# When and why did you stop watching music videos? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 22, 2007, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-you-stop-watching-music-videos/420145 "2007-09-22T23:28:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2007, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-you-stop-watching-music-videos/420145/41 "2007-09-24T22:22:27Z")
College killed the video star for me. At around that time (1988-1989) I had heard that MTV had shifted its focus away from showing all videos 24/7/365 and I never went back. Nowadays with other things going on in my daily life I just don’t have the time to sit around and watch music videos all day. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2007, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-you-stop-watching-music-videos/420145/42 "2007-09-25T05:02:30Z")
I regularly stopped watching music videos after I got out of college in 1999. Partly it was because I didn’t have cable, but it was also what became of videos. Virtually all videos became if pop, pedestrian dance moves; if rock, grainy live videos; and if hip-hop, endless shots of models and fancy houses. The conceptual video became nearly extinct on mainstream video channels. That’s a shame because a really good conceptual video (usually these days found on YouTube) can greatly help the imagery of a song. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2007, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-you-stop-watching-music-videos/420145/43 "2007-09-25T13:11:45Z")
I haven’t really watched music videos since I went to college (1986), with exceptions allowed for being in a hotel room where that and TVE-internacional are the only channels where I can tell what is it people are talking about. I may have the music channel on but it’s sort of music radio with extra lights, I rarely look at it. OK, I usually watch Shakira and Juanes videos at least once, but don’t tell anybody, ok? Unless you count youtube, that is. Where I’m more likely to watch “ni hao (story of a goldfarmer)” than something theoretically serious. If I do watch a music video there, it’s probably more as a humor thing than anything else (Twisted Sister doing Christmas carols, anybody?) ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-you-stop-watching-music-videos/420145/44 "2007-09-26T03:31:54Z")
I watched MTV **a lot** all thru its golden age (i.e. the 80s). I quit sometime in the early 90s. Not so much because they started showing other programs. In fact I actually really liked the first season of The Real World and all their animated shows. I stopped watching because popular music became, um, un-listenable crap (all rap and Britney Spears clones). Every fall when the VMAs are on I’m amazed how I used to look forward to it. Now, don’t know a single artist on it. In fact, I know the very last thing I ever taped off MTV, the Daria series finale circa 2002… ---
**Author:** ![Tool\_of\_the\_Conspiracy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@Tool\_of\_the\_Conspiracy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tool_of_the_Conspiracy)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-you-stop-watching-music-videos/420145/45 "2007-09-26T05:57:53Z")
I used to switch to MTV whenever a commercial would come on whatever channel I was “really” watching, then switch back when the video ended. I just watched an hour of a music-video show that didn’t suck! (Thank you, Tivo.) It’s called The Tube, and here’s what they played in that hour: The Cars David Bowie Morrisey Smash Mouth Gnarls Barkley Earth Wind and Fire (they can’t all be gems) Keane Amos Lee Dashboard Confessional Weezer Falco Gary Numan Guns and Roses Sick Puppies _Fourteen_ songs in an hour! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-you-stop-watching-music-videos/420145.md?page=2)