Millennials Killed the Video Star: MTV's Transition to Reality Programming

Amanda Ann Klein

Published by Duke University Press 2021

Millennials Killed the Video Star

MTV's Transition to Reality Programming

Amanda Ann Klein

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478012870

Overview
Contents

About this book

Drawing on interviews with industry workers from MTV programs such as The Real World and Teen Mom, Amanda Ann Klein examines the historical, cultural, and industrial factors leading to MTV's shift away from music videos to reality programming in the early 2000s and 2010s.

Author / Editor information

Amanda Ann Klein is Associate Professor of Film Studies at East Carolina University, author of American Film Cycles: Reframing Genres, Screening Social Problems, and Defining Subcultures, and coeditor of Cycles, Sequels, Spin-offs, Remakes, and Reboots: Multiplicities in Film and Television.

Reviews

“Amanda Ann Klein's extended interviews with both participants and producers of MTV programming as well as her inspired and enjoyable writing make this book an important, compelling, and lively contribution to the study of media and culture.”

-- Brenda R. Weber, author of Latter-day Screens: Gender, Sexuality, and Mediated Mormonism

“Amanda Ann Klein's engaging book analyzes a specific phenomenon: MTV's twenty-first-century reality television programming. But her detailed and thoughtful account reveals so much about the history of a transformative television genre, the evolution of an iconic cable channel, and the construction of identity for an entire generation, making it essential reading to understand contemporary American media and culture.”

-- Jason Mittell, author of Television and American Culture

"My mother used to tell me that Jersey Shore would rot my brain; with Millennials Killed the Video Star, Amanda Ann Klein would seem to agree. In this release, the East Carolina University film professor helps make sense of the noise, walking readers through MTV’s evolution from music videos to scripted reality TV—maximizing stereotypes about race, gender, and class along the way, and shaping how an entire generation would come to understand identity."

-- Emma Kenfield IndyWeek

“[Millennials Killed the Video Star] is a fascinating analysis of media construction and presentation of identities, and how audiences respond to or reject those identities.... Klein’s writing is thoughtful and crisp.... Her writing blends an academic perspective and a fan perspective to produce a thoroughly entertaining analysis.”

-- Fiona McQuarrie PopMatters

"Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals."

-- C. A. Nadon Choice

“Through her insightful and engaging writing, Klein successfully weaves together industry studies, media and cultural analysis, interviews, and an entertaining retelling of her own personal encounter with Jersey Shore’s DJ Pauly D. The author successfully crafts a book that would appeal to multiple audiences across disciplines.”

-- Abshi Iftin Journal of Popular Culture

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction. What Killed the Video Star? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
ONE “It’s Videos, Fool”: A Targeted History of MTV (1981 – 2004) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	24
TWO “This Is the True Story . . .”: The Real World and MTV’s Turn to Identity (1992 – ) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
THREE “She’s Gonna Always Be Known as the Girl Who Didn’t Go to Paris”: Can-Do and At-Risk White Girls on MTV (2004 – 2013) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
FOUR “If You Don’t Tan, You’re Pale”: The Regional and Ethnic Other on MTV (2009 – 2013) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	124
FIVE “That Moment Is Here, Whether I Like It or Not”: When MTV’s Programming Fails (2013 – 2014) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	153
Conclusion. Catfish and the Future of MTV’s Reality Programming (2012 – ) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
Appendix A. MTV Reality Series since 1981 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
Appendix B. Other Television Series Discussed in This Book Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 256

eBook

Published: January 4, 2021
ISBN: 9781478012870