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MTV at 20

gentleman loser

09:41 / 03.08.01

Has it been good or bad for music?

Since I did not grow up with it and rarely watch it, I don't feel knowledgeable enough to comment on it, but I'd like to hear your opinions.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

09:41 / 03.08.01

Not saying it wasn't groundbreaking for the time it began--it was--but in the last ten years, MTV has stood less and less for music, and more for shoving their commercial sponsors down our throats.

And anyone who gave us The Tom Green Show for mass American consumption gets a thumbs down.

Molly Shortcake

09:41 / 03.08.01

MTV was pretty groundbreaking during its first ten years and slowly turned into the complete commercial drudgery it is today.
Love the animation though. Bevis and Butthead, The Maxx, Liquid Television and one of my personal favorites Aeon Flux.

Opalfruit

09:41 / 03.08.01

MTV - used to be able to watch some of it.... the Cartoons and some to the short films used to be excellent.

I don't understand this need to have "VJ's" though - smiley poncy twats who know nothing about music and just grin and chatter inanely at the camera and people who call it...

On Sundays MTV used to be quite good - 120 Minutes was actually very good.. the only place you could see Videos for deus, Lush, Screaming Trees, Pavement and others... and later on you had Headbangers Ball with Vanessa "I have no brain" Warwick - christ she irritated me..... still there was some good music on that at times too....

MTV's just a banal televised advertisning spree, much like everything else on TV... I guess that's something we can say about the BBC - no fucking adverts every 5 minutes.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

09:41 / 03.08.01

MTV2 is slightly better, although too much of the time they play crap Merkin heavy metal bands of the type you only see advertised on the back of Vertigo comics, and someone over there has a bizarre love-in for Pearl Jam. Basically there's an ad they keep playing saying how alternative they are, then they play crap like Korn, Limp Bizkit etc... But at least there aren't any VJs or ads.

The other night they were saying they were going to have a Suede live show.When it came on, it was half an hour, last year from an MTV thing and Suede were only on for ten minutes, 3 songs, the rest taken up with their support acts, Ultrasound and some other band that was even less well known and less successful and a VERY punchable VJ.

Bring back 'Rok TV'!

All alternatives get co-opted into the mainstream eventually anyway.

Seth

12:40 / 03.08.01

I though I was alone in loving Aeon Flux. No internal continuity. Hero/Villain forever swapping roles. Genius.

My inaugural visit to MTV2 involved “Midnight In a Perfect World.” Since then, they’ve played Wheatus a lot. They definitely need more variety, but it’s great to see some unusual stuff on rotation. Reminds me of my first few times watching MTV years ago.

ynh

14:27 / 03.08.01

Are you kidding? Maybe we need an Aeon Flux thread. even the first shorts had a story.

This is so odd. People are saying that the 80's were just groundbreaking? MTV was a good idea for marketers: Advertising 24-7 (minus the VJ time), using videos that artists were generally already making.

Not that I didn't watch it or anything.

Ierne

16:07 / 03.08.01

What was cool about MTV back in the day was that you could see a Peter Gabriel video followed by .38 Special followed by Duran Duran followed by Elvis Costello followed by Pat Benatar followed by Roxy Music followed by Journey followed by the Eurythmics followed by Ministry...

now there's hardly any music at all.

[ 03-08-2001: Message edited by: Ierne ]

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

17:08 / 03.08.01

Two words about the beauty that was 120 Minutes in the late 80s/early 90s and the horror that it also gave: Dave Kendall.

bio k9

19:07 / 03.08.01

MTV was great in the early days because, like all newborns, it was fun to watch as it stumbled around, trying out new and different things. Plus, most of us who were watching it were young kids/ teens back then. And don't you remember everything being just a little bit better back then?
Now MTV is all about the allmighty advertising dollar hence half hour shows (if you like the show you'll watch for a half hour-and see all the commercials) instead of three minute videos (if you don't like the song you will change the channel-six songs in half an hour=six chances to lose a viewer).
The recent highpoints (the amimation) all came from outside of MTV studios but I'm pretty sure The Grind and that karoke thing thats on every time I turn on the TV were created in house.

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