It showcases recorded live performances of popular music artists playing acoustic or "unplugged" variations of songs.
Eric Clapton's Unplugged (1992) sold 26 million copies worldwide and became the best-selling live album of all time[citation needed].
The show received the George Foster Peabody Award and three Primetime Emmy nominations, in its original form.
[3] The MTV show titled Unplugged, drawing on this phenomenon, was created by producers Robert Small and Jim Burns.
[37] MTV's sister channel VH1 airs VH1 Storytellers, interspersing mostly acoustic performances with the artists discussing the history, meaning and memories of the songs.
[38] The fourth season of Canadian Idol featured an Unplugged night which was held at Toronto's Masonic Temple.
[39] On July 30, 2020, Code Orange performed a livestreamed acoustic set on Twitch spoofing MTV Unplugged under the title of "MUDTV Mudbanger's Ball" during the COVID-19 pandemic.
[40] The band described it as "conceptually akin to classic MTV Unplugged performances, but with nightmarish digital twists and turns.