The Meaning Behind Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing,” the Song That Bit the Video Channel That Feeds

Biting the hand that feeds you usually doesn’t end up great. In the case of Dire Straits, they released a song that took aim at MTV. And it was at a time when the network could make or break you. That song, “Money for Nothing” turned out to be a smash when released in 1985. And it hit on both radio and MTV. The song ushered in the most successful stretch of the band’s career.

How did Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits use some found dialogue to create this song? What did the video lend to the proceedings? And how did Sting end up with one of the easiest songwriting credits of his career? Let’s look at everything that made “Money for Nothing” such an iconic song.

Making Money

Dire Straits erupted with a Top 5 U.S. single on their first try in 1978 with “Sultans of Swing.” The band epitomized the fictional group in that hit song, in that they seemed to be in it for the music and not the flash. Their next several albums continued to do well on both sides of the pond for the U.K. band. But subsequent singles never came close to the levels of “Sultans of Swing” in the U.S. They were somewhat stuck in the role of critically-acclaimed rock radio grinders.

[RELATED: Behind the Song: “Brothers in Arms” by Dire Straits]

The band and its management decided they wanted something bigger. And writing a song that would make for a good MTV video was the best way to do it. Dire Straits weren’t exactly the types that stepped out into the spotlight like that. They didn’t appear on album covers, and their live performances were more about capturing their outstanding roots-rock chemistry and Knopfler’s virtuoso guitar-slinging than raising the Q ratings of the band members.

Luckily, Knopfler stumbled into an appliance store one day, and the song that would do the trick was laid out for him on a platter. He explained it all in an interview with Bill Flanagan, which was included in the book Written in My Soul: Conversations with Rock’s Great Songwriters: 

“The lead character in “Money for Nothing” is a guy who works in the hardware department in a television/custom kitchen/refrigerator/microwave appliance store. He’s singing the song. I wrote the song when I was actually in the store. I borrowed a bit of paper and started to write the song down in the store. I wanted to use a lot of the language that the real guy actually used when I heard him, because it was more real. It just went better with the song, it was more muscular.”

The Police-Man and the Video

Knopfler took those overheard words and crafted the track, which he then turbocharged with one of the fiercest guitar riffs of the era. Since the song mentioned MTV several times, he decided that a sarcastic refrain of I want my MTV, the network’s catchphrase, would be appropriate. Sting was contracted to deliver the line throughout the song. Because he delivered it with a melody that somewhat resembled The Police hit “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” he was awarded a songwriting credit, even though he had nothing to do with writing any other parts.

To further court MTV, even with a song that was questioning the whole notion of video stars, the band went all-out with a video that featured novel (for its time) computer animation depicting the TV movers from the song, with cutaways to the band in performance. To their credit, MTV got the joke, and helped turn the song into Dire Straits’ first and only No. 1 hit in the US. (Brothers in Arms, the album that contained the song, also topped the charts.)

What Is “Money for Nothing” About?

Some would point out the irony of the title of the song and the fact that Knopfler didn’t have to do a lot of composing (lyrically anyway) to create a smash that helped his and the band’s financial status more than a little. However, discovering those words is one thing. Turning them into coherent, affecting lyrics is another.

The key to the success of the song is the juxtapositions. The narrator/appliance-store worker has to keep interrupting his complaints about the rock stars who play the guitar on the MTV with his own workday drudgery of installing, delivering, and moving TVs and refrigerators. I should have learned to play the guitar, he moans, implying he could have enjoyed a more benign fate.

But Knopfler isn’t afraid to suggest that the store worker is a bit of a lunkhead, with shortsighted beliefs about what goes into the music. Not to mention that he’s somewhat hypocritical: That ain’t working, he whines, all while he’s taking a little break to watch the TVs instead of move them.

Knopfler manages to take the stuffing out of the myth of rock star genius, while also suggesting that maybe it isn’t quite as easy as it looks to the untrained eye. After all, a lot of folks can play the guitar, but few can turn out the pyrotechnics he turns out on “Money for Nothing,” the song where Dire Straits both encapsulated MTV’s golden era and mocked it.

Photo by Steve Morley/Redferns