what J. Walter calls the MTV Generation and these 12 to 19 year olds are unbelievably affluent..." Bret Easton Ellis was called the "voice of the MTV generation" as early as 1985, after the publication of his first novel, Less than Zero.

MTV broadcast a documentary titled MTV Generation in 1991. Reviewing it, the New York Times described the group as "young adults struggling to establish a cultural niche