If I were to make a list of all the things in this world I hate (and, it would be a long list), MTV would rank somewhere near the top. This is the station that’s earned the title ’’Empty TV’’ for the kind of trash it’s aired over the past decade or so.
While MTV started out as an interesting, innovative little channel that showed music videos, it’s become something much more subversive since then. Subversive? Indeed. If you want to know why some people in the world hate Americans, just turn over to MTV and you’ll see why -- the whiners, spoiled brats and malcontents that some America-bashers point to when griping about the good ol’ U.S.A. are displayed with pride on MTV.
The main problem with MTV is that the emphasis has changed from showing videos and talking about musicians to the people who listen to alleged rock n’ roll and pursue some kind of rock-inspired lifestyle. That lifestyle, however, has no basis in reality and has been created by the folks over at MTV. That lifestyle is based on kind of a pre-fab rebellion in which holding the ’’correct’’ political views (MTV viewers are never encouraged to for opinions of their own) is almost as important as getting the latest fashions and following the throw-away trends of the day. Looks like a way to twist the natural rebellion of teens into a way to generate some serious cash for advertisers to me.
If people believed that Americans really acted like the losers shown on MTV, they’d get the idea that folks in the U.S. all held badly-defined, left-wing beliefs, get upset about not being able to ride skateboards in the mall, hang out with the cool kids down at the mall and other such rot. MTV is no longer revolutionary -- the station is full of cynical, business types who try to sell the youth of the nation a set of generic beliefs and then profit from them. MTV, in short, has found a way to turn rebellion into money. Shame on them.
So, the days of innovation and music videos are over at MTV. Instead, we get treated to some sit-coms, reality shows, talk shows and such that feature a bunch of shallow, silly people trying to be cool under a set of guidelines issued by MTV.
The Dead Kennedys were right when, around 15 years, they wrote a very angry song called ’’MTV Get off the Air.’’ Unfortunately, no one listened and MTV has grown even more worthless and irritating since that song was released.