk to an even lower level when they shoved rap/hip hop down everyone's throats, and this "movement" had even more serious repercussions than the fake grunge movement. Low moral standards,people wearing pants down to their ankles, east coast vs west coast,etc. were all pathetic and unnecessary consequences to this style of music. I cringe at the thought of the next fabricated "movement".


Grunge was so fake, although I love Nirvana.  Flannel and Doc Martens?  It's the early '90s Pacific Northwest, for crying out loud!
Hip hop is good, post-1996 rap absolutely sucks.

Anyway, 2001.  At that point it was nothing but hip hop and all the good shows were gone.