defend the indefensable:MTV

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Does anyone with an IQ above 45 enjoy watching mtv? i tune in fairly often and am usually sickened by the crap that they call music. it is corporate propaganda, not artistic expression that controls mtv today. Can anyone help me out here? have i missed something on the channel that is decent?

― emilymv, Thursday, 10 July 2003 14:47 (twenty-two years ago)

fight the power, em

― jess (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 10 July 2003 14:50 (twenty-two years ago)

so is the "artistic expression" from the loverboy era, the wrexx'n'effexx era, the stone temple pilots era, or the hype williams era?

― jess (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 10 July 2003 14:51 (twenty-two years ago)

the only redeeming point for MTV UK currently is the forthcoming 'Mash' show which promises some nice bootleg-esque fun akin to the 'Megamix' series of a few years ago. the rest of it can eat a big bag of balls.

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 10 July 2003 14:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I so wish I had MTV - I'm sure I'd get bored of it after a while but I like videos and never usually see any, and its other shows sound enjoyably trashy, and correct me if I'm wrong but all the boring rock has now moved onto VH1 yes so the music on MTV is all GREAT!

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 10 July 2003 14:53 (twenty-two years ago)

i binged on m2 over the last two weeks and i have now seen enough vidoes to get me thru the next six months without seeing any

― jess (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 10 July 2003 14:56 (twenty-two years ago)

was this meant for the "Use other jokes, please" thread?

― Sam J. (samjeff), Thursday, 10 July 2003 14:57 (twenty-two years ago)

MTV only plays about 10 music videos a day tho

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 10 July 2003 14:59 (twenty-two years ago)

They still play music videos?

Nickalicious' testimonial in the "defense" of MTV - at least it's not George W. Bush.

(Lyricist's Lounge used to be really cool though.)

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 10 July 2003 15:02 (twenty-two years ago)

MTV in the UK is ALL 'Punk'd', 'The Osbournes', 'Jackass' and many many bad reality shows these days, Tico. If you are going to go for a pop tv channel, I would recommend The Box.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 10 July 2003 15:07 (twenty-two years ago)

MTV 2 Friday night at 12, Subterranean is decent.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Thursday, 10 July 2003 15:09 (twenty-two years ago)

nickalicious has a point.......but the problem with mtv is actually similar to the problem with G. W. B, both are hungrily sucking the nipples of corporate america and helping to homogenize the world.....

― emilymv, Thursday, 10 July 2003 15:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I think everyone should try to watch Direct Effect at least once a week.

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Thursday, 10 July 2003 15:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Tico would love The Box - every third video is 'Ignition (Remix)'! and they're playing Nio who is totally the British Timberlake and his song has a wicked hook and amusing female cod-patois interlude - forgot the song's name but SEARCH!

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 10 July 2003 15:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Has anyone seen Fuse?

― Emilymv, Thursday, 10 July 2003 15:26 (twenty-two years ago)

"Making the Band 2" is great! Puffy's arrogance! Babs battling Mina! Ness battling some mixtape guy! The pissed-off Mysterious rampage! Puffy getting Dylan out of doing time! The white guy crying! I don't have cable anymore, so I haven't seen much of the new season, which totally sucks. I need it!

Em, this thread is called "Defend the Indefensable", not "Lamely Bash the Obvious".

― Tom Breihan (Tom Breihan), Thursday, 10 July 2003 15:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Tom, new season is quite a fight fest. And P. Diddy is a major asshole.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Thursday, 10 July 2003 15:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Who's fighting? Is it good?

― Tom Breihan (Tom Breihan), Thursday, 10 July 2003 15:34 (twenty-two years ago)

get digital tico. there are not one but two free video channels with it. i keep switching from one to the other at breakfast. but its non-stop videos and not many ads.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 10 July 2003 15:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, Making the Band 2 rules. Last year before going out on New Years Eve, me, Sarah, and my sister watched the entire first season which they were running as a marathon. It was insane. P. Diddy is a cruel bastard. He made them WALK somewhere! In New York City! Holy shit! (nevermind that the entire time we were in NYC we walked everywhere and I almost died).

