by Mj Ferruzza

Created on: October 16, 2007

The problem with MTV stemmed from the change and polarization of today's musical tastes. The record companies (and their parent corporations) also have a hand in this mess. MTV started with music videos that reflected the style of the 80s in beat and fashion. The music video style was basically created in flash cuts of artists and images. This was perfect for the generation raised on Sesame Street which used the same technique (and probably spawned Attention Deficit Disorder in quite a few of its viewers). Then hearkening back to the age of "payola" when record companies paid off radio stations to play certain songs and artists, MTV had to deal with videos that were either too strong in content and thus had to regulate airplay. That situation infuriated some companies who had forked over $1 Million plus on a video that would find an audience on MTV. Videos became more daring. More sexy. More controversial. MTV went from cutting edge to staid in the eyes of the rebellious teens to whom the network was aiming their programming.

They introduced a game show (Remote Control) and art videos. One such video was an offbeat cartoon called Beavis & Butthead. A Mike (King of the Hill, Office Space) Judge creation, Beavis & Butthead belittled the network that was airing its 'over the top', crude and edgy episodes. Beavis and Butthead all but ended the "Hair Band" era. They were a continued target of Judge's contempt. Now had Judge done the same with Beavis & Butthead's feelings on rap maybe MTV would not have gone off in that direction. But soon came Yo! MTV Raps. A glorification of urban street rap and hip hop videos. Now MTV was forced to give large blocks of air time to this genre, thus turning off quite a few of the old guard viewers who had helped firmly plant the MTV Channel on all cable systems years before.
Reality TV arrived and MTV was there. MTV knew how popular their live action broadcasts from Spring Break had become so watching the Real World, Road Rules and Jackass take off was a no brainer. They were cheap to produce. MTV could control the content and air time. MTV was not at the mercy of some record company dictating air play of videos (which have now become more expensive to produce than ever).
The reason there is no music on MTV Music Television is because no one is going to sit around for 4-5 straight hours and watch the same videos over and over again.
So if you have a fond memories of music videos on TV, remember you probably used to have cassette tapes, a large bulky Walkman, maybe some Pat Benatar leggings or concert ticket stubs from White Snake, too. Just repeat to yourself.."That era is now over!"

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