Money for Nothing

Music "Money for Nothing" is a pop rock song. As per keyboardist Alan Clark, the song started as a more Rolling Stones-like track, before Knopfler came up with the song's riff while improvising to a click track in the studio. Knopfler modeled his guitar sound on ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons's trademark guitar tone, as ZZ Top's music videos were already a staple of early MTV. Gibbons told Timothy White of Musician in late 1985 that Knopfler had solicited Gibbons's help in replicating the tone, adding, "He didn't do a half-bad job, either, considering that I never told him a goddamned thing!" Following the initial sessions in Montserrat where they recorded the main guitar part, Neil Dorfsman tried to recreate the sound in subsequent sessions at the Power Station in New York but was unsuccessful. Lyrics Mark Knopfler described the writing of the song in a 1985 interview with author Bill Flanagan: In 2000, Knopfler appeared on Parkinson on BBC One and further explained where the lyrics originated. According to Knopfler, he had visited an appliance store in New York City. At the back of the store, a wall of televisions were all tuned to MTV. Knopfler said that standing next to him, watching the TVs, there was a male employee, dressed in a baseball cap, work boots, and a checkered shirt, who was delivering boxes. As they watched MTV, the man said things like, "What are those, Hawaiian noises?... That ain't workin'," etc. Knopfler requested a pen to write some of these lines down, and eventually put them to music. The songwriting credits are shared between Mark Knopfler and Sting. According to Knopfler, he used the network slogan "I want my MTV" after seeing an MTV advertisement featuring The Police and setting it to the tune of "Don't Stand So Close to Me" (written by Sting), hence the cowriting credit. "Sting used to come to Montserrat to go windsurfing," recalled John Illsley, "and he came up for supper at the studio. We played him 'Money for Nothing' and he turned round and said, 'You've done it this time, you bastards.' Mark said if he thought it was so good, why didn't he go and add something to it. He did his bit there and then." Sting elaborated on his co-writing credit in a 1987 interview: However, keyboardist Alan Clark claims the "I want my MTV" intro was his idea and not Knopfler's. According to him, the song originally began with the guitar riff, and then he developed the intro on keyboards and sang "I want my MTV" on top during a break in rehearsals for the album. ==Music video==

The music video for the song features early 3D computer animation illustrating the lyrics. The video was one of the first uses of computer-animated human characters and was groundbreaking at the time of its release. The video makes references to the following (nonexistent) songs, bands, albums, and labels: • "Baby, Baby" by First Floor, from Turn Left; Magyar Records • "Sally" by the Ian Pearson Band, from Hot Dogs; Rush Records Originally, Mark Knopfler was not at all enthusiastic about the concept of the music video. MTV, however, was insistent on it. Director Steve Barron, of Rushes Postproduction in London, was contacted by Warner Bros. to persuade Knopfler to relent. Describing the contrasting attitudes of Knopfler and MTV, he said: Barron then flew to Budapest to convince Knopfler of their concept. Meeting together after a gig, Knopfler was still unimpressed, but this time his girlfriend was present and took a hand. According to Barron: Ian Pearson and Gavin Blair created the animation, using a Bosch FGS-4000 CGI system and a Quantel Paintbox system. The animators went on to found computer animation studio Mainframe Entertainment (today Mainframe Studios), and referenced the "Money for Nothing" video in an episode of their ReBoot series. The video also includes stage footage of Dire Straits performing, with partially rotoscoped animation in bright neon colours, as seen on the cover of the compilation album of the same name. ==Notable performances==

When Dire Straits performed "Money for Nothing" at the 1985 Live Aid Concert at Wembley Stadium, the performance featured a guest appearance by Sting. Knopfler performed "Money for Nothing" during the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute and the Prince's Trust concerts in 1986 with Sting, as well as the Nordoff-Robbins charity show at Knebworth in 1990. These versions featured extended guitar solos by Knopfler, backed by Eric Clapton (as guest) and Phil Palmer. ==Critical reception==

Cash Box said that it's "a simply rocking cut taking a look at jobs and videos performed by rock stars." Billboard called it a "bluesy poke at [Dire Straits' and Sting's] own kind; intentions ambiguous." Rolling Stone listed the song as the 94th greatest guitar song of all time, noting how Mark Knopfler "traded his pristine, rootsy tone for a dry, over-processed sound achieved by running a Les Paul through a wah-wah pedal on a track that became one of the [MTV] network's earliest hits." AllMusic called the song one of Knopfler's finest lyrical moments and the hook one of the best and catchiest of the time period. In 2018, Classic Rock wrote: "At its core, 'Money For Nothing' was an old-school boogie, but a dash of studio polish, Sting's mannered backing vocal and a computer-generated promo video were enough to turn it, and Dire Straits themselves, into the very embodiment of 80s naff." Accolades ==Lyrics controversy==

Some lyrics of the song have been criticized as being homophobic. In a late 1985 interview in Rolling Stone magazine, Knopfler expressed mixed feelings on the controversy: When examined in context, Knopfler is mocking the jealous and homophobic nature of the antagonist in the song by adopting a third-person point of view to show the irony, bigotry, and ignorance of the character. For the band's 10 July 1985 concert (televised in the United Kingdom on The Tube on Channel 4 in January 1986), Knopfler replaced the word faggot with queenie: When the song was included in the 1998 compilation Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits, a radio edit that completely omitted the second verse was included. In January 2011, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) ruled that the unedited version of the song was unacceptable for airplay on private Canadian radio stations, as it breached the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' code of ethics and their equitable portrayal code. The CBSC concluded that "like other racially driven words in the English language, 'faggot' is one that, even if entirely or marginally acceptable in earlier days, is no longer so." Not all stations followed this ruling; at least two—CIRK-FM in Edmonton, Alberta, and CFRQ-FM in Halifax, Nova Scotia—played the unedited version of "Money for Nothing" repeatedly for one hour out of protest. Galaxie, which was owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (the CBC) at the time of the controversy, also continued to play the song. On 21 January 2011, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission asked the CBSC for a review on the ban, in response to the public outcry against the CBSC's actions; the commission reportedly received over 250 complaints erroneously sent to them, instead of the CBSC. The regulator requested the CBSC to appoint a nationwide panel to review the case, as the decision on the ban was reviewed by a regional panel for the Maritimes and Newfoundland. On 31 August 2011, the CBSC reiterated that it found the use of 'faggot' to be inappropriate; however, because of considerations in regard to its use in context, the CBSC has left it up to the stations to decide whether to play the original or edited versions of the song. Most of the CBSC panellists thought it was inappropriate, but it was used only in a satirical, non-hateful manner. ==Personnel==

Personnel are sourced from Sound on Sound. Dire Straits • Mark Knopfler – lead vocals, electric guitar • Guy Fletcher – Yamaha DX1 synthesiser, Synclavier, Roland keyboards • Alan Clark – Hammond organ • John Illsley – bass • Terry Williams – drum intro Additional musicians • Sting – intro vocals, harmonies and backing vocals • Omar Hakim – drums ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts ==Certifications==

In 2024 the 1983 Gibson Les Paul Standard reissue guitar Knopfler played on the song sold for £592,200 in a Christie's auction in London that included a total of 122 lots. ==See also==