First Listen - "Money For Nothing" by Dire Straits (Hip Hop Fan Reacts)

Mark Knopfler wrote it after overhearing delivery men in a New York department store complain about their jobs while watching MTV. He wrote the song in the store sitting at a kitchen display they had set up. Many of the lyrics were things they actually said.

It's simpler than you think. It's a song about overheard delivery guys who worked for a home appliance and home electronics retail store, and he's quoting what those delivery guys were saying about the musicians and actors in the videos they were watching on MTV.

Just like "Sultans of Swing", this is a real story. Knopfler was in a department store, and two of the store clerks were watching MTV in the store, and this song is basically the conversation he overheard.

Knopfler wrote this after he saw department store employees making fun of videos on MTV that were on the TV screens. He's speaking in their voices. Great song, great satire.

The song is written from the perspective of a guy working at an appliance store talking to his co-worker and hes calling the long haired, 80s hair metal guys he seeing on the tv as “fa**ots” while talking about how easily they get girls and money and how easy their jobs are compared to his own.

A lot of the context is lost now, but this song was a very meta comment on MTV, which was the biggest thing in the music/entertainment world at the time. He's quoting blue collar workers commenting on how great life would be if they'd just learned to play a few chords and made it on to MTV (while putting down the performers) -- and at the same time the video of the song was a huge hit on MTV, which benefited from the satirical publicity. 'I want my MTV' was the network's slogan at the time.

This whole album is terrific.

Producer: Mark, are you sure you want to have such a long intro? You're building a lot of anticipation there. You're gonna need a bloody good riff, mate. Mark: Not a problem.

This is from a conversation he overheard. Working men talking about the musicians on tv. And yes, the daft hair and the make up. It’s not Mark Knopfler’s opinion or anger. He just wrote a song from the perspective of some non-musicians, feeling a little jealous.

One of the first albums to be all digital, and you could tell that it sounded crisper even on cassette tape.

Brilliant lyrics :) "He's banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee." In the vein of Money and Have a Cigar.

He’s saying those guys on MTV, despite how they look, are laughing all the way to the bank while “we” are stuck here doing hard manual labor making little money.

Personally, I think this is one of the best tracks in modern music. Everything about it is perfect, from the classic 80s synth intro, tight rhythm and powerful drums, fun ad libs, and brilliantly satirical lyrics. The song perfectly encapsulates the 1980s resentment of the average person (those feeling left behind by Reaganomics) for the wealthiest in society, be it in rock music, or yuppies on Wall Street. Mark Knopfler's unique fingerpicking style, combined with the power of the double-humbucking pickups on the Les Paul, and a wah-pedal set half way for a uniquely "nasel", biting tone, is an amazing combination, and the riff is widely celebrated as one of the greatest of all time. Even the music video was very iconic for its day, using digital animation in the 80s.

Wasn't "I want my MTV" an advertising slogan at the time - encouraging people to get their cable service to carry MTV?

There’s an important cultural key here: for a good while MTV was struggling to get onto cable services. So MTV started a campaign to get watchers to call their provider and shout “I want my MTV!” The way they got the message across was by using celebrity musicians of the time (who had been elevated by MTV) like Cyndi Lauper, Billy Idol and…Sting. The campaign worked beyond their wildest dreams, obviously.

This was the first song played on the UK launch of MTV. The fact that Sting is on this is pure chance. He was on holiday where the band were recording this and Mark just asked him if he wanted to sing the line.

The lines about the musicians aren’t Mark’s feelings, but what he heard the workers saying.

I’ve heard that Mark heard delivery workers talking to each other and he just lifted their conversation for this song

the main reason this song was a huge hit was the video. it had some ground breaking computer animation that was mind blowing at the time.

Synthesizer is a huge part of the 80s sound, but I think you're missing the key elements of this song -- a sarcastic rejection of the 80s excess and an amazing guitar riff. At the time MTV was at it's height of influence, and there's books that have been written about how it influenced popular culture. Edit: Oh yeah, the f--- line didn't hold up at the time. It was edited out of the radio single. But as others have mentioned, he was playing the character of a deliveryman seeing what was being played on MTV at the time.