Video Killed the Radio Star was the first video ever broadcast, on 1 August 1981, on MTV—a brand-new TV channel that showed nothing but music. MTV quickly became a sensation in the United States; it was especially exciting for young viewers, for whom cable television had little to offer. Smalltown Boy, Love is a Battlefield, Take on Me—it’s hard to imagine the 1980s without these videos. I Want My MTV shows how tightly controlled the selection process was, as well as the controversy it caused—whether due to the lack of black performers (an issue raised by Rick James and David Bowie) or the sexist image of women presented in heavy metal videos. Tyler Measom and Patrick Waldrop’s documentary tells the story of the explosion of the station’s popularity and its subsequent development and transformation, right up until it stopped showing music videos and switched to reality television instead. We learn all this through the accounts of MTV’s founders, hosts, and pop stars (Sting, Eurythmics, Tori Amos), and also through rich archival footage that makes I Want My MTV a genuine feast for the eyes—and the ears.
Tyler Measom is a versatile filmmaker who works as a director, producer, cinematographer, screenwriter, and editor. In 2014, he made the award-winning documentary An Honest Liar, a portrait of the famous American magician James Randi. He has also produced a number of films, including the feature Take, starring Jeremy Renner, and the documentaries Jesus Town, USA and Elder, which tells the story of a gay Mormon missionary. Together with Jared Hess, he is also directing the documentary series The Salamander.
2004 The Furniture (short)
2010 Sons of Perdition
2014 An Honest Liar
2019 I Want My MTV
2019 The Salamander (tv)
Patrick Waldrop studied at the University of California, Berkeley, where he graduated with honors before completing a master’s degree at the UCLA Film and Television School. He makes both feature films and documentaries, and he supports other young filmmakers. Both his short debut, Cosmic Debris, and his latest project, I Want My MTV, made together with Tyler Measom, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
2018 Cosmic Debris (short)
2019 I Want My MTV (doc.)