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Roxanne's House of Hair</b></font></font>
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Nothing in the history of popular culture had greater success bringing music and fashion together than MTV. Now, you not only had to sound good but you had to have compelling visuals. MTV made its mark from its inception.
Cable TV had started in the late '60s to bring broadcast television to people who lived beyond the reach of the broadcast signal. Seeing cable's potential Home Box Office was launched on a pay per view basis for movies or sporting events. From this successful beginning some bright minds got the idea of launching a music television channel. Rock had always been a highly visual medium whether it was Elvis' gyrating pelvis, the Beatles energetic performances, Alice Cooper's stage antics or Kiss' total audio/visual assault. So this was a natural progression.
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In the old days, rock music on anything but the radio, was hard to come by. The media was controlled by an older generation that didn't think rock had much value or importance. With MTV though, the music was on 24 hours a day. This required some adjustments. MTV made change not only inevitable but also necessary. Keep changing, keep the audience interested and guessing. The all time champion of staying one step ahead was Madonna. A nice Italian girl with ambition, drive and an absolute talent for self-promotion. In just a few years she went from a forgettable post-disco dance performer to Boy Toy to the Material Girl which included a dead on Marilyn Monroe impersonation to Blonde Ambition to mom… with many twists and turns along the way.
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MTV was originally designed to appeal to young white males. At about the same time MTV was working up a head of steam Michael Jackson released his classic "Thriller" album. At first, MTV refused to air any of Jackson's videos. They said he didn't appeal to the channel's target audience. Walter Yetnikoff, then president of CBS Records, Jackson's label, threatened to pull all CBS acts from MTV if they didn't play Jackson's videos. Faced with losing one-quarter of their programming MTV relented. Luck for them. Jackson's videos were just what the fledgling network needed to create the excitement that led to MTV's massive appeal.
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