{"id":286642,"date":"2021-06-29T16:22:52","date_gmt":"2021-06-29T13:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/how-mtv-stopped-playing-music-and-lost-its-relevance\/"},"modified":"2021-06-29T16:22:52","modified_gmt":"2021-06-29T13:22:52","slug":"how-mtv-stopped-playing-music-and-lost-its-relevance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-mtv-stopped-playing-music-and-lost-its-relevance\/","title":{"rendered":"#How MTV stopped playing music \u2014 and lost its relevance"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#How MTV stopped playing music \u2014 and lost its relevance<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

As one of the five original VJs who launched MTV<\/a> into the Moonman stratosphere 40 years ago, on Aug. 1, 1981, Alan Hunter helped put the video-bingeing network on the music map.<\/p>\n

But when he trekked down to Daytona Beach, Fla., to cover \u201cthe chaos that was spring break\u201d for the first time in 1986, little did he know that it was the beginning of the end for the M \u2014 music \u2014 in MTV.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was the VJ that loved being out of the studio the most, so I was the one they sent to spring break to be a part of the thousands of screaming young guys cracking beers over my head,\u201d Hunter, 64, told The Post. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that was kind of the beginning of different kinds of shows that you would see. That was when MTV decided that they couldn\u2019t just be a video jukebox forever. MTV began to train their cameras on the lifestyle of the young folks that were watching MTV.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Nina
Nina Blackwood (clockwise from left), Mark Goodman, J.J. Jackson, Martha Quinn and Alan Hunter were the original MTV VJs.<\/figcaption>
WireImage<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thirty-five years after that coverage, there is a whole generation of young people who don\u2019t know that MTV ever played music videos. Which helps explain why young pop stars such as Billie Eilish<\/a>, Harry Styles and Megan Thee Stallion didn\u2019t even bother to show up for the Video Music Awards last year. To them \u2014 and many others in the music industry and beyond \u2014 MTV simply isn\u2019t relevant as the cultural force it used to be back when Madonna was humping around in a wedding gown to \u201cLike a Virgin\u201d at the 1984 VMAs, when Kurt Cobain was beautifully deconstructing Nirvana on \u201cMTV Unplugged\u201d in 1993, and Beyonc\u00e9<\/a> and Jay-Z went public as a couple on \u201cTotal Request Live\u201d in 2002.<\/p>\n

We just don\u2019t want our MTV anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe MTV that people remember from the 1980s was a wonderful thing,\u201d said former MTV producer Michael Alex. But, he added, nostalgia doesn\u2019t pay the bills: \u201cThere\u2019s the cultural loss versus [the fact that] MTV was an ongoing business trying to survive. The channel hung on as long as it could [to music].\u201d<\/p>\n

Many single out \u201cThe Real World\u201d \u2014 which premiered in 1992 and is largely credited (and sometimes blamed) for jump-starting the reality-television boom \u2014 for turning MTV into the \u201cTeen Mom\u201d<\/a> and \u201cRidiculousness\u201d universe that it is today. But that movement was already in motion.<\/p>\n
\"\"
Madonna performed \u201cLike a Virgin\u201d at the 1984 Video Music Awards.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI did this thing called \u2018Amuck in America,\u2019 \u201d said Hunter, who was the last of the original VJs to leave, in 1987. \u201cIt was a trip across the country for 30 days doing sort of man-on-the-street comedy, so that was kind of the first of its kind. I drove with a very beautiful model in a Ford Thunderbird and a big RV travel<\/a>ing behind us. It was total MTV \u2018Road Rules\u2019 craziness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there came longer-form specialty music programming such as \u201cHeadbangers Ball,\u201d \u201cYo! MTV Raps\u201d and the alt-rock arbiter \u201c120 Minutes.\u201d And early non-music programs, including the Cindy Crawford-hosted \u201cHouse of Style,\u201d the game<\/a> show \u201cRemote Control\u201d and the animated series<\/a> \u201cLiquid Television\u201d \u2014 which spawned \u201cBeavis and Butt-head\u201d \u2014 were outliers in an all-video-all-the-time world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey felt like they were the exception to the rule. They were these great accent points,\u201d said Alex, who, from 1989 to 2007, was a producer on everything from \u201cThe Week in Rock\u201d to \u201cHouse of Style\u201d<\/a> before heading up the MTV News<\/a> digital side. \u201cEarly on, those non-music-video shows were sort of inspired by the culture. They felt like they belonged in the space. They were completely not like anything else out there. They were exciting ideas. To be in the halls of MTV and say, \u2018Listen, I\u2019ve got some great, cool new idea that kids will love,\u2019 no one\u2019s gonna say, \u2018Well, is it about music?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

