MTV. It ended long ago.

MTV has shut down its all-music channels, and Gen X is supposed to feel “something” about it. Sadness, maybe. Nostalgia, definitely. Outrage, if that’s your brand. But here’s the sad truth: The MTV we loved didn’t just die — it moved out decades ago and never came back.

The MTV of the ’80s wasn’t a channel. It was the beating heart of pop culture. Music videos weren’t content; they were events. Artists weren’t just heard; they were introduced, defined, mythologized.

That version of MTV disappeared with reality TV and long before streaming and algorithms decided what came next. We didn’t lose it this week—we just finally got the death certificate.

And kids today? They don’t “miss” music videos because they don’t need them the way we did. Music now lives everywhere at once—on phones, in feeds, in games, in clips measured in seconds, not rotations. MTV’s demise isn’t a failure. It’s evolution.

So yes, feel nostalgic. Feel grateful. Just don’t confuse the end of a channel with the end of an era.