MTV Video Music Award

An MTV Video Music Award (commonly abbreviated as a VMA) is an award presented by the cable channel MTV to honor the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category), the annual MTV Video Music Awards ceremony has often been called the "Super Bowl for youth", an acknowledgment of the VMA ceremony's ability to draw millions of youth from teens to 20-somethings each year. By 2001, the VMA had become a coveted award. The statue given to winners is an astronaut on the moon, one of the earliest representations of MTV, and colloquially called a "moonman". The statue was conceived by Manhattan Design—also designers of the original MTV logo—based on the 1981 "Top of the Hour" animation created by Fred Seibert, produced by Alan Goodman, and produced by Buzz Potamkin at Buzzco Associates. The statue is now made by New York firm, Society Awards. Since the 2006 ceremony, viewers are able to vote for their favorite videos in all general categories by visiting MTV's website.

Atari Video Music

The Atari Video Music (Model C240) is the earliest commercial electronic music visualizer released. It was manufactured by Atari, Inc., and released in 1976. The system creates an animated visual display that responds to musical input from a Hi-Fi stereo system for the visual entertainment of consumers.

Overview

By interpreting an input musical waveform, the Video Music translates the levels of musical intensity and mellowness into colors and shapes that are output to a graphical display. The console is attached to an audio source and then operated by an adhesive-backed switch box that is glued to the back of a television display. Audio signal visualizations take the basic form of a two-part diamond. The outer part represents the left audio channel while the right channel is represented by the inner part. Varying colors and shapes provide a wide variety of patters, designs, and images depending on the audio sample played.

After the unit is powered on, a toggle switch may be used to select between "TV" (music visualization inactive), and "Game" (music visualization active). When in the "Game" position, visual data is broadcast on VHF channel 3 by default, but may be set to channel 4. Unlike Atari's previous video game systems, the Video Music system's switch box featured a 75 Ohm pass-through F connector allowing the television antenna or cable to remain attached and thereby eliminating the tiresome process of detaching and reattaching the cable every time the user switched from watching normal television broadcasts to using the visualizer. Any audio source may be used for visualization including Atari's video game system audio, and visualizations can either be watched "live" on a television screen or recorded on a VCR by using a balun converter.

MTV

MTV (formerly an initialism of Music Television) is an American basic cable and satellite television channel which is a part of the "Viacom Music and Entertainment Group" unit of the Viacom Media Networks division of Viacom, of which it is a subsidiary. The channel itself is headquartered in New York City. Launched on August 1, 1981, the original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by television personalities known as "video jockeys," or VJs. The network's current target audience is teenagers and young adults, with programming consisting mainly of original reality, comedy and drama programming and some off-network syndicated programs and films, along with limited music video programming in off-peak time periods. In its early years, MTV's main target demographic were young adults, but today, MTV's programming is primarily targeted at teenagers, high school students and college-aged students.

MTV has spawned numerous sister channels in the U.S. and affiliated channels internationally, some of which have gone independent. MTV's influence on its audience, including issues related to censorship and social activism, has been a subject of debate for years.

Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden (sometimes called MSG or The Garden) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan, New York. Located in Midtown Manhattan between 7th and 8th Avenues from 31st to 33rd Streets, it is situated atop Pennsylvania Station. It is the fourth venue to bear the name "Madison Square Garden", the first two (1879 and 1890) of which were located on Madison Square, on East 26th Street and Madison Avenue, with the third Madison Square Garden further uptown at Eighth Avenue and 50th Street. The Garden is used for professional basketball and ice hockey, as well as boxing, concerts, ice shows, circuses, professional wrestling and other forms of sports and entertainment. It is close to other midtown Manhattan landmarks, including the Empire State Building, Koreatown, and Macy's at Herald Square. It is home to the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League, the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association, and residency to singer-songwriter Billy Joel.

Madison Square

Coordinates: 40°44′31″N 73°59′17″W / 40.742054°N 73.987984°W / 40.742054; -73.987984

Madison Square is formed by the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway at 23rd Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The square was named for James Madison, fourth President of the United States.

The focus of the square is Madison Square Park, a 6.2-acre (2.5-hectare) public park, which is bounded on the east by Madison Avenue (which starts at the park's southeast corner at 23rd Street); on the south by 23rd Street; on the north by 26th Street; and on the west by Fifth Avenue and Broadway as they cross.

The park and the square are at the northern (uptown) end of the Flatiron District neighborhood of Manhattan. The use of "Madison Square" as a name for the neighborhood has fallen off, and it is rarely heard. The neighborhood to the north and west of the park is NoMad ("NOrth of MADison Square Park") and to the north and east is Rose Hill.

Madison Square is probably best known around the world for providing the name of Madison Square Garden, a sports arena and its successor which were located just northeast of the park for 47 years, until 1925. The current Madison Square Garden, the fourth such building, is not in the area. Notable buildings around Madison Square include the Flatiron Building, the Toy Center, the New York Life Building, the New York Merchandise Mart, the Appellate Division Courthouse, the Met Life Tower, and One Madison Park, a 50-story condominium tower.