― NA. (Nick A.), Thursday, 10 July 2003 15:38 (twenty-two years ago)

and get cheesecake. They are all fighting, but last night Ness and Fred had it a good one. Ness grabbed Fred by the throat. I see this band all getting murdered at some point.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Thursday, 10 July 2003 15:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Cool, then P. Diddy can release "I'll Be Missing You '03"

― NA. (Nick A.), Thursday, 10 July 2003 15:52 (twenty-two years ago)

It's all about VH1 Classic for me these days.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 10 July 2003 15:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Maybe this is all just Diddy's master plan to revive his career, by setting up an idealistic group of youngsters to tragically die by all killing each other, giving him ample fuel for a new spate of eulogizing songs that sample shitty classic rock songs. And the world weeps.

Alex - that's because you're old.

― NA. (Nick A.), Thursday, 10 July 2003 15:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Yep, VH1 classic is great.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Thursday, 10 July 2003 15:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Godley and Creme "Cry" last night.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Thursday, 10 July 2003 15:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Alex - that's because you're old.

Hoo boy, couldn't see that one comin'!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 10 July 2003 15:59 (twenty-two years ago)

The MTV Jams channel is better than VH-1 Classic. They play "Supersonic" by JJ Fad ALL THE TIME! And Nice n Smooth videos! And "Afro Puffs"!

The "Making the Band 2" marathon is like the most fun I've had watching TV all year, except for maybe the NBA finals and the "Buffy" episode where Xander loses and eye.

― Tom Breihan (Tom Breihan), Thursday, 10 July 2003 16:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Speaking of old, here's when I stopped watching MTV:
Say you have a chance to ask a presidential candidate one question on behalf of the American youth... You could ask about his priorities regarding education, the economy, drugs, violence .. Or you could ask him to describe his underwear. That's when I knew I was too old for MTV.

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 10 July 2003 16:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I think the girl asked that as sort of a premptive strike, since it was inevitable Bill would ask the ladies this very question at some point in the evening.

― Nicole (Nicole), Thursday, 10 July 2003 16:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I never said he wasn't an oversexed candidate!

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 10 July 2003 16:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Hey, he did not have sex with that woman Ms. Lewinski

― Chris V. (Chris V), Thursday, 10 July 2003 16:21 (twenty-two years ago)

fuse is not very good, sadly. they tend to overdose on second-tier rock bands like mest these days.

― maura (maura), Thursday, 10 July 2003 16:25 (twenty-two years ago)

vh1 classic turned out to be a major disappointment after the way some quarters repped it

fuse is fucking atrocious, although i love the metal show

and i think its hilarious that they play a show called "authentic hip-hop" comprised of the stuff they play on their "non-authentic hip-hop" shows

― jess (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 10 July 2003 16:27 (twenty-two years ago)

vh1 classic is totally hit or miss, but i did see a fall video the other night.

― maura (maura), Thursday, 10 July 2003 16:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I'll totally defend MTV. It's where I first heard the Cure and Sonic Youth among many many others. They still seem to be having a really good time. The bumpers/visual elements/promos are pretty right on, very exactly of the moment. I'm too old for it now and that's the point.

― teeny (teeny), Thursday, 10 July 2003 16:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I'll lukewarmly defend 120 Minutes (not too sure yet on its successor Subterranean) for the reasons Teeny did. At least once in a while they show a video for a song I probably wouldn't have heard otherwise, given the dire state of U.S. radio. And I like the concept of Subterranean.co.uk, a once-a-month sampling of UK chart-toppers.

― j.lu (j.lu), Thursday, 10 July 2003 16:44 (twenty-two years ago)

over the years, mtv has had some great tv shows, such as

downtown
austin stories
osbournes
beavis & butthead
liquid television
daria

― ron (ron), Thursday, 10 July 2003 16:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Don't forget the Real World!

― teeny (teeny), Thursday, 10 July 2003 16:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I still watch The Real World/Road Rules.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 10 July 2003 16:51 (twenty-two years ago)

dan "sader-masoch" perry

― jess (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 10 July 2003 16:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Fuse isn't bad. They play metal and weird genre blocks that you can't see on the other networks. They also play a lot of bad alt rock that you can see on the other networks.

