The song was born when Mark Knopfler found himself in an appliance store in New York and overheard two delivery workers staring at a wall of televisions tuned to MTV and commenting with smugness, jealousy, and contempt on what they were seeing on the screen. Knopfler, who had once worked as a reporter for the Yorkshire Evening Post, functioned almost like a journalist. He sat down at a display kitchen that had been set up in the store and began writing down almost word for word what they were saying.