The MTV gong from the 1980s has sold for more than $15,000 at auction. Hear about it from Urban Legends and Stranger Truth. Somebody wanted their MTV, so they bought a piece of history. A gong, which was used in the 1980s on MTV, was sold at auction for $15,300. It was famously struck by an upside down Tina Turner who used her feet to bang it when she was a guest video jockey on the network back in 1986