(often called '''Much''') is a 24-hour national
Canadian Cable Music and
Variety Television Channel based in
Toronto ,
Ontario ,
Canada , which debuted on
August 31 ,
1984 as one of the first Canadian cable
Specialty Channel s on the air. The channel was originally developed and programmed by
John Martin and
Moses Znaimer .
Controlled by and
PunchMuch .''
The first video played on MuchMusic was
Rush 's "The Enemy Within".
There are also affiliates in
Montreal ,
Quebec (
MusiquePlus ) which debuted in
1986 , and international affiliates in the
United States (
MuchUSA ) launched in
1994 ,
Jyrki a
Finland -based segment which airs on
Alma Media 's
MTV3 .
Argentina (
MuchMusic Argentina ) launched in
1992 ,
Colombia (
CitytvBogota ) launched in
1999 ,
Muchmusic Malaysia launched in
2000 in
Malaysia and in
2002 ,
Singapore 's
RTV Broadcast Services began broadcasting content from
Citytv and MuchMusic and also in 2002,
Mexico 's
MuchMusic Mexico began a segment airing on
Canal Once .
MuchMusic also has
Spinoff channels in Canada including
MuchVibe ,
MuchLoud ,
MuchMoreRetro ,
PunchMuch and
MuchMoreMusic .
The first logo for MuchMusic when it first began was a big ''M'' with ''Muchmusic'' boxed in the centre of the M. In
1992 , the logo was slightly redesigned as a big ''M'' with a small ''m'' inside the outline, with the word ''Muchmusic'' below the logo. In
1996 , a new logo was designed with a black-and-white Much superimposed on a planet with longitude/latitude lines on the surface. The logo change was to portray MuchMusic as more modern and sophisticated.
The network consists of three weekly viewer voting programs, ''
MuchOnDemand '', ''
MuchTakeOver '' and ''
Combat Zone ''.
It has been credited with helping to foster a vibrant Canadian music scene simply by following the
Canadian Content broadcast rules which guaranteed native musical acts had a secure and prominent place on the channel's play schedule. It also produced the popular album series ''
Big Shiny Tunes ''.
Making use of CHUM's facilities and production teams, the network has produced many specialty musical and variety programs, including the long-running dance program ''
Electric Circus '' and the late-1980s game show ''
Test Pattern '', and it adopted some programs originally created for CHUM such as ''
City Limits '', which featured
Alternative videos.
It ran afoul of Canadian broadcast regulators in the early 1990s when it aired the animated series ''
Ren And Stimpy ''; it was forced to take the program off the air on the basis that it was not a music-based program as per the network's licence.
The network also generated controversy by occasionally banning videos it deemed too racy or violent for broadcast. (MTV also weathered similar controversy.) Often, the network would broadcast banned videos as part of a ''
Too Much 4 Much '' special, followed by discussion with viewers and concerned groups about why the video should or shouldn't be aired (but rarely would videos be unbanned). On the flipside, the worst videos of the year would also be featured in annual New Year's specials entitled ''
Fromage '' (
French for "
Cheese ").
In recent years, particularly with the brief arrival of MTV on Canadian digital cable, the influence of MuchMusic has waned, and the channel has had to weather criticism that it focuses too much on "top 40" acts and imported MTV "reality shows" like ''
Newlyweds '' and ''
Pimp My Ride '', thereby not giving enough time to smaller, independent, and Canadian performers.
Much remains a popular station for young viewers, although older audiences have largely moved to
MuchMoreMusic .
MuchMusic is well-known for its annual music awards show every June. It is anticipated and promoted for weeks before the night of the
MMVAs .
Every few years, when there are new VJ's needed Much will frequently run the
VJ Search to pick one new VJ to join the team of VJ's. They will usually visit cities across Canada and pick people who appear to show potential through their audition. In earlier years, the VJ Search was usually a two-part show, but in 2006 it evolved into its own reality series.
