"Money for Nothing" is a song recorded by British group Dire Straits, which first appeared on their 1985 album Brothers in Armsand subsequently became an international hit when released as a single. It peaked at number one for three weeks in the United States, becoming their most successful single, and also peaked at number one for three weeks on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart. In the band's native UK, the song peaked at number four. The recording was notable for its controversial lyrics, groundbreaking music video and a cameo appearance by Sting singing the song's falsetto introduction and backing chorus, "I want my MTV". The video was also the first to be aired on MTV Europe when the network started on August 1, 1987.

"Money for Nothing" won the Grammy for the Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with a Vocal in 1985 at the 28th annual Grammy Awards.

The recording of the song contains a very recognizable hook, in the form of the guitar riff that begins the song proper. (The song is also notable for its extended overture, which was shortened for radio and music video.) The guitar riff continues throughout the song, played in full during each chorus, and played in muted permutation during the verse.

The song's lyrics are written from the point of view of a man watching music videos and commenting on what he sees. To achieve the effect of such a layman making such casual everyday commentary, Dire Straits' lead singer and songwriter Mark Knopfler used a vocal style known as Sprechstimme.

Knopfler described the writing of the song in a 1985 interview with critic Bill Flanagan:

In 2000, Knopfler appeared on Michael Parkinson's interview program and explained again where the lyrics originated. According to Knopfler, he was in New York and stopped by an appliance store. At the back of the store, they had a wall of TVs which were all tuned to MTV. Knopfler said there was a man working there dressed in a baseball cap, work boots, and a checkered shirt delivering boxes who was standing next to him watching. As they were standing there watching MTV, Knopfler remembers the man coming up with classic lines such as "what are those, Hawaiian noises?...that ain't workin" etc. Knopfler asked for a pen to write some of these lines down and then eventually put those words to music.

The songwriting credits are shared between Mark Knopfler and Sting. Sting was visiting Montserrat during the recording of the song, and was invited to add some background vocals. Sting has stated that his only compositional contribution was the "I Want My MTV" line, which was sung to the identical melody of the verse of his own song "Don't Stand So Close to Me", originally recorded by The Police. Sting was reportedly embarrassed when his publishing company insisted on a co-writing credit (and royalties).

The observations of the character included references to a musician "banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee" and a description of a singer as "that little faggot with the earring and the makeup", and lamenting that the artists got "money for nothing and chicks for free". These lyrics were widely criticised as sexist, racist and homophobic statements, and in some later releases of the song the lyrics were edited for airplay; "faggot" for example is often replaced with "mother": "little mother, he's a millionaire".

When the song is included in rotation as part of a music feed played in stores, or restaurants "faggot" is usually turned backwards. The entire second verse was edited out for content and length for radio and video airplay, and on the 7" single. This edited version is included in the compilation albums Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straitsand Money for Nothing.

In a late 1985 interview in Rolling Stonemagazine, Knopfler expressed mixed feelings on the controversy:

Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx, in an interview with Blender Magazine, claimed that the song is actually about his band's excessive lifestyle, and that he heard the clerks in the store were commenting on Mötley Crüe videos shown on the in-store television sets.

The music video for the song featured early computer animation illustrating the lyrics. The video was one of the first uses of computer-animated human characters and was considered groundbreaking at the time of its release. It was the second computer-generated music video shown on MTV.

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 reportedly 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. The animators went on to found computer animation studio Mainframe Entertainment (today Rainmaker Animation), and referenced the "Money for Nothing" video in an episode of their ReBootseries. The video also included stage footage of Dire Straits performing, with partially rotoscoped-animation in bright neon colours, as seen on the record sleeve.

The video was awarded "Video of the Year" (among many other nominations) at the third annual MTV Video Music Awards in 1986.

Two other music videos are also featured within "Money for Nothing". A Hungarian pop band Első Emelet and their video "Állj Vagy Lövök" appears as "Baby, Baby" by "First Floor". (The name "első emelet" translates to "first floor".) Első Emelet was extremely popular at the time in Hungary, although their videos might not have appeared on Music Television. The other is a fictional, supposed MTV video "Sally" by the Ian Pearson Band (Pearson was one of the animators of the video).

Knopfler modelled his guitar sound for the recorded track after ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons' trademark guitar tone, as ZZ Top's music videos were already a staple of early MTV. Gibbons later told a Musicianmagazine interviewer in 1986 that Knopfler had solicited Gibbons on how to replicate the tone, adding, "He didn't do a half-bad job, considering that I didn't tell him a thing!" Knopfler's "not a half-bad job" included his use of a Gibson Les Paul guitar, which he used on a couple of other Brothers in Armstracks, rather than his usual (at the time) Fender Stratocaster, plugged into a Marshall amplifier. Another factor in trying to recreate the sound was a Wah-wah pedal that was turned on, but only rocked to a certain position.

Rolling Stonemagazine listed it 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 network's earliest hits".

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" using his Pensa-Suhr signature MK-1 model guitar with a pair of Soldano SLO-100 tube/valve amplifier heads and Marshall speaker cabinets during the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute and Prince's Trust concerts in 1988, as well as the Nordoff-Robbins charity show at Knebworth in 1990 and the On Every Street world tours in 1991/1992. These versions featured extended guitar solos by Knopfler, backed by Eric Clapton and Phil Palmer.

"Weird Al" Yankovic wrote a parody titled "Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*" for his 1989 film UHF. As the title implies, this song merges the lyrics from The Beverly Hillbilliestheme song ("The Ballad of Jed Clampett") with "Money For Nothing"'s tune. Dire Straits members Mark Knopfler and Guy Fletcher perform guitar and keyboards respectively on the track. The famous video also got the "Weird Al" treatment, with the removal men replaced by blocky, computer-generated versions of Jed Clampett and Yankovic himself. The parody video was used as a dream sequence midway through the film.

Satirical puppet show Spitting Imagealso parodied this song, randomly calling it "Making Nice Curtains". It features puppets of Mark and David Knopfler singing about yuppies and that their music "can be played to your granny and aunts". Sting appears as he does in the real video to claim his "royalty", but is silenced as a guitar hits him in the head.