After over 44 years of shaping music culture, five MTV channels were shut down on the last day of 2025. For music fans born in the 1980s like me, the news of the shutdown brings complex feelings in the early days of 2026, feelings shared by music followers around the world. Many called it "the end of an era," but for me, it also marks a time that inspired connections with the world and ignited an eagerness to watch with eyes wide open.

To be honest, I haven't ­regularly watched TV in years, living as we do in an internet age dominated by phones, tablets, and PCs. So when the news came, I was first surprised, then saddened, as I tried to recall what MTV was like in my memory. It was a call to the wave of collective nostalgia that has swept across the globe.

What came to mind were the classic blue, red, and yellow color palette, often set against a black background, the iconic MTV logos, and the cherished memories of middle and high school days in a small town far from metropolises like Beijing. I recalled how MTV, since its launch in 1981, transformed the way music was consumed, marketed, and visualized.

In the mid-1990s, MTV launched a Chinese-language channel, and soon, tuning in to watch the latest Chinese pop and overseas hits became a way of life for many small-town boys and girls born in the 1980s and 1990s. Through it, I got to know international hits from artists like Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, and Mariah Carey. Even when we couldn't fully understand the lyrics, the visuals and ­commentary from VJs made MTV a window to the pulse of global music for our generation.

The VJs - such as Andy Chan, Zhu Zhu, and Liu Yan - became household names, guiding us through this sonic landscape. MTV China also launched programs like Tianlaicun (Sound of Nature Village) and collaborated with major broadcasters like CCTV and Guangdong Satellite TV. The CCTV-MTV Music Awards were once regarded as a heavyweight ceremony in the Chinese music scene, enjoying high ratings and cultural influence.

Back in those school days, not everyone could afford a CD or MD player, but turning on the TV meant instantly seeing the visuals and hearing the songs that sound tracked our lives. It was a shared experience, a way to process the ups and downs of the day through music. That's why, when the news of MTV's closure came, it felt like the end of an era - a moment that resonated deeply across the world.

Today, through social media, short videos, and music apps, we can explore and stream whatever we like, whenever we want. We no longer depend on TV for music discovery as we did in that era of limited access. In an age of viral short-form videos on Douyin, snappy public conversations on Sina Weibo, and never-ending live streams, music videos no longer hold the same grip on mainstream pop culture that they did decades ago.

Yet, while MTV no longer holds the influence it once did, those memories of pop music - and how it shaped us - remain vividly alive in our minds. The closing of MTV's channels is not just the silencing of broadcasts; it is the quieting of a background track to youth, a visual and auditory tapestry that taught a generation to see and hear the world with wonder.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. life@globaltimes.com.cn