Whatever happened to music video?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Remember when you could channel surf, and eventually come across MTV when they actually played music videos? Wasn’t that great? Why don’t they do that anymore? I was surfing the other day, and came across a near-week old rerun of some stupid super bowl extravaganza, in prime time, that was maybe mildly interesting before the big game, but now was really lame.

Anymore, all I ever see on that channel is that god-awful kareoke (I can’t spell it, and that’s fine with me) show, or trl - about as entertaining as listening to my 14 yr old daughter on the phone with her friends.

I’m a Madonna fan, have I seen any of her Music releases? No, maybe snips here and there, but why not show the whole video as it was intended?

Cheap 'Stones tunes, Pat Benatar, Video killed the radio star, Devo … those were the good old days.

2

YMMV, but I don’t miss music videos at all! I was there, watching MTV when it first started (Video Killed the Radio Stars by The Buggles, IIRC), and I remember thinking, at the time, Man, this sucks! It never got any better, IMHO (discounting frequent glimpses of scantily clad women… I am always willing to look at women! :smiley: )

I’d also like to point out that the “boy bands” and acts like Brittany Spears and Christine Aguilara (sp?) are a direct result of music videos, IMHO; MTV made flash and looks more important than actual talent or singing ability.

Anyways, if the music video is dead, I’m not too upset… good riddance!

[sup]The above is only MY opinion… it is not intended to reflect the views or policies of Astroboy14, Inc., any of its subsidiaries, or Astrofiance (who LOVES music videos). nor in any way intended to impugn the taste, or lack thereof, of any reader of this post. Any resemblance to the opinions held by real people, be they living or dead, is purely coincidental. No talentless pop-stars were harmed during the production of this post.[/sup]

BTW: Astrofiance and I knew we were soul-mates when, after years of dating and giving CDs as gifts, we were able to look each other in the eye and say, “You know, I love you… but your taste in music sucks!” How liberating that moment was! I no longer have to unwrap a present on my birthday, see that it is a Korean pop-music CD (IMHO, in every way JUST as bad as it sounds like it might be!), and feign thanks… and Astrofiance no longer has to unwrap classic rock CDs and pretend to be happy about it. I once gave her a copy of a Cream CD, and informed her that the guitarist was Eric Clapton (who she likes, based solely on Tears in Heaven). She was confused, “I didn’t know Eric Clapton was in a band!” I told her that he was, like 20 years ago… and her reaction was “You still listen to music that old??? Why?”

3

Er, while not every cable system carries it (Comcast in E. PA just started a few weeks ago) there is now an MTV2, and they run pretty much all vids, all the time.

And most of them are still shite, as they have been throughout the form’s existence.

4

I know, MTV is really annoying. Music Television! All music, all day, all night! Except when we’re showing The Real World, or sports, or sock puppets. Yes, they had a half hour show that was all sock puppets. I actually enjoyed it, but kept thinking, “Why is this on MTV?”

Luckily I have a mini-dish, and can see three other video channels. VH1 still plays an occasional video. Mostly it’s “Behind the Music,” which is weirdly addictive.

I also get MTV2, which is almost all videos, and Much Music, which is the Canadian video channel. Unfortunately they split Much into two channels. “Much More Music” is the channel that shows stuff I like, but it’s not available on the dish. Much Music is now aimed at the Britney/N Sync crowd.

All video channels are best late at night, when they play a wider assortment of music. Also, MTV2 has started having a show they call “120 Minutes” on Sunday nights. This is not as good as the original 120 Minutes show, but they show classic “alternative” videos by the likes of P. J. Harvey and XTC. They also throw in a few new videos. What makes me laugh is the original was on around midnight. This version is on at 7 o’clock. That’s because those of us who watched the original are too old to stay up til midnight anymore!

5

Remember the late-night, LA show on cable in the late eighties thet would play music videos, movies, interviews for hours??

I saw ‘URGH! A Music War’, White Lines (Grandmaster Flash), hundreds others. Cool music, sometimes mainstream artists who accidently did something cool, great counter culture flicks, great show every Friday or Saturday night.

What happened to that? Is there any modern substitute, or do I have to keep re-duping my copies of Urgh! and the Social Distortion road-trip movie?

6

The only thing on MTV worth watching is Daria. I LOVE Daria.
Other than that, it’s all been downhill since Beavis and Butthead were cancelled.

7

I stopped watching it when I couldn’t find Loveline anymore. Now I stick with MTV2 and VH1’s “Behind the Music” for my television music fixes.

8

I stopped watching it when I couldn’t find Loveline anymore. Now I stick with MTV2 and VH1’s “Behind the Music” for my television music fixes.

9

I used to love “Amp”, an amateur electronic music video collection. They were like the first people to show “Around the World” by Daft Punk.

sigh

10

I guess that answers my question. I don’t get MTV2.

And for those music-video haters - I won’t debate tastes here, but do you think the current programming on MTV is better than just running videos? I can respect your dislike of videos, but who needs that other crap?

11

Internet killed the video star
Internet killed the video star…