What the hell happened to MTV?

nero120

nero120

nero120

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Old man mode. Not really. Hey, I'm 25 okay, the same age as MTV. We were born in the same year, and from the age of 8 - 18 MTV was a big part of my life. I loved it. I loved being able to watch it for hours, where you would have uninterrupted blocks of videos. At certain times you might have "3 from 1" or, some crazy Denis Leary scat or some wierd animation. you might even have shows like Ray Coke's Most Wanted or Beavis and Butthead. And for a time, it was good.

MTV today is a very different thing. Exactly how MTV even qualifies to call itself 'M' TV is a mystery to me. MTV has been sold up the swanny river that is for damn sure. Mobile phone ads all the time, crap reality tv shows repeated all the time, christ, the only time Music is even mentioned is when the "MTV Video Music Awards" comes on! MTV has become the most commercial thing in the world. It has been raped by the suits, but I guess that is inevitable for anything that becomes popular and successfull.

So, it seems I have outlived MTV, for it is surely dead. It was nice knowing ya MTV, RIP! :(
 
Ever since MTV became black it has sucked. Bring back the MTV of the early nineties, the days of Beavis & Butthead.
 
MTV had the cartoon "drawn together" on its listing recently

possibly one of the funniest cartoons i've ever seen im my life.
 
Not enough paople want to watch videos anymore and as such they don't air them. The market follows the demand.

MTV started MTV2 to play nothing but videos and they don't play many on there anymore either.
 
MTV2 sucks. They used to play metallica and stuff. Now it's all ridiculous indie carp :(
 
Found this post in an archived thread on another forum.

The vast majority of the posters above have noted that MTV's absurd (given what the "M" supposedly stands for) refusal to play music videos is the main reason for the network's flight over the fish. True enough, but if MTV actually did devote the bulk of its programming to videos, what would we get? For someone who remembers the stripped-down, bare essentials days of early-mid 80's MTV, a day filled with Britney, Shakira, N'Sync, Backstreet Boys, P. Diddy, etc., etc., etc., is hardly preferable to the channel's umpteenth "Real World" marathon. It's not so much that the channel has changed, but that the music has changed. Those of us who remember a world without MTV, who were the vanguard of the Video Revolution and the first wave of the "MTV Generation" (dubious distinctions, perhaps) feel a particular kind of wrath against a network that pulled a Peter Pan on us and did not get old. MTV has reinvented and remarketed itself so many times that it has all but severed its connections to its original audience. What probably frustrates many of MTV's critics (and, believe me, I'm not defending the network)is that what used to be THEIRS now belongs to SOMEONE ELSE. Think about it: our Baby Boom parents still have so many of their TV shows in essentially pristine condition, lovingly preserved on networks such as Nick at Nite and its offspring, TV Land. But what about Generation X? Our MTV has been taken away, not so much by the capitalist powers-that-be, but by changes in pop culture as well as in ourselves. Instead of disappearing, or being preserved in its "classic" phase from, say 1981-1992 or so, it is constantly evolving (de-volving?) into what we see today (if we choose to subject ourselves to it). It's therefore hard to say exactly when MTV jumped. It comes down to when you grew up. Still, there is the nagging desire to return, almost by a kind of irresistible force, a "phantom impulse" to push the button on the remote that, back in 1986 was worn out from overuse. When we arrive, what's there is frightening. Aside from the lamentable but unfortunately inevitable changes in music, there's no question that so much of the programming offered is really pretty wretched. "Cribs"? Are you kidding? What a revolting spectacle of materialism, where high school and college students are given tours of rock/rap stars' appallingly self-indulgent houses, with all their gadgets and adult toys. It's like a trip to Sharper Image. And then, the cars. . .usually at least three or four in the driveway. Admittedly, our society encourages, indeed worships, materialism, but do we really want it rammed down our throats? And since MTV has gone global, shows like this must be doing wonders for our image abroad. As for cut-rate twenty-something skin operas like "Undressed," even without the soft-core porn it would be absolutely unwatchable solely for the lack of any acting talent. "Real World" was an interesting concept at first (1990? Perhaps it was then the boat's engines were started), but now it looks tame in comparison with the reprehensible "reality" shows it spawned (are you proud, Mary Ellis Bunim?)and thus has degenerated into a predictable festival of stereotypes and sexual hijinks. See? I write with the pen of someone betrayed. Oh, let's forget analysis. MTV just sucks now.
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Interesting stuff. I guess you cant blame MTV for trying to stay in the game. If popular culture changes then it either adapts or becomes extinct.
 
Totally agree, I used to watch MTV lots about 4 years ago when I was 13 it wasn't that bad then, now however OMG Mobile Phone adverts followed by each other all the damn time.

Around the time Jackass was being shown were high-points of MTV imo.
 
