Archives

It started as a small music video channel, but in twenty-five years, MTV has become a dominant force in American culture, building pop stars like Madonna and Michael Jackson, leading the reality TV revolution and even getting an American President to answer the age old question "boxers or briefs." We'll look at 25 years of MTV and its influence on our culture. John Clayton hosts. His guests are Robert Thompson, founding director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University and Trustee Professor of Television and Popular Culture at the university's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and Gary Hoppenstand, Professor of American Thought and Language at Michigan State University, and Editor of the Journal of Popular Culture.