I Want My MTV, Back

Amy Winehouse - New Music - More Music Videos

With all this talk of restructuring the auto industry it's got me thinking that the real industry that needs restructuring is music television, most importantly MTV. Over the last quarter they have seen a 23% drop in their core demo of 12- to 34-year-olds and conversely this is causing ad revenue to dry up. So with numbers falling what's their solution you may ask? Well according to Variety it's "16 new reality shows". Now granted some of these seem interesting (like a Matt Stone and Trey Parker produced show), and they are "going to focus less on loud and silly hooks and more on young people proving themselves" which is always a good thing. Hell, they even go so far as to say that they are trying to create shows for the "Obama generation". But "G's to Gents"? Donald Trump's "Girls of Hedsor Hall" where a dozen hard-partying young women are whisked off to an English finishing school? Sure that may be better than endless loops of Viva La Bam and Pimp My Ride, but here's an idea. How about they play actual videos.

There's less overhead as it's much cheaper to produce. It makes for more enjoyable viewing. And seeing as Music is in the title of the channel it just makes sense. They have enough archived video and new video that they could play a wide amalgamation of material. Vintage clips from the pre music television days, videos from days of MTV past, modern pop radio stuff for the casual MTV fans, indie music, and more interesting bands like Radiohead, Wilco, Springsteen, ect. Maybe do some of those MTV concerts like they used to do. And sprinkle in some musical programing such as "making of's" and documentaries.

MTV used to have a certain feel to it, a certain something that always kept you checking back to see what was the next new thing. I remember the feelings I felt the first time I saw "Smells Like Teen Spirit", or "Closer", or "Creep". I remember staying up late to watch bands perform. I remember watching for hours in hopes of catching Dr Dre. It always kept me coming back for more. But now there's hardly nothing on the channel, minus the occasional stand out performance on one of their award shows. There's an hour of videos in the morning and that's about the extent of it unless your tied up in the soap opera that is Hedi Montag's life. In fact, the best thing I've seen on MTV in the last 4 years (not including awards shows) was seeing Amy Winehouse play a late night concert from the TRL studios about a year and a half ago. So in the spirit of leaving on a good note, I'll leave you with a clip of the last good thing I saw on MTV. Enjoy, and let's hope music makes it back to Music Television.