I remember when I was first exposed to MTV. It was 1985 and I had gone to my cousin’s house after school. Usually if we had the TV on we watched cartoons. But this day was different. This day, as I came in, I saw a cool image on the screen. The image was a sort of computer animation. What I was watching was the first music video I would ever see. The video was for Dire Straits ’’Money For Nothing’’. That video blew me away the first time I saw it and it still does today. (The song also rocks, but we’ll save that f or another review). That got me into MTV.
Those days were the golden age of MTV. Back then you could turn it on at any time of the day and expect to see a music video. Of course there were a lot of different video stars. There were one-hit wonders like Bow Wow Wow (’’I Want Candy’’) and Wang Chung (’’Everybody Have Fun Tonight’’). There were the big stars of the era like Madonna and Michael Jackson (before he became the wax dummy that he is today) and Prince and Sting and Bryan Adams (before he turned into a Diane Warren outlet) and of course the man who parodied them all, Weird Al Yankovic. Hell, out of all of those stars Weird Al is the only one (besides Madonna and Prince) who still gets his own MTV special every now and then. His ’’Like A Surgeon’’ video still cracks me up when I see it.
Yes it was a different time. However, times change and video channels change with them. By the mid 1990s MTV had changed completely. In fact, it would make sense to charge MTV with false advertising because of the M in the name. There is not much that is musical about MTV so they should drop the M. Otherwise MTV is being misleading.
Nowadays if you turn on MTV what are you likely to see? Other than a commercial? Well it’s not a music video. I can guarantee that.
Put on MTV today and you will likely see one of several things. You will see either A) A game show, B) A talk show C) A cartoon D) A reality program like The Real World or E) A sports program.
Now that’s not to say that none of those programs have their place. But their place is not on MTV. If I wanted to watch sports I’d put on ESPN. If I wanted to watch cartoons I’d put on the Cartoon network. If I wanted to watch any of the other three I’d put on any network channel.
Yes, MTV does feature music videos every once in a while. However, the bulk of them show up at 3:00 in the morning. So if you want to see something that isn’t mainstream you’d better have a VCR or not have any reason to get up in the morning. Otherwise you’re out of luck.
If you want to see music programming on MTV during the day, get ready to barf. Because during that time, the only place you’re likely to see anything music related is on the hit show Total Request Live. And much of the music you see on there is the swill that passes for pop music these days. Watch Britney jiggle! Watch the Backstreet Boys sing about how they’re way too lazy to write lyrics that actually mean anything. Watch all of that. Yes that is all bad. But what’s especially bad is the shows host. I am of course referring to Carson Daly (who I personally suspect of being the antichrist). And for a long time I thought that Kennedy was the most annoying creation of MTV. Thank goodness Tara Reid came to her senses.
With all that being said, MTV cannot be recommended. The network itself does not show much music at all and is way too concerned with appealing to teenage boys and girls. VH1 and MTV’s new sister channel M2 are much better alternatives.