\"Michael
Michael Jackson\u2019s \u201cThriller\u201d video premiered on MTV on Dec. 2, 1983.<\/figcaption>
\u00a9MCA\/Courtesy Everett Collectio<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But when \u201cThe Real World\u201d came along, Alex admits that it wasn\u2019t exactly considered \u201ccool\u201d by him and others at MTV. \u201cI was one of those who was not particularly interested in \u2018The Real World.\u2019 That was not my bag,\u201d he said of the groundbreaking series, which was inspired by PBS\u2019s \u201cAn American Family.\u201d \u201cAnd I was not the only person who thought that. But there were plenty of other people who said, \u2018Well look, kids are intrigued by these people.\u2019 But my disliking it or not being interested in it wasn\u2019t about my thinking, \u2018This isn\u2019t music \u2014 it doesn\u2019t belong on MTV.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

And since MTV was all about change from the very beginning, there wasn\u2019t stiff resistance internally to the initial influx of non-music programming. \u201cThe philosophical struggle didn\u2019t really start to show up until the number of music-video hours were being drastically cut,\u201d said Alex of the mid-\u201990s shift. \u201cWhen the video hours started getting cut, when you couldn\u2019t just turn on your television and catch a half-hour of music videos, that was when it started.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over time, MTV became known for Pauly Shore and then \u201cJersey Shore\u201d as much as it used to be known for Michael Jackson and then Janet Jackson<\/a>. \u201cI would cover the Grammys, and I would go on the red carpet with Snooki,\u201d said former MTV News senior writer and editor Gil Kaufman. \u201cSnooki<\/a> would be interviewing Katy Perry. Those people kind of became the face of MTV in the same way that [Duran Duran\u2019s] Simon Le Bon or Boy George were the face of MTV at the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Beyonc\u00e9
Beyonc\u00e9 and Jay-Z went public as a couple on \u201cTRL\u201d in 2002.<\/figcaption>
WireImage<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although \u201cI don\u2019t think anybody was particularly excited about it,\u201d Kaufman said, \u201cwe understood that that\u2019s the direction that things were going and that those decisions were being made in suites that were several floors above us. So you couldn\u2019t turn it around, you know what I mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

The M that played the biggest factor in MTV\u2019s change in direction was money. \u201cI mean, MTV needed to make money, ultimately, and you can make more money with programming that sponsors can hang their hats on,\u201d said Hunter. \u201cAnd that was what the \u201990s were all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

While MTV began in the early days of cable TV, it wasn\u2019t the only game on the remote control by that time. \u201cThe cable world exploded in the \u201990s,\u201d said Hunter. \u201cMTV had to change because there did become a lot of competition for eyeballs. You couldn\u2019t continue to just peddle the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kanye
Kanye West and Taylor Swift had an infamous encounter at the VMAs in 2009.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And since blocks of music videos weren\u2019t designed to prevent viewers from channel-surfing, the ratings for them ultimately suffered. \u201cWhen you\u2019re playing music videos, every two and half or three minutes you\u2019re giving people an opportunity to go change the channel and see what else is on,\u201d said Alex. \u201cI\u2019m gonna be flipping around after every music video if I don\u2019t love the next song.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, of course, the music-video game changed completely for MTV when YouTube<\/a> launched in 2005. \u201cOnce YouTube came to be, it was all over,\u201d said Alex. \u201cYouTube was MTV on steroids \u2014 minus the VJs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even beyond the music, though, MTV doesn\u2019t capture the zeitgeist of today\u2019s youth the way it once did. In fact, it\u2019s barely on the radar of the TikTok generation. \u201cI have two teenage kids, and they know that I worked for MTV, but they\u2019ve never seen MTV,\u201d said Kaufman, who, after working at the network for 15-plus years, is now a senior contributing writer at Billboard. \u201cThey wouldn\u2019t even know where to look for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\"Nirvana\"
Nirvana staged a memorable \u201cMTV Unplugged\u201d in 1993.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Still, Alex believes that MTV could one day come back to relevance \u2014 and music: \u201cOf course there\u2019s a way to bring it back to music,\u201d he said. \u201cBut what it would be like would probably be very different than what it has been. It may need a refresh, but I think it\u2019s possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for Hunter \u2014 who is now a host on SiriusXM channels \u201980s on 8, Classic Rewind and Volume \u2014 it\u2019s a wrap: \u201cPeople nowadays say, \u2018Hey, what the hell happ<\/a>ened to MTV? Can we get it back?\u2019 To which I say, \u2018Why? Why would you want it back?\u2019 You\u2019ve got YouTube and the Internet. You can watch any damn video you want to. You don\u2019t need MTV to tell you what to look at anymore.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#How MTV stopped playing music \u2014 and lost its relevance” As one of the five original VJs who launched MTV into the Moonman stratosphere 40 years ago, on Aug. 1, 1981, Alan Hunter helped put the video-bingeing network on the music map. But when he trekked down to Daytona Beach, Fla., to cover \u201cthe chaos…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":286643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/06\/mtv.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[110619,22746,40445,9388,70746,75447,73545,93241,61379],"class_list":["post-286642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-6-29-21","tag-jersey-shore","tag-media","tag-mtv","tag-mtv-music-video-awards","tag-snooki","tag-teen-mom","tag-the-real-world","tag-vmas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}