I Don't Want My MTV

When I was growing up as a teen in the 1990s, MTV was THE channel to watch. It was the first place I went whenever I turned on the TV. If you wanted to hear one of the hit songs of the day, you'd either listen to the radio or turn on MTV, waiting until those first magical chords or beats came through the speakers. Remember, kids, this was before internet downloading. Kids my age actually had to WAIT to hear a song, or buy it in stores. That anticipation made the songs even more special.

There were so many iconic videos - "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana, "No Rain" by Blind Melon, "Tonight Tonight" by Smashing Pumpkins, "California Love" by Tupac and Dr. Dre. Back in the 90s, songs were connected with the images you saw in their videos. No one my age can hear "Smells Like Teen Spirit" without thinking of Kurt Cobain, hair all in his face, standing in a crowded gym mumbling the song lyrics. Also, we had cool shows like "Daria" and "Beavis and Butthead" to watch. These shows were creative, unlike dreck like "Next" and "The Hills."

Fast forward a decade (or more), and now MTV is all about teen reality TV. Videos aren't quite as special as they once were, and they rarely get played! Even countdown show TRL cuts down on the length of each video, showing only a portion. MTV today basically, for lack of a better word, sucks.

The Onion A.V. Club agrees with me. They published two articles this week talking about the sorry state of MTV today. They're both very interesting and give people in my generation a reason to feel old and bitter.

The first is "Why taking the music out of MTV still hurts," written by Steven Hyden. Steven's theory is that, by taking music off the airwaves, MTV had devalued popular music. Most artists, except the most pandering of hip-hoppers and emo rockers, no longer have an outlet for getting their faces and songs known. Young people aren't getting introduced to the number of artists that my generation did. There's no longer that one special place on the TV "dial" to go when you want to hear the latest hit, so people seek those hits out in other places. Places like iTunes and other, less legal, downloading sites.

The second article is "13 Signs That MTV Hates You" by Amelie Gillette and Kyle Ryan. This is more of a list than an article, and it's about the programming that MTV does show. The two writers explain why things like censorship, Super Sweet Sixteen: The Movie and Real World/Road Rules Challenge insult your intelligence and kill your brains cells. It's more of a funny article than the first, and I happen to agree with pretty much everything listed.

I spend more time watching VH1 than MTV these days. VH1 isn't much better in the quality of the programming, but at least some of their shows are entertaining. I'm too old for MTV, and I have better things to do than watch "Next" or "The Real World." If I want to hear music, I shut the TV off and go listen in my room. If MTV wants me to watch their channel, they'd put music, even good music, back on the agenda.