10 Best Rock Songs About Television

Feature Photo: Frank Okay

Television, once a revolutionary invention, took some time before becoming a ubiquitous part of daily life in American households. Experimental television broadcasts began in the late 1920s and early 1930s, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that TV sets became a common fixture in living rooms across the country. Families gathered around their black-and-white screens, marveling at this new medium that brought the outside world into their homes. By the 1960s, color television was becoming increasingly common, adding another dimension to the experience and cementing television’s role as a dominant cultural force.

As the decades progressed, TV technology advanced. In the 1970s, cable television began giving viewers more choices beyond the basic network offerings, and the 1980s and early 1990s brought an explosion of specialized channels, sports networks, music television, and round-the-clock news. This content expansion inspired Bruce Springsteen’s “57 Channels (And Nothin’ On),” a commentary on having more options without necessarily finding anything worth watching. By the late 1990s and early 2000s, digital cable and satellite systems made hundreds of channels routine, making Springsteen’s once-sardonic observation seem almost quaint.

As TV evolved, so did its cultural impact. Rock musicians used television as inspiration, satire, and a target of criticism, whether Gil Scott-Heron was warning that real change would not arrive through the screen, Peter Gabriel was taking aim at exploitative talk shows, or Dire Straits was mocking the MTV age in “Money for Nothing.” These ten songs capture very different reactions to a medium that changed entertainment, politics, advertising, and everyday life.

# 10 – The Revolution Will Not Be Televised – Gil Scott-Heron

Gil Scott-Heron first released “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” in spoken-word form on his 1970 album Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, delivering the piece over sparse percussion before recording a fuller jazz-funk version the following year for Pieces of a Man. The title became a cultural catchphrase, but Scott-Heron’s point was sharper than a slogan: real social change would not happen by sitting at home watching television. His rapid-fire references to commercials, television shows, celebrities, and news culture turned the piece into one of the most enduring attacks on passive media consumption ever put on record.

Read More: Top 10 Gil Scott-Heron Songs

# 9 – Turn It On Again – Genesis

“Turn It On Again,” released on Genesis’ 1980 album Duke, is one of the band’s smartest songs about television because underneath its big rock chorus is a lonely character whose main relationships are with the people he watches on a screen. Tony Banks, Phil Collins, and Mike Rutherford wrote the song, Genesis produced it with David Hentschel at Polar Studios in Sweden, and its famously awkward 13/8 rhythmic foundation never stopped it from becoming a major hit. The single reached No. 8 in the UK and became one of the defining songs of Genesis’ move toward a more direct sound.

Read More: Top 10 Genesis Songs

# 8 – Sleeping With The Television On – Billy Joel

“Sleeping With The Television On” is tucked away on Billy Joel’s 1980 album Glass Houses, but it has become a favorite among fans who know the record beyond its hit singles. Produced by Phil Ramone, the song uses the television less as a subject than as a sign of loneliness: two people are afraid to make a move, so both may end the night going home alone with the TV filling the silence. Joel wraps that uncomfortable idea inside one of the album’s catchiest pop-rock arrangements, which is exactly why the song has aged so well.

Read More: Top 10 Billy Joel Songs

# 7 – The Barry Williams Show – Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel’s “The Barry Williams Show,” released in 2002 on Up, takes aim at television programs that turn personal pain and humiliation into entertainment. Gabriel has explained that he chose the name Barry Williams without realizing at first that it belonged to the actor who played Greg Brady on The Brady Bunch, so the song is not actually about him. Recorded at Real World Studios and produced by Gabriel, the track follows a fictional talk-show host who keeps pushing for uglier and more sensational stories because that is what keeps viewers watching.

Read More: Top 10 Peter Gabriel Albums

# 6 – I’m The Slime – Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa’s “I’m The Slime,” from 1973’s Over-Nite Sensation, imagines television itself talking to the viewer, proudly describing how it controls thought while pumping out empty entertainment. Zappa produced, arranged, and conducted the album, which was recorded across Bolic Sound, Whitney, and Paramount studios, and the track combines his guitar with the jazz-heavy Mothers lineup that included George Duke, Tom Fowler, Ralph Humphrey, Ruth Underwood, and others. The joke is funny, but the message is brutal: the slime coming out of the television is only powerful because people keep inviting it into their homes.

# 5 – Prime Time – The Tubes

“Prime Time” comes from The Tubes’ 1979 album Remote Control, a record built around the band’s fascination with television, advertising, celebrity, and the strange hold the screen had on American life. Todd Rundgren produced and engineered the album, and “Prime Time” uses a slicker pop sound than much of the band’s earlier material while keeping the satire intact. The whole record treats television almost like another member of the household, always selling something, always demanding attention, and always promising that the next program will be better than real life.

# 4 – Video Killed the Radio Star – The Buggles

“Video Killed the Radio Star” was released by The Buggles in 1979 and sounded futuristic before most people had any idea how completely music television would change the business. Written by Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes, and Bruce Woolley, the song appeared on The Age of Plastic and reached No. 1 in the UK. Its place in television history was sealed at 12:01 a.m. on August 1, 1981, when the Russell Mulcahy-directed video became the first music video shown on MTV, making a song about visual media replacing an older format the perfect way to launch a new television network.

Read More: Top 10 Songs By The Buggles

# 3 – TVC 15 – David Bowie

“TVC 15,” from David Bowie’s 1976 album Station to Station, turns television into something literally consuming. Bowie built the song around the surreal idea of a television set swallowing a woman, then wrapped that nightmare inside a strangely cheerful mix of rock, soul, and barroom piano. Recorded at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles and produced by Bowie and Harry Maslin, the track is funny, disturbing, and completely in character with an album made during one of Bowie’s strangest creative periods.

# 2 – 57 Channels (And Nothin’ On) – Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen’s “57 Channels (And Nothin’ On),” released on Human Touch in 1992, takes one of the simplest complaints in modern life and turns it into a deadpan rock song: more television does not necessarily mean better television. The sparse bass-driven arrangement leaves plenty of room for Springsteen’s frustration to land, and the title quickly became a phrase people used whenever cable offered dozens of choices and nothing worth watching. Where David Bowie made television surreal in “TVC 15,” Springsteen made it boring, excessive, and completely familiar.

Read More: Top 10 Bruce Springsteen Hits

# 1 – Money for Nothing – Dire Straits

“Money for Nothing” became one of the defining records of the MTV era because it both mocked music television and benefited enormously from it. Released on Dire Straits’ 1985 album Brothers in Arms, the song is credited to Mark Knopfler and Sting, whose “I want my MTV” vocal became inseparable from the record. Knopfler and Neil Dorfsman produced the album at AIR Studios in Montserrat, and the single spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 before winning the Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Few songs captured the absurdity, glamour, jealousy, and power of music television better.

Read More: Top 10 Dire Straits Songs