Guitar Meets Science has shared a new mini-documentary. Check it out below:
“December 31, 2025, marks the official death of the empire that invented modern cool. Paramount Global has pulled the plug on the music channels that defined a generation, from the excess of the ’80s to the grunge revolution of the ’90s. We explore the rise and fall of the network that once dictated the planet’s soundtrack, how reality TV like The Real World became a cheaper drug than rock and roll, and how the ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ prophecy finally came full circle.”
“Old school MTV viewers probably recall that for a spell back in the ’90s, at the conclusion of each MTV news segment – which, if memory serves correctly, ran ten minutes before the top of every hour – a snippet of a certain memorable bassline could be heard,” says author Greg Prato, reporting for Ultimate-Guitar.com. “And which bassline was it? The beginning of Megadeth’s thrash anthem, ‘Peace Sells.’
Some have assumed that Dave Mustaine, the writer of that riff and tune, received royalties for MTV’s usage. But as I explained during an appearance on the Booked On Rock Podcast (see below) in support of my book, The World’s State-Of-The-Art Speed Metal Band: The Megadeth Story 1983-2002, this was not the case.”
“We talk about it in the book,” I said. “I asked Dave Mustaine, ‘So, have you ever seen any money from that?’ He said, ‘Not a penny.’”
“Because MTV, what they realized is if you play something for…I’m just making up a number, but say for four seconds, you don’t have to pay if it.”
“The exact quote from Mustaine, from an interview I conducted with him for Rolling Stone, was “They didn’t give me a penny. They cut it off right before they’d have to pay me, which was very clever. I don’t think anybody with a conscience at MTV did that – it was probably somebody in their legal department.”
Read more at Ultimate-Guitar.com. Order Greg Prato’s The World’s State-Of-The-Art Speed Metal Band: The Megadeth Story 1983-2002 here.
Do you have a rock, hard rock, heavy metal website, blog, podcast, radio show, YouTube channel, Spotify playlist? BraveWords Records wants to send you music!
Submit your info: https://forms.gle/j8wygtJjnv429GzJ6