MTV

[Lord Tothe]

Someone had MTV on in the break room at work. I began to wonder - when did "Music Television" become "Moron Television"?

1. Most programs seem to have nothing to do with music. Examples: "Jackass" and "Cribs."
2. When they do play music, it tends to celebrate misogyny and negative racial stereotypes.
3. The commercials seek to appeal to the lowest common denominator in culture by appealing to greed and lust more than any other television network I've seen.

So I ask: Are MTV and other cable/satellite television stations of that ilk a worthless burden on the airwaves and a waste of resources, or to they serve a useful purpose such as allowing a cathartic release for some or occupying delinquents who would otherwise be creating a drain on society? Or am I just a cynical bore who has no connection to the vibrant youth culture of today?

[West Failure]

I think MTV have committed the ultimate capitalist sin of failing to protect the brand. They even seem to have tried to distance themselves from the idea that they are a music channel and allowed themselves to be perceived as a reality tv channel. Reality tv will pass as a fad, music won't.

[Nadkor]

Welcome to the realisation everyone else reached about 10 years ago.

[Yootopia]

Someone had MTV on in the break room at work. I began to wonder - when did "Music Television" become "Moron Television"?

A long, long time ago. If you want music, there are MTV music channels of various persuasions.

[Farnhamia]

Someone had MTV on in the break room at work. I began to wonder - when did "Music Television" become "Moron Television"?

1. Most programs seem to have nothing to do with music. Examples: "Jackass" and "Cribs."
2. When they do play music, it tends to celebrate misogyny and negative racial stereotypes.
3. The commercials seek to appeal to the lowest common denominator in culture by appealing to greed and lust more than any other television network I've seen.

So I ask: Are MTV and other cable/satellite television stations of that ilk a worthless burden on the airwaves and a waste of resources, or to they serve a useful purpose such as allowing a cathartic release for some or occupying delinquents who would otherwise be creating a drain on society? Or am I just a cynical bore who has no connection to the vibrant youth culture of today?

No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people. That said, MTV seems to have made a conscious decision in recent years to shift its programming away from music and music videos to "reality" shows. This is where the money is, in their estimation. People seem to want to watch that sort of fare, so they decided to provide it. The same sort of thing is happening over at the Weather Channel, with the debut of their "movie of the week that has some kind of reference to the weather in it." They showed "A Perfect Storm" this past week. I wouldn't be surprised to see "Lawrence of Arabia" show up because there's dialogue in it about how hot the desert is.

[Charlotte Ryberg]

In my opinion MTV must have been at its best in the eighties, the period in which commercial satellite was becoming a reality. These days, there are many of music channels, all competing for the share of the audience.

[JuNii]

Someone had MTV on in the break room at work. I began to wonder - when did "Music Television" become "Moron Television"?

1. Most programs seem to have nothing to do with music. Examples: "Jackass" and "Cribs."
2. When they do play music, it tends to celebrate misogyny and negative racial stereotypes.
3. The commercials seek to appeal to the lowest common denominator in culture by appealing to greed and lust more than any other television network I've seen.

So I ask: Are MTV and other cable/satellite television stations of that ilk a worthless burden on the airwaves and a waste of resources, or to they serve a useful purpose such as allowing a cathartic release for some or occupying delinquents who would otherwise be creating a drain on society? Or am I just a cynical bore who has no connection to the vibrant youth culture of today?

wow... where were you in the 90's.

the fall of MTV began when whey stopped showing Music Videos and started showing crap like "Road Trip", "Real World" and that drama crap. it got soo bad that they had to create another channel to show music Videos. and that new channel followed in it's predecessor's footsteps.

now MTV is just a mockery of it's former glory.

[Brogavia]

That's why I watch MTV2. They still have videos, and they have bevis and butthead reruns.

[EvilDarkMagicians]

I watch MTV Hits.

MTV is kinda...blah.

