With its debut on August first 1981, MTV was instantly popular in the entertainment industry. From the start, it was a symbol of the new lifestyles of the youth of the time. Today, it continues to be a large source of trend setting, and influencing young people by stereotyping what is deemed cool. This is achieved by MTV's ability to adapt to the desires of each generation of society's youth.

MTV was once known as Music Television for a reason. Before the debut of MTV, music videos were unheard of. The channel featured a new aspect of music, and introduced the innovative idea of recording a short film corresponding to the audio of a song. For the first six years, MTV only played music videos. However, in 1987, MTV revealed its first actual TV shows, such as Club MTV, repeats of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and a game show entitled Remote Control. The excellent ratings caused MTV to try other non-music shows, such as House of Style in 1989, The Real World in 1992, and Singled Out and Road Rules in 1995. Currently MTV only shows music videos a few hours a day, at obscure times, like 4:30AM to 7:00AM. During the 1980’s, the viewers were more enthusiastic about the music, which kept MTV thriving for several years. As the times changed, the tastes and interests of the youth changed as well. The current generation is now more enthralled about the celebrities and non-music television shows.

Throughout the lifetime of MTV, the genres of popular music have changed dramatically, adapting to the unsteady interests of each generation's youth. During MTV's first seven years, rock and pop composed the majority of the music played. This was because the most popular music among that generation was, in fact, rock and pop. In contrast, in 1988, the show Yo! MTV Raps debuted, which has been considered by some to be the official start of the hip-hip craze. After the debut, MTV gradually began playing more and more hip-hop with the rise in popularity between the generations. The rock and pop generation of the 1980's had changed into a new era of hip-hop as the preference of music in today’s youth, seen on MTV.

The shows on MTV reflect the interests and trends in the youth today. Simply the title of the popular show Pimp My Ride is a prime example of this. The literal meaning of this title is very obscure. The word pimp is a term used to identify a man, who owns prostitutes and is usually abusive. Ride refers to a person’s car. The show takes people’s run down vehicles and turns them into extraordinary autos. This, in sense, makes someone’s car better; thus, the word pimp has developed a positive connotation. Usually the repairs performed on these cars are the addition of three TV’s, eight subwoofers, neon lights, color-changing paint jobs, digital gauges, and excessively large chrome rims. The desire of yesterday’s youth was to see music on MTV, but today, young people want to see these cool extravagant installations. These shows set the definition of cool.

Although MTV has been the epitome of pop culture, it has also been a venue for positive social change. In the 1980's, open homosexuality was rarely considered acceptable. Diversity, AIDS, sexual orientation, famine, and poverty were things of little discussion amongst the mainstream teens during the time. In 1998, homosexual college student Mathew Shepherd was beaten to death because of his sexuality. In previous generations, hate crimes such as this one would not have received as much publicity, but in the current era, people were outraged. MTV took a strong anti-violence stand on this topic. A campaign series called Fight For Your Right: Take a Stand Against Violence, a weekly documentary, looked into the lives of youth and the issues surrounding them. Because the world has become a much more accepting and diverse place, MTV was able to take such a strong stance. One recent positive effort put forth by MTV was the Tsunami Relief Fundraiser: A Few Cents Can Make a Big Change. MTV uses its ability to influence society in a positive manner to increase acceptance, AIDS awareness, voter turnout, and participate in their community. The modern views and opinions expressed on MTV symbolize the increasingly diverse and accepting society.

For more than the past twenty years, MTV has developed into a leading symbol of the youth of the nation from one generation to the next. MTV has substantial power to persuade the inexperienced and easily influenced teens. MTV keeps up, as the styles, trends and ideals of the youth change, modifying itself to remain a symbol as the most popular television channel of the time among young people.