On the SDMB, and most other bulletin boards, there is almost universal consensus that MTV sucks. (Yes, I also think MTV sucks.) We’ve discussed the reasons over and over and over again; very little actual music, too much rap and growling when they do play videos, too many commercials, and so on.
Still, the amount of music played on MTV shrinks through the years. They must be doing this for a reason; nobody sets out to deliberately “suck” (well, except G4, but that;'s a different story), so their formula of “less music, more episodic programming” must be working.
So, who is watching MTV now? Do they actually like it? Anyone on the SDMB willing to admit that they prefer the almost music-less X-TREEM! MTV over the 1980s version with Martha Quinn, astronauts flying the MTV flag on the moon, real rock videos and the occasional commercial for Atari 2600 carts and compilation LPs?
I like MTV. I like Real World, the Real World/Road Rules challenges, The Osbournes, and I was a huge fan of Laguna Beach, not to mention Undressed when it was still on and the first season of Sorority Life. One thing I miss is their cartoons. Daria was one of the best shows of the 90’s and their weirder stuff (The Head, The Maxx, Aeon Flux) was cool, too.
I don’t know why people complain about MTV not playing enough videos when it seems to me as though those same people wouldn’t like the videos that MTV would play if it played videos all day anyay.
Anyway, there are other channels that play only videos.
I think this board skews older than MTV’s target demographic. If we’re not watching, they don’t care. They weren’t expecting us to anyway.
*When it comes to American television, it’s not the audience that’s paying the bills. At least not in any direct way. The money comes from advertisers. Once you understand that the business of television is making the sponsors happy, all becomes clear.
Sponsors like to have a pretty good idea as to who is watching a given channel at what time. They like shows that will hold an audience for a half hour to an hour. A music video only lasts a few minutes. Even if someone likes a particular video they may change the channel if they don’t like the next one. Music video viewers also have less incentive to sit through commercial breaks. There’s no “finding out what happens next” except perhaps when it comes to the countdown shows where people may be curious as to which video made #1.
Even if the audience would rather watch music videos than whatever else they show on MTV these days, it would still be bad for business.
I’m not a fan of MTV, but I’m also not a fan of music videos. I just don’t get the point of making a three-minute-long film to accompany a pop song. Why do people love them so much? They’re just commercials. I’d rather make up my own visual complement to the song in my head. So I doubt I’d have watched MTV in the eighties either, had I been around then.
Wasn’t MTVs original plan to be like “a radio station for TV”? Recently I’ve discovered FUSE. Love it. Watch it as much as “regular” channels. Commericials are actually pretty funny too. Discovered some bands there I don’t think I would have heard about from MTV. I can’t even remember the last time I watched MTV. Don’t even know what channel it comes on now.
I do miss their cartoons. Remember “Clone High”? Yeah. What ever happen to that show and why hasn’t Adult Swim gotten a hold of it?
The reason behind the complaint that MTV doesn’t play any videos is because, if you didn’t know, MTV stands for Music Television. There’s hardly any music on there anymore, just crappy reality programming. Crappy music is at least somewhat better than crappy reality tv in my opinion.
Forget about MTV though, look at what vile garbage VH1 has become. No music, nothing even remotely related to music, no Behind the Music, just a poor man’s E! Entertainment channel.
Clone High was great. I’d never thought of Adult Swim picking it up; I’d be very happy. Abe is the first cartoon character I ever developed a crush on.
I dunno, I think there’s a lot of music on it. The difference is that they tend to use popular music as the soundtrack for their shows (hence the “The show you just watched featured music from: (…)” thing at the end of every show) instead of necessarily showing videos (which they still do, though not particularly often).
Lots of stations change over time. I don’t know why MTV should be beholden to sticking with the formula they were using 20 years ago just becuase of their name, especially since so many other channels have taken up the slack (if you have digital cable, you definitely won’t want for music video channels).
I remember liking an MTV cartoon called Downtown. It had all the necessary elements to be a subtle success today: a likeable gawky, geeky protagonist who moved into a crummy big-city apartment, his Janeane Garofalo-like best friend, and his hopeless crush on the hot Goth girl who worked at his comic book store. It reminded me of Alex Robinson’s Box Office Poison graphic novel, which I wouldn’t read until years later, or a better version of the Mission Hill cartoon. I also liked Daria, so of course, neither show would last on MTV.
When I watch it I usualy mumble, “Who watches this garbage?” Then I keep watching it, and keep thinking that same thought. Lately I haven’t even been able to do that because the stuff now is unwatchable rather than watchable enough for me to watch it and comment on how bad it is.
How does TV programming work? Maybe it’s cheaper to re-run episodes of The Real World for 17 hours a day instead of music videos? Apparently it makes more money, or they wouldn’t be doing it.
I’m in the target audience, but I don’t watch MTV very often. Then again my TV viewing is sporadic at best. I prefer to turn on FUSE and listen to music videos while surfing the Net. Also FUSE’s original programming is better (\m/ Uranium \m/) and sometimes they’ll show older, more obscure videos. I’ve seen XTC’s “Dear God” on Steven’s Untitled Rock Show, and Type O Negative’s “Black No. 1” on Slave to the Metal. MTV, on the other hand, seems bound and determined to play the Killer’s “Brightside” until the tape wears out.
MTV puts on so many reality shows and stuff because that’s what sell sponsor time. Sucks yes, but that’s the way it is. But the quality has really gone down, in my opinion. Road Rules used to be so awesome, before every cast became beautiful and bitchy. The animated shows were the bomb diggity (Daria was my girl) but they’re gone now. Oh well.