by Elizabeth Rosselle
What ever happened to MTV? Remember the days of music videos, "Liquid Television," "Headbanger's Ball," and who can forget Karen Duffy (better known as "Duff") - the coolest VJ ever to grace the TV screen? I used to stay up all night watching "Aeon Flux," "Beavis and Butthead," and, most of all, a lot of really great videos. And yes, there were shows in addition to the videos, but they were still very Rock and Roll. On "Beavis and Butthead," Beavis wore a Metallica t-shirt, Butthead wore an AC/DC shirt, and those kids played air guitar, like, every five minutes. Aeon Flux, on the other hand, just oozed early nineties goth-rock-chic style like no other in her skin tight patent leather body suit with her ever-so-edgy black a-line bob. And then there were all of those great videos! MTV played everything from Color Me Bad, to Siouxsie and the Banshees, to Megadeth and you could catch them all in one sitting. They even played a lot of obscure tracks, like live bootlegs from The Cure, and this was mainstream television.
When confronted with the topic of what MTV has morphed into over the years, solo artist and former member of the popular rock group, Bush, Gavin Rossdale says, “Well, I think that it’s [the music video] not shown on MTV like it used to be, but there’s something amazing, like on YouTube, there’s, like, 1.6 million people who have seen my video for ‘Love Remains the Same’ and, you know, ten million people saw the Beyonce video and I think that people just don’t need to watch MTV. You know, kids they have YouTube and Live Leak.” ER1
Okay, so I have to respect Gavin’s opinion because after all, he is Gavin Rossdale, but at the same time, it’s frustrating to me that there are established musicians out there who have grown to accept the fact that MTV has turned from music television into something else entirely over the years. I know that we have the internet, and MTV2 on some ridiculously hard-to-find channel like 9511, but why does mainstream now have to be so mainstream and, most of all, trashy? MTV was relatively mainstream and accessible back in the eighties and nineties, but it was still cool. In terms of music videos, they played a wide range of genres, and the shows were off-beat, colorful, and edgy. The network is now inundated with an absurd amount of reality shows featuring the most mundane characters on television. “The Hills,” for instance, which for some God awful reason happens to be one of the most popular shows on TV, is some of the worst television I’ve ever seen. And no, I am not one of those girls who secretly cuddles up on the couch in my pink slippers with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s and watches this trash. It’s not a guilty pleasure for me, thank you very much. Sorry LC and camp, some of you do seem like very nice girls, but I’m just not a fan.
Unfortunately, however, there aren’t many alternatives on TV these days during the majority of the watching hours and so people have become accustomed to and, in turn, have grown to love shows like “The Hills,” or “Date My Mom.” I find this very sad. The New York Times recently reported the following: “Shows such as ‘The Hills’ and ‘A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila’ have pulled the cable giant [MTV] out of a steep ratings rut.” (source: http://www.nypost.com/seven/02082008/business). Really? Ratings were down due to the lack of shows like “The Hills” and “A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila?” Why? Probably because we aren’t given very many preferable alternatives and are force fed a lot of this crap.
When asked how he feels about what MTV has become over the years, Guns n’ Rose’s guitarist, Slash, has a completely different point of view from Rossdale’s. Slash says that “it’s very frustrating! You wanna have music television what you think it’s supposed to be and it never has been! Even in the very beginning, it was like it was pretty good but it wasn’t what I expected it to be and then over the years it just turned into something else. I think they should change the name or come up with a new network!” ER2
Amen to that, Slash! While I respect both Gavin Rossdale and Slash as musicians, I definitely tend to agree more with Slash with the exception of his comment that it was only “pretty good” in the very beginning. As for Gavin’s point of view, I do agree that YouTube and Live Leak can be great resources; however, both lack the organic quality that a network like MTV had back in the day when there were live VJs presenting the videos, along with shows like “120 Minutes” where viewers were shown all sorts of new stuff in music, along with some really incredible and rare tracks. I would equate YouTube versus MTV with going to the library to pick up some poetry from your favorite writer, versus going to the Fillmore to hear Leonard Cohen speak to a live audience. Both have their place, but when going to the library and picking out exactly what you want, there are no surprises, whereas when attending a live spoken word event, it’s a treat where you don’t really know what you’re going to be exposed to, but if you’re a fan of the artist that you’re going to see, then you are likely going to enjoy it. It’s that element of surprise that makes it so much fun. And MTV was always chock full of musical surprises back in the day. Perhaps now it’s chock full of crotch shots and who’s dating who on “The Hill’s” types of surprises, but like Slash says, come up with a new name for the network. And for God’s sake, give us a new one that’s as good as the old one, if not better!
ER1: Gavin Rossdale told all of this to Elizabeth Rosselle at a Global Green event at Avalon Hollywood on February 20, 2009.
ER2: Slash told all of this to Elizabeth Rosselle at an Oscar viewing event at Mr. Chows in Beverly Hills, Ca. on February 22, 2009
