Well, like all great things, the end is inevitable. Right? As we say goodbye to MTV, we can’t help but wonder: did we fail the music entertainment industry, or did it simply collapse under the weight of the world changing around it? The world shrank into a screen we scroll, not a channel we wait for.

Whatever the reason, losing MTV is the clearest reminder of how dramatically the culture has shifted. For decades, the channel delivered pop-culture-defining moments and, when luck was on our side, the beautifully messy rock and grunge ones too. It gave us rockumentaries that built mythologies, interviews that shaped public personas, reality shows still embedded in collective memory, and performances that became cultural bookmarks.

MTV was once the meeting point. It was a place you went to feel close to the artists you could never reach. Fan culture lived on the screen, not in the comment section. Back then, TV was the only bridge between an artist and their audience. But now? No one sits down for TV anymore. We killed the TV with streaming channels and MTV didn’t adapt fast enough to survive. So we’re left piecing together whatever fragments of its legacy the internet hasn’t already swallowed.

For a long time, MTV wasn’t just television. It was a tool to showcase artists’ personas. A space where music videos, interviews, and short docs built the mythology around our favorites. People turned on MTV to feel close to the artists they’d never meet in real life; it was the portal, the access, the pulse.

Before we say goodbye, though, we owe it to the channel to remember why it mattered. The moments that froze time. The performances we replay in our heads. The chaos that kept pop culture alive.

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Well starting off on the right foot, remember the first VMA, ever? The one that happened in the year 1984. Probably, not. But to spark your memory or to make you the pop culture connoisseur you deserve to be: Madonna performed Like A Virgin in a wedding gown. Starting off her performance from on top of a wedding cake. And years later in the 2003 VMAs, we get to see a recreation of that iconic performance with Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera. The one where they exchanged a smooch with Madonna. Well, if Prometheus passed on the torch of knowledge, this must be the passing of iconism, I guess with a kiss on the lips this time.

Talking about Britney Spears, how can we ever forget when she performed I’m A Slave 4 U, bearing a python on her shoulders? The 2001 VMAs to be exact. Was that a Dust Till Dawn reference, or was she just channeling her inner diva? Some questions do not need to be answered.

The VMAs didn’t just cause admiration… sometimes they simply weirded us out. Remember Miley Cyrus’s 2013 performance? Looking back, it made sense… well, kind of. It was her acting out, her version of teenage rebellion. She literally twerked her Hannah Montana image away. And after the initial pixie cut, the tongue-out moments, and all the twerking, she finally gave us her real self. While we’re in the realm of weirdness, we can’t not mention Lady Gaga’s meat dress, the one she wore to the 2010 VMAs. This lady really knows how to make headlines. An icon does not need to be defined by her clothing choices, of course… Cher gave her the award: “I never thought I’d be asking Cher to hold my meat purse,” is a quote only Lady Gaga could say.

When we’re saying goodbye to MTV, we cannot possibly leave out the most important thing it gave us: the Unpluggeds. An evening where the listening experience became something more intimate. Candles, acoustic guitars, and the quiet exchange of admiration between the audience and the musicians… My favorite? Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged. The one that gave us covers like “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” originally written by Lead Belly. The aesthetic of the Unpluggeds should be studied and brought back to life again.

MTV wasn’t just a channel. It was a communal pulse. A launchpad for rebellion, identity, heartbreak, style, teenage angst, and everything in between. It shaped how generations saw music. Not just as sound but as a world you could live inside. Sure, we grew up. Technology sprinted forward. But those moments MTV gave us, the Unplugged sets, the bizarre VMA spectacles, the era-defining music videos, programs like the Head Banger’s Ball… those belong to us forever.

Goodbye MTV. Thank you for shaping artists before algorithms did. Thank you for annoying rockstars with censorship rules. Thank you for the celebrity feuds, the unhinged stage moments, the performances every fangirl still replays in her head.

May you rest in peace. And thank you for everything.

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