MTV had a huge impact on young people in the 1990s

HuffPost

"Pretty much everyone was a celebrity if MTV told us so, and celebrities were to be followed and admired no matter how awful they acted," says Candice Frederick. "So, reality shows like The Real World and True Life became go-to sources of morbid entertainment about 'real' people who, as the former’s slogan goes, stopped being polite and started 'getting real.' To say the ’90s on MTV was a weird era would be an understatement. And yet the network, with all its bold-faced names and eventually demoted music, was can’t-miss TV. We were hooked on its low bar and unchallenging content and are only recently trying to break away from it. But back then, MTV took a flailing generation by the hand and led it straight into conformity. So, of course teens began to dress the same and criticized anyone who didn’t look, sound and behave like the dominant image on MTV. Of course rock stars rapidly became the uncool underdogs because there were ultimately few and far between celebrated on the almighty MTV. Of course homophobia, toxic masculinity and celebrity worship were more normalized than ever. Because MTV helped validate each of these things."