[JarVik]

Welcome to the realisation everyone else reached about 10 years ago.

Yup, and sadly The learning channel has decided to follow it. Even the discovery channel has few shows for the mouth-breathers. Like plumbers who hunt for ghosts in there spare time like some fucked up crossover between ghostbusters and supermario brothers.

[Charlotte Ryberg]

Welcome to the realisation everyone else reached about 10 years ago.

Yup, and sadly The learning channel has decided to follow it. Even the discovery channel has few shows for the mouth-breathers. Like plumbers who hunt for ghosts in there spare time like some fucked up crossover between ghostbusters and supermario brothers.

I forgot what the name of the programme was but I am sure it was not, well, appealing to me. I preferred the old 80s Krypton Factor and nature programmes, though.

[Farnhamia]

Welcome to the realisation everyone else reached about 10 years ago.

Yup, and sadly The learning channel has decided to follow it. Even the discovery channel has few shows for the mouth-breathers. Like plumbers who hunt for ghosts in there spare time like some fucked up crossover between ghostbusters and supermario brothers.

As long as Discovery Channel keeps showing Mythbusters it won't be a total loss. I do wish they'd bring back Junkyard Wars, though. I liked that show.

[Tech-gnosis]

Yup, and sadly The learning channel has decided to follow it. Even the discovery channel has few shows for the mouth-breathers. Like plumbers who hunt for ghosts in there spare time like some fucked up crossover between ghostbusters and supermario brothers.

Network decay is pretty common. Often the original targeted niche is not profitable enough.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NetworkDecay

[Ryadn]

I like "True Life". There are a few stupid episodes, but mostly they explore really interesting topics.

That's pretty much all I watch on MTV anymore. My first year of college I loved MTV2, because it played actual music videos, and had "Control Freak" where you could vote for one of the three videos they'd show next, but they scrapped most of that in order to fill it with old MTV show reruns. I think there's a new MTV channel that plays music videos, but at this point I just don't really care.

[The symbolic tribe]

when did "Music Television" become "Moron Television"?

When it became censored.

http://www.psyradio.fm/

[JarVik]

Welcome to the realisation everyone else reached about 10 years ago.

Yup, and sadly The learning channel has decided to follow it. Even the discovery channel has few shows for the mouth-breathers. Like plumbers who hunt for ghosts in there spare time like some fucked up crossover between ghostbusters and supermario brothers.

As long as Discovery Channel keeps showing Mythbusters it won't be a total loss. I do wish they'd bring back Junkyard Wars, though. I liked that show.

I'd almost forgotton about junkyard wars, that was a fun and interesting show too. Not as good as mythbusters certainly but still neat.

[Eradium]

Wait? They do... Music... television. This will never catch on; I'm back off to the wireless to listen to some informed debate. Kids today, aeh?

[Lord Tothe]

Heh - looks like I was pointing out the obvious. I was a deprived child growing up - I had no cable, and usually only PBS and 2 of the big 3 were available over the rabbit ear antenna. I wasted my youth on books and Legos instead of becoming culturally aware during the 90's.

[Blouman Empire]

I don't know how different MTV in Australia is different to the MTV which is shown in the States, but yes I also notice this large amount of reality shows over music, though it does occasionally have a few hours of music.

Our pay-TV has 6 music channels (though one is dedicated to country so we won't count that), and plenty of music to watch on the other channels except one Channel V which seems to also show quite a lot of reality shows over music.

[Buffett and Colbert]

MTV is a waste of air time.

[Blouman Empire]

MTV is a waste of air time.

Don't watch it then.

[Chrobalta]

Television has gone down hill in my opinion...

[Mad hatters in jeans]

Television has gone down hill in my opinion...

which hill?

[Tunizcha]

It was better when they, I dunno, played music.

[Buffett and Colbert]

MTV is a waste of air time.

Don't watch it then.

I'd rather more interesting things replace it.