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Thursday, 10 July 2003 16:56 (twenty-two years ago)

The Box is way better than MTV. Today I saw the video from Britain's Avril/Xtina hybrid!

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 10 July 2003 17:01 (twenty-two years ago)

MTV2's new version of the Headbanger's Ball is pretty good about half the time. They seem to only have about two dozen videos, which is kind of annoying - but that's just like what MTV was doing in 1981. They need to hire a host, though; the meathead from Hatebreed acts like he's on some cable access channel, and not in a good/funny way.

MTV is my default TV channel. When there's nothing else I specifically want to watch, I put MTV on and play Gameboy.

― Phil Freeman (Phil Freeman), Thursday, 10 July 2003 17:59 (twenty-two years ago)

i watch MTV all the blimming time. i love CRIBS and used to like TRL but they don't show that anymore on UKMTV. MTV Base is often good, but i don't like that Trevor guy.

The Nio track mentioned upthread - "Do you think you're special".

― lid, Thursday, 10 July 2003 20:58 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah nio's cool. having todd edwards remix yr 2nd single isnt too shabby either

― Chip Morningstar (bob), Thursday, 10 July 2003 21:50 (twenty-two years ago)

"amusing female cod-patois"

is it.

― Chip Morningstar (bob), Thursday, 10 July 2003 21:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I wub MTV (even though I seem to spend more time watching MTV:Hits, which is mad cool for getting your instapop fix). It has Becoming! and Wannabes! which almost seem to suggest they're democratising pop by giving people the chance to 'be' their idol but are in fact further lessening the pop fan's potential power by suggesting they should aim no higher than to remake themselves as a cookie-cutter copy of any given ersatz celebrity. And are therefore utter subversive genius.

(although the endless Jackass-and-its-ripoffs on MTV2 can eat my fuc. I want more Gonzo repeats!)

I think Abs ex-of-5ive should be the British Justin Timberlake. His new video is foxy.

― cis (cis), Thursday, 10 July 2003 22:05 (twenty-two years ago)

jess: vh1 classix takes heavy exposure for true appreciation. absorb enough hits and soon the misses will reveal their wonder also. the truth lies in the light. the truth lies in the light.

― James Blount (James Blount), Thursday, 10 July 2003 22:17 (twenty-two years ago)

plus: girl meets boy marathons

― James Blount (James Blount), Thursday, 10 July 2003 22:17 (twenty-two years ago)

oh, re: dti:mtv - the one time it really did shake up the music industry it did so for the better without a doubt (durannies over styx). also it was on board for hip-hop way before 95% of commercial radio so yay to that also.

― James Blount (James Blount), Thursday, 10 July 2003 22:21 (twenty-two years ago)

i have digital. i like to click through all the music channels (mtv, mtv hits, mtv base, mtv dance, q, smash hits, the box, kerrang, vh1) in search of good videos. i feel blessed. vh1 classic is the one i watch least, but i don't have a particular favourite.

i enjoy the videos on mtv, but all the programmes like jackass, the osbournes etc don't really do it for me. except cribs, which i find strangely soothing to watch.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Thursday, 10 July 2003 22:22 (twenty-two years ago)

plus: nearly every great rock act to break thru you wouldn't immediately have guessed woulda broke thru did it on the back of an mtv hit leading into a radio hit instead of vicey versey.

― James Blount (James Blount), Thursday, 10 July 2003 22:23 (twenty-two years ago)

the new season of making the band is genius, I almost just watch it to see what will trigger Diddy's next psychotic episode.

fuse is shit, yeah, but I can't stop watching IMX/Uranium. mostly for the annoying metal chick, at that. agh. but there are occasional gems, such as when Mike Skinner was on back in the spring.

― Adrian (Adrian Langston), Thursday, 10 July 2003 22:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Becoming!, yeah, i watched all of those. I felt bad for the girl who became kelly osbourne, cos they gave her a rilly bad haircut that didnt even looked like kelly's. but at least the actual kelly showed up for the video shoot, which was super nice of her.

there is already a new guy specifically made to be the british j.timberlake. i can't remember his name, but he looks exactly like JT and even does the falsetto.

