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! :(
 
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.
 
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