MTV---Rembember when it was cool?

[Richards]

"...Springsteen, Madonna, way before Nirvana
There was U2, and Blondie, and music still on MTV.
Her two kids in high school, they tell her that she's uncool
'Cause she's still preoccupied
With 19--
19--
1985."

Johnathan, quoting lyrics from a song from the radio by a group called "Bowling for Soup" (I think)

 

[Richards]

But yeah, I'm in the same boat as many of you. I was in college when MTV first came on the air, and I saw the very first airing of "Video Killed the Radio Star" video by the Buggles, which will forevermore hold a special spot in the music video world. (It's still a cool song, too, I think.) I haven't watched MTV since "Daria" went off the air, and even then I had long since given up watching it for music videos.

Johnathan

 

[tec-9-7]

I very vaguely remember when MTV actually showed music videos.

 

[RedShirtNo5]

I remember Night Tracks.

-RedShirt

 

[Krug]

Article about media and... tangentially about MTV

The BBC has shown that outstanding television coverage of Darfur is possible. And, incredibly, mtvU (the MTV channel aimed at universities) has covered Darfur more seriously than any network or cable station. When MTV dispatches a crew to cover genocide and NBC doesn't, then we in journalism need to hang our heads.

 

[MojoGM]

You mean that thing in my car that plays nothing but damn commercials for car companies occasionaly interuppted by music.

I have a solution:

Sirus Sat. Radio!

or XM I suppose, but i prefer Sirius.

 

[Kanegrundar]

I have a solution:

Sirus Sat. Radio!

or XM I suppose, but i prefer Sirius.

For home, a membership to Live365 or Launchcast is a great investment as well.

Kane

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

What I remember was getting my music news from MTV - forthcoming albums, tour dates etc. Now you can get all that online. I also remember begging to be allowed to stay up on Sunday nights for the one show on MTV that played alternative music. IIRC it was called "120 minutes." There were a lot of groups I loved that I could only hear on that show. When the Kate Bush video for "Experiment IV" premiered on that show I watched it live and taped it (on my Betamax) so I could watch it again and again.

Today I would just download it.

Other than sometimes checking out Punk'd, I never bother with MTV anymore, and I really don't miss it except from a pure nostalgia perspective.

 

[Orius]

Well, they announced the nominations for the MTV Video Awards today. If you don't recognize any of them, don't feel too bad. Why does MTV even bother to have video awards when they don't play videos anymore? These complaints have been going on for over 10 years, but the situation has only gotten worse! And MTV2, the station they launched because MTV doesn't play videos anymore, doesn't play videos anymore either --- so what's the point? Doesn't MTV know that reality is on its way out? Their ratings have gone down, but they're still going to put on even more crappy reality shows! When is MTV going to get someone in charge of their programming who realizes that 1) the M in MTV is supposed to stand for Music 2) MTV does not need to do a Real World marathon every day!
They also gave two nominations to the ridiculous Mariah Carey, who has never made a decent video in her life! Remember when MTV was cool?

MTV used to play videos?

No, seriously I do remember when MTV still played some videos, though that was when the channel was already starting to be drowned out by non music. Beavis and Butthead was funny though, and I always enjoyed their braindead commentaries on videos more than their stupid escapades.

But no, I do not remember when MTV was "cool". That was back in the beginning before my parents got cable (and I was under 10 at the time), so I missed the cool era. Never watched it that much during high school either, and I could never understand how my peers could sit through it all damn day.

 

[Orius]

Sadly, the thing that started them downhill was the success of Remote Control, which wasn't a bad show, but it gave the suits the idea that hey! maybe we don't have to play music videos all the time and people will still watch us! :\

Not just Remote control, but Real World (the first one) as well. They started the long death of MTV.