Friday, December 19, 2008
I Want My MTV, Back
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.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I love the idea of a channel dedicated to music. Someone should try it.
As a performer, Amy is so stunningly natural and talented that you wonder what planet she's from. I hope she stays on this one long enough to give us some more of that gift.
I would like to see her 20 year professional bio on that visionary music video portal.
By the way, Brad, I was surprised to see you behind her on stage. I like the hat. When did you get that big sunburst number?
I think MTV is largely responsible for the "shift" or "decline" in the music industry. It's quite pathetic the level of intelligence and occupation they pander to. Who's the blame, the watcher or the creator? In marketing, there's a principle that says companies and brands should grow with their market or customers. I would MTV dropped the ball on that one. For the 20 - 30 somethings out there now who were introduced to the first music videos and then Real World, there's not much on MTV now for them. And for some reason, there's a large viewership within that age bracket, so the loyalty is there, it's just MTV's capitalization is lame is the most extreme definition of the word. This isn't to say I don't think reality TV hasn't completely changed our lives in a pop culture sense, cause I think it has, I just don't think MTV is using their brand power to do the best things they can for society in terms of music intelligence.
It's gone from being thought provoking television to just being blah. They quit taking risks and instead tried to be palatable to everybody. Same way with the music industry. When Universal and Time Warner bought everyone out at the end of the 90's they quit taking chances so they started selling watered down versions of everything. Fall Out Boy is watered down emo, Nickelback is watered down rock, ect ect. And then they used payola to get the music played on the radio.
I once asked one of these 20 somethings as to why they listened to this crap (she was big into All American Rejects), and her answer was simple, "I don't have time to find good music so I just listen to what's on the radio". It's convinent, non offensive, and easily digestible. A soccer mom can listen to Panic At The Disco and think she's hearing real edgy tunes. A high schooler can listen to that fat ass jamaican guy singing "Beautiful Girls" and think that it's real R&B. And a broad working in retail can listen to the All American Rejects and think she's listening to real punk rock.
Someone in the A&R department of these record companies needs to grow some balls and take a chance. Or if nothing else push the great bands that are currently out harder.
Post a Comment