― lid, Thursday, 10 July 2003 23:19 (twenty-two years ago)

i do get some enjoyment out of real world and road rules, but i would feel funny using them to defend mtv

― ron (ron), Friday, 11 July 2003 01:40 (twenty-two years ago)

i can't beleive that people who love music enjoy shows like Making the Band.......the whole premise of the show is repugnant, very American Idol.....am I missing the sarcasm in your posts?

― Emilymv (Emilymv), Friday, 11 July 2003 13:52 (twenty-two years ago)

No Emilymv, it's cos you don't love music, you love bands.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Friday, 11 July 2003 13:54 (twenty-two years ago)

People who don't enjoy being in car accidents love to look at them.

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 11 July 2003 13:55 (twenty-two years ago)

After watching the new episodes of Making the Band 2 I realized Puffy is a total rockist, except about rap. But rapist sounds sick and wrong, so perhaps the correct term should be hiphopist.

― Nicole (Nicole), Friday, 11 July 2003 14:28 (twenty-two years ago)

RapPist. The extra "P" is crucial. &ly;/RKelly>

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 11 July 2003 16:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Tom Green's new show is very good, though he needs to make it a bit more bizarre (like the old one).

― Applepie Baseball, Friday, 11 July 2003 19:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I decided I prefer BET to MTV after i realized 106th and park plays full videos always instead of just the sometime-snippets on TRL.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Saturday, 12 July 2003 01:47 (twenty-two years ago)

i love making the band 2. i like watching puffy talk to the kids and i like to watch them work in the studio and i like to watch them fight. the new tom green show is not good but i watch it still. realworld paris sucks and road rules sucks except that donnel abe fight. this is my opinion.

― chaki (chaki), Saturday, 12 July 2003 02:00 (twenty-two years ago)

the rapists for 200 Alex!

― James Blount (James Blount), Saturday, 12 July 2003 04:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Mtv in the UK...Dirty Sanchez!!! (spelling?)

Can't believe nobody has mentioned this yet, I can't watch jackass anymore. Whenever some dude on jackass falls off his skateboard I feel myself wanting him to fall off a 20 foot wall onto some drawing pins naked with his balls tied his nipples or something.

I loves the Welsh

― TomB (TomB), Saturday, 12 July 2003 16:44 (twenty-two years ago)

I really like their motion graphics. I haven't paid much attention to anything but the segues, intros, and station identification shorts for a few years..

― Bobby D Gray (bedhead), Saturday, 12 July 2003 17:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah BET has a broader (in terms of numbers, not styles) selection of videos than MTV. Because they reserve more time for showing them?

I actually find M2's lack of a coherent schedule to be annoying, although I know this is the foundation of MTV's programming philosophy. There are certain things I like on it but I don't know when they come on.

I get free cable and was at first excited to get the music channels b/c I remembered them being fairly exciting when I was young. No such luck. M2 had a lot of promise; when do we get M3?

― amateurist (amateurist), Sunday, 13 July 2003 01:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I love when BET plays all the raunchy, B-grade videos late at night. Laughed my ass off at 'White Girls'.

― oops (Oops), Sunday, 13 July 2003 02:41 (twenty-two years ago)

I am even more in love with VH-1 Classic than I was before after this past Saturday because they showed the videos for Depeche Mode's "Get The Balance Right" and Siouxsie and the Banshees' "The Passenger".

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 14 July 2003 11:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Seeing "White Wedding" at Vik's place yesterday on VH1 Classic was some kinda crazy joy.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 14 July 2003 14:29 (twenty-two years ago)

i was in my friends house a while ago at about six in the morning and there was fuck all on tv so we decided to leave it on mtv
however,it was some meeting jack-ass-osbourne bollocks so we checked to see when there would be some music on
turned out it was 18 hours till there was a show playing music videos on

― robin (robin), Monday, 14 July 2003 14:51 (twenty-two years ago)

good lord people - stop whining cuz mtv 'doesn't play videos' anymore; it's like whining cuz usa doesn't show friday night boxing anymore. 20 years ago: 1 viacom enterprise devoted almost entirely to music videos. 15 years ago: 2. today: 7. 7! - and that's not including mtv or vh1 (cuz they 'don't play videos'). wanna watch a video - turn the channel.

