preview

Essay Impact of MTV on Today's Youth

Good Essays

What do teenagers from across the globe have in common? Music and television is the one thing that young people from around the world seem to have in common. For the most part, the one channel that is shared amongst this music generation is MTV. Music being the new global language talks to the teenagers worldwide. MTV, the source of the global language, have many versions ranging from the US to Asia. With this type of influence, MTV plays a major impact on the youth of today.
To say this is bad, I cannot, because I also grew up in this generation watching MTV and VH1. The way in which MTV brings cultural values worldwide is fascinating. With MTV’s brand being worldwide, it has created an identity where we globally share some of the same …show more content…

This for the most part is why recording companies work along with MTV in the marketing of recording artist. As stated by Banks, "crucial in helping the major record labels exploit this global market for music that is heavily dominated by American music. While MTV seeks to depict music in general as an integral part of an international youth culture that is present on its global services. MTV focus is confined largely to certain pop and rock music produced and distributed by the major transnational record companies" (Banks 53). However important the role of music television with creating this music culture, they still would have one to believe that music television is one for the free and equal but this is not the case. With the programs that are aired via MTV, watching an hour of video clips, one can notice how almost all female artist emphasis are on their appearance instead of their song. When taking notice of a males video, you will see somewhere in the video a half-naked beautiful woman dancing in the background. As evident as these gender biases are, "even though MTV might have become more aware of gender issues as the new decade began; the popular music videos they presented continued to under represent women and portray them in a manner that emphasized physical appearance rather than musical ability"(Gow 1). Although these biases are self evident, we are visual and therefore the half-naked dancer or the emphasis on

Get Access