What Happened to MTV?

[jcankerhuxley]

I was a teen when MTV first started and loved to watch music videos for hours. When the novelty wore off, there was still original programming such as 120 minutes and Beavis and Butthead, the State, in the 1990s. When the Real World years came in (plus I was getting up in years), I bowed out, but still peek in at the Jackass crew, take in a video, etc. (in recent years, True Life was probably one of the most underrated reality series). Even though the network has not been the pinnacle of culture, they managed to come up with something new, until recently.

While looking through the guide, MTV now has rerun movies, reruns episodes of South Park and the Chappelle Show (I am not complaining, but WGN is doing the same thing), and reruns of other stuff. What gives? Has MTY run out of gas and becoming just another cable channel?

[mkiker2089]

MTV died about 5 years after it started. It was a classic example of the slippery slope. At first it was by adding DJ's which in itself was good, then shows about music and the music news snippets. All was good. Then came the game shows about music, good but it was not good for that channel because it was the end. After that all things music ended. Music was relegated to a few hours here and there and MTV became "reality TV". They lost market share and people complained about a lack of music. They responded with smart alecky ads insulting their audience and a separate channel that was offered at a premium but sadly also had plenty of shows and too little music.

MTV and VH1 are both dead but the time or mourning is over. The internet and expensive cable packages can fill the void.

[BrettCullum]

I want my MTV...
the real Music Television that played videos almost 24/7 save for some newsbreaks and interviews with the VJs. To me that was the only time MTV really mattered.

Yeah sure, the REAL WORLD was cool for a bit. And I love JACKASS. But what truly annoyed me right off the channel was THE OC, THE HILLS, MY SUPER SWEET SIXTEEN, and all that saccharin yucky stuff that was too twee for me to even tolerate.

I wish they would go retro... but I suppose YOUTUBE has now taken over allowing us to pull up whatever video we wish for on demand. Sigh!

Anybody remember the cool Christmas Eve parties MTV used to have? Those were awesome to watch... Cyndi Lauper bopping around with the VJs. I wish they would release some of that era on DVD.

[Dave Ryan]

Brett -- I think you mean LAGUNA BEACH, not THE OC...

[BrettCullum]

Are they different?!!? LOL! Yes, you are right... and you caught me slipping on a show that I even REVIEWED for the site. But if I recall LAGUNA BEACH was subtitled "THE REAL OC". At the time I recall not minding the show, but shows you how forgettable it was.

But I will give MTV props for AMERICA'S BEST DANCE CREW. That show rocks!

[Dimwitted]

One of the problems was that it became popular and influential. When it was funny and ignored it was great. No suit would ever admit to paying attention. Once it became popular it showed that yes, you could have a very good career coming out of MTV and that was the death knell because now the suits WERE paying attention and they, of course, wrecked it.
Another big problem is the videos themselves. As they "matured" the fun, radical ones weren't "marketable" so everything has become faux band performances. Ok once in a while, deadly shown ad nauseum. Where are the funky Tool vids?

[tucco]

I miss the tour updates, the New Years party, when the rock stars would drop by the studio and just chat for a couple of hours between videos.......when late night was reserved for rare videos they wouldn't play during peak hours such as up and coming metal bands, etc....That was before the era when the suits realized that people were indeed watching tv at ALL hours of the day and night.....that's how half-hour infomercials came to be so successful a few years later.
My city got MTV a full two years after it's birth....We got it in early '83, so we got to experience the last few weeks of MTV being an "all rock and roll" station before they were forced to play Michael Jackson.....It's lucky they were forced to too, because MTV had no bearing or influence on the radio charts before Billie Jean.....I remember bands saying "we don't have to have a video to be successful on the charts, MTV doesn't mean anything"
Within a few short weeks, they changed their tune completely, as it was obvious you needed a vid to be big on the charts cuz the kids were watching.....all the time.
Then next came the metal movement.....When MTV first came out, Van Halen and AC/DC were the only truly huge metal bands ....Ozzy was a fringe act and veterans like Judas Priest and the Scorpions were hardly icons, they were just finally getting real big.........when the L.A. metal acts came out, they gave the genre what it needed: new blood, young guys in their early twenties that the girls could look at, as well as more accessible metal that guys and girls could like. This helped the entire movement and it exploded as a result.

After '86 or so, the whole thing went horribly wrong, along with the rest of the '80s.

[Burson_Fouch]

Frankly, I never cared much for MTV, even in it's original incarnation.

Sure, it allowed some exposure to offbeat groups like the B52's, OMD and The Resident's...but then it stopped playing interesting videos and become a promotional arm of the recording industry. Music sudddenly became a commodity where style lorded over any kind of musical substance.

MTV's been stinking up the world since 1985, please bury it.

[BrettCullum]

I actually WATCHED MTV go on the air. It was so funny, because in my home there used to be a cable channel where they would show comic books. They would have actors read the panels, so I was a little kid addicted to that particular program. Then one day it was interrupted, and I saw "Video Killed the Radio Star" and that astronaut planting the flag... I think I stayed up watching it for the next two days. I probably saw the same dozen videos four times over in a span of eight hours, but I loved it.

I don't think it ruined music or the business, not any more than the Internet has or changes in culture or taste. We simply became a more visual society, and a few bands like Duran Duran got a whole lot bigger than they would have without the visual help. But it's not like there weren't stars that got by on looks since music began. Plenty of teen dreams came out of every decade!

I loved MTV then, and I still love the old memories. It was one of my favorite things growing up... Now I really don't get it, but maybe I am not supposed to. It adapted to kids today, or at least tried to. Perhaps the suits ruined it... but it will always have its legacy.

[Dimwitted]

The 80's were a pretty funky time for TV. It was the cusp of major changes in broadcasting, the rise of cable, 24 hr programming, the whole thing in a state of flux. Anyone watching during that time saw some pretty amazing things, a lot of it never to be repeated. I think that overall, tv is a much poorer place today than back then, with corporate control back and watching.

[Future Man]

I actually WATCHED MTV go on the air. It was so funny, because in my home there used to be a cable channel where they would show comic books. They would have actors read the panels, so I was a little kid addicted to that particular program. Then one day it was interrupted, and I saw "Video Killed the Radio Star" and that astronaut planting the flag... I think I stayed up watching it for the next two days.

I had nearly the exact same experience...I'm quite sure I witnessed the debut video at least on our local cable system. I was at a friend's house on a Saturday I believe, 1981, and poof there was that catchy and for a time so appropriately worded tune on the tube. MTV in its original incarnation was quite a phenomenon for kids growing up in the early 80s...

[mkiker2089]

As odd as it may sound VH1 has hurt me more. MTV was always bigger and it was for a time great. They had a good variety also. They'd play what passed as mainstream metal and then follow it up with Billy Joel and it was all good. If I didn't like a song (but I most likely did) I'd hang on anyway because I wanted to see what was next.

VH1 however really dug up the oldies. Videos pre-mtv were rare but videos from the 60s and 70s are almost unheard of so they dug up clips from TV shows to use as classic videos. The idea was great and with a little work could have been awesome. They however died and a bit before MTV if I recall.

I think greed is the issue that killed both. MTV could make money as a video station but they wanted more money and more control so they became "MTV Network" and made sister channels and crappy shows to fill them. MTV was no longer a video station but instead a flagship for a corporate mess. It's the Corvette Enron would have built.