I've gone back to radio due to the unsatisfying music the channels i used to have on now play. Really disappointed with Q and VH2, although Q only seems to be on in the mornings (i hate FHM). Why I want to see average joe covered in gold dancing round a jeep rapping to an awful beat i have no idea. I want good music and a video to go with it. :(
 
Call to Greatness is pretty good (Sunday nights on MTV - marathon on tomorrow night) in a CKY kind of way...

I never watched MTV much (other than Brand New back in the day), I was always an M2 man, which then went drastically downhill when it became MTV2. The whole cavalcade of music channels has gone pretty pish, with pretty much the same four or five videos on a constant loop, with 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and 'Rollin' thrown in every once in a while.

On the Cribs note above... I was transfixed by the worst show I think I've ever seen today on MTV. It's called Super Sweet Sixteen, and it's basically a bunch of spoiled yank brats being thrown sickeningly expensive parties by their rich parents. eg. One of the kids today got given an SUV and a Mitsubishi Eclipse, and also said their party cost more than their parents wedding.

I really really miss Beavis and Butthead, and would love to see them run again, as I know I'd know far more of the bands featured now than I would have when I first watched it.
 
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Scuzi said:
Ever since MTV became black it has sucked.
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So true....

It's not that MTV never used to play black music and gave blck artists airtime. It's just that it didn't try and be "street" all the time. MTV was just cool in it's own way, but now it's trying to be all urban all the time. It's totally lost it's identity.

I remember watching it in the early 90's and it was incredible when you would see stuff like:

Cypus Hill
Nirvana
Apex Twin
Metalica
 
If MTV went on to play todays music vids it would be nothing but scantilly clad mainly black thin as a rake hooker like women "shakin ass" and grown black men singing about drugs, sex, "bitches n ho`s", money, and some mystical oppression of their "brothers in da hood" with the occasional bout of justin timberlake to boot.

*weeps with despair at the wilful murder of the once beautiful English language*


youd be damn lucky to hear a song that actually meant something for more than five minutes, youd be lucky to hear a song that wasnt just ******** to tap your foot to and forget about later that day, youd be lucky to hear a song that had any relevance or value to the world we live in today.

for my parents in the 60`s and 70`
it was the stones, Beatles, roy orbison,
for my sister in the 80`s it was Tears for Fears, The smiths, David bowie,
for me in the 90`s it was depeche mode, Nine Inch Nails, and garry numan, Radiohead.

These are examples of bands singing about not just their own era, but of what the future could bring and indeed some of them are still going today and helped to define a generation, and they are remeberd for it.


for a kid today... 50 cent (get that plaster off your face, you look like a dick, infact, put the plaster over your mouth... much better.) and a host of other abject crap that no one will remember in 5 days, never mind 5 years. sure, theres still the odd good band, but mainly stemming from the end of the 90`s. Just absolute, mass produced ********. and dont get me started on bands like Mcfly, another band thats come out of the "BoyBand Creation Factory"
 
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locutus12 said:
If MTV went on to play todays music vids it would be nothing but scantilly clad mainly black thin as a rake hooker like women "shakin ass" and grown black men singing about drugs, sex, "bitches n ho`s", money, and some mystical oppression of their "brothers in da hood" with the occasional bout of justin timberlake to boot.

*weeps with despair at the wilful murder of the once beautiful English language*


youd be damn lucky to hear a song that actually meant something for more than five minutes, youd be lucky to hear a song that wasnt just ******** to tap your foot to and forget about later that day, youd be lucky to hear a song that had any relevance or value to the world we live in today.

for my parents in the 60`s and 70`
it was the stones, Beatles, roy orbison,
for my sister in the 80`s it was Tears for Fears, The smiths, David bowie,
for me in the 90`s it was depeche mode, Nine Inch Nails, and garry numan, Radiohead.

These are examples of bands singing about not just their own era, but of what the future could bring and indeed some of them are still going today and helped to define a generation, and they are remeberd for it.


for a kid today... 50 cent (get that plaster off your face, you look like a dick, infact, put the plaster over your mouth... much better.) and a host of other abject crap that no one will remember in 5 days, never mind 5 years. sure, theres still the odd good band, but mainly stemming from the end of the 90`s. Just absolute, mass produced ********. and dont get me started on bands like Mcfly, another band thats come out of the "BoyBand Creation Factory"
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I'm totally with you on all of that, well said.

I think things will get better, this torrent of RnB / Dance music that has no other place then backgound music in a nighclub will eventually run it's course.

People complain about all the Emo kids about these days but I would far rather have them as the future watchers of MTV than hordes of Chav's who wouldn't know a great guitar solo if it came smashing through the windscreen of their Nissan and knocked their cap off.
 
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