Does anyone look to MTV any more as having anything to say about the subject of cool? Do musicians, record companies, entertainment industry people, the media or people in general look to MTV now the way they did back in the day?
I hope not.
Did it ever?
MTV stopped mattering around 1985, I think. Isn’t that when they started getting away from having videos and having talk shows?
(I believe the channel jumped the shark LONG before The Real World)
MTV jumped as soon as Martha Quinn left.
You can’t even compare MTV now to MTV back in the day, because they aren’t even the same channel anymore.
You can’t compare MTV then-to-now, like Nutty Bunny said. I’m pretty sure I know about when the shift happened, and it happened in stages. There was the original flavor of MTV, and then it changed when Michael Jackson got huge. It changed again in the mid 90’s (grunge–>boy bands–>heavily commercialized hip hop) and then, shifted again more recently to where it shouldn’t even be called “Music Television” anymore. It should be “Music and Entertainment”.
Of course it did. And, I would imagine, still does to its traget audience. The awards shows are still important enough to draw both street cred cult-figure presenters and generally popular entertainers. Isn’t Sarah Silverman hosting the movie awards this year? As far as setting trends…maybe not so much.
And yeah, while MTV may have “jumped the shark” (and I swear to God, that term has so outstayed its welcome) before Real World, there’s no denying how influential and important that program was.
I think it tanked with the popularity of reality shows, like The Real World and Road Rules. I think rock videos should be available like tap water, not just for a few hours between 3 and 5 am.
The Real World was one of the big, influential shows of our generation. You can argue that it started the reality TV trend we see everywhere today.
For that reason alone, I’m not so sure I’d say that MTV jumped before The Real World.
Remeber Remote Control.
If you want music videos (MTV does still do them in the morning), check out VH1 Classic.
in defense of Remote Control, at least that was a gameshow ABOUT music videos. What did Singled Out have to do with music?
Nothing. But it had Jenny McCarthy and Carmen Electra.
It’s always been teenybopper TV. If that’s what cool is, I’m not interested. It’s always been about music that appeals to the widest possible audience, which means it tends to get it right only by accident. I remember seeing MTV in late-'82, and as far as I was (and am) concerned it was born on the far side of the shark.
OK, I did like Beavis and Butt-Head.
MTV was definitely relevent late '80s to mid '90s. I’d have to say it peaked around the first year grunge came around, because then it catered to huge diverse audience, Yo MTV Raps, Headbangers Ball, 120 Minutes were all popular, as well as their best lineup of shows - Liquid TV, Beavis and Butt Head, The State, Real World, I think that period was their best mix of music and entertainment.