― James Blount (James Blount), Monday, 14 July 2003 16:32 (twenty-two years ago)

good lord people - stop whining cuz mtv 'doesn't play videos' anymore

I think that recent ad I caught for M2 -- tagline "Stop complaining where the videos are" or something like that -- was pretty sad, actually.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 14 July 2003 16:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm glad mtv virtually never plays videos anymore - it means I don't accidentally turn it there and watch some fucking twentysomethings on a bus or ashanti showing off her purses. it's a 'youth channel' not a music channel - they've been very upfront about this and pretty much announced this would be happening twelve years ago around their tenth anniversary - and it's definitely paid off: the lowest rated hour of road rules is gonna trump the highest rated hour of videos every time - and generate alot more ad revenue since these viewers can actually be counted on to not flip away and back every three minutes. if old tnn viewers can figure out to watch cmt or vh1 country now then old mtv viewers (and I do mean old since mtv has been in this "new" programming model for nearly half its existence now, and was only 'pure' videos for maaaybe a third of its existence)(haha - I can remember ozzy of all people whining circa remote control that mtv didn't play videos anymore!) can figure out to turn it to mtv2 or mtv jams or mtv hits or vh1 hits or or or or.

― James Blount (James Blount), Monday, 14 July 2003 16:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I mean I miss 'old' mtv too and I really really miss old mtv2, but I miss old tbs and old game show network and old usa and puh-lenty of others. the changes to mtv haven't annoyed me nearly as much as the changes to amc or tvland.

― James Blount (James Blount), Monday, 14 July 2003 16:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Don't get me started on AMC...

― Lars (Nicole), Monday, 14 July 2003 16:53 (twenty-two years ago)

man, that channel is ruined now

― James Blount (James Blount), Monday, 14 July 2003 16:59 (twenty-two years ago)

It was ruined YEARS AGO.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 14 July 2003 17:03 (twenty-two years ago)

My impression is that AMC's legs were cut off once certain key movie libraries were purchased by the Turner juggernaut.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 14 July 2003 17:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Let's put it this way: I really miss being able to wake up Saturday morning and turning on the TV and seeing dismal B&W movies. I miss Late Late Late shows. I miss Joe Bob Briggs and Nightflight and *Up All Night.* I miss That Girl re-runs. I miss Bozo the Clown and atrociously dubbed Japanese TV series. And yeah, I miss videos. (Though VH1 Classic and M2 do help). Television just isn't bad enough. There are probably very intelligent economic reasons why cable doesn't seem to have the time or room to rehash the grotty dreck of movie and television history's back catalog but to my mind that back catalog is THE reason to have a five-hundred channel cableworld. (I also miss public television stations that would play Brakhage shorts and the era of Bravo when they aired Pasolini, but...you know, those are different rants.)

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 14 July 2003 17:19 (twenty-two years ago)

huge huge huge ditto to daddino

― James Blount (James Blount), Monday, 14 July 2003 17:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I do find it very very disheartening that there's less weirdness, quirkiness, and uniqueness in a 500 channel universe than there was in a 50 channel universe.

― James Blount (James Blount), Monday, 14 July 2003 17:28 (twenty-two years ago)

It is odd, isn't it? But I guess that's just symptomatic of our Disney Store society.

― Lars (Nicole), Monday, 14 July 2003 17:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Dammit, now I can't get that fucking Springsteen song out of my head. I HATE YOU ALL.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 14 July 2003 17:38 (twenty-two years ago)

A little Bruce will do you good.

― Lars (Nicole), Monday, 14 July 2003 17:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Put a pinch of Bruce between your cheek and gums.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 14 July 2003 17:45 (twenty-two years ago)

You people are both sick fucks.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 14 July 2003 17:50 (twenty-two years ago)

six years pass...

Downtown is really, really good

― ilxor lookin' boy (acoleuthic), Wednesday, 17 March 2010 17:58 (fifteen years ago)

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