I Want My MTV (book)

I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution is a book about the rise of American cable television channel MTV. It was written by music journalists Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum and published in 2011 by Dutton Penguin in the United States. The title is borrowed from a marketing campaign launched by the channel in 1981 where the catchphrase "I Want My MTV!" was used to encourage cable subscribers to request the channel on their cable TV lineup.

I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution
First edition
AuthorCraig Marks
Rob Tannenbaum
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SubjectVideo
GenreMusic
PublisherDutton Penguin (hardcover)
Plume (paperback)
Publication date
October 27, 2011
Media typeHardcover
Paperback
ebook
Pages608 (hardcover)
592 (paperback)
ISBN978-1-101-52641-5

I Want My MTV chronicles MTV from its inception August 1, 1981 until 1992 when it broke away from the all-video format with the reality show The Real World. Over 400 artists, directors, and staff of MTV were interviewed.

Reception

I Want My MTV was named one of the Best Books of 2011 by NPR[1] and Spin.[2]

Time wrote, "I Want My MTV is compulsively entertaining, hugely edifying...and occasionally profound."[3] The Washington Post described it as "full of nostalgia and inside tidbits, with lots of bizarre stories about animals on video sets."[4]

Amanda Mark, writing for the New York Review of Books, found it to lack an overall flow. She commented, "I Want My MTV reads like the world’s longest magazine article", concluding that "all these fun facts get lost in the choppiness of I Want My MTV as a whole, and very few people will be willing to read 600+ pages of sound bites."[5]

Documentary

A 90 minute documentary based on the book was released in 2020 on A&E.[6]

References
  1. Staff Picks: The Best Music Books of 2011 : NPR
  2. SPIN's 10 Best Music Books of 2011 | SPIN | Year-End Lists | Best Books
  3. Book Review: Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum’s I Want My MTV | Entertainment | TIME.com
  4. ‘I Want My MTV,’ by Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum -The Washington Post
  5. Mark, Amanda. "I Want My MTV". New York Review of Books.
  6. Sullivan, Jim (September 8, 2020). "Reflections on the "I Want My MTV" Nostalgia Trip Documentary". FLOOD Magazine.
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