MTV, Get Off the Air!
By this time of night, it’s probably safe to assume that anyone who didn’t actually see the Britney Spears fiasco on MTV last night has at least heard about it.
Maybe I’m just old (if not, I’m fast getting there), or maybe I’m just out of touch (???), but to me this Britney thing seems an apt simile for everything that is MTV these days. Didn’t MTV used to be relevant? Didn’t it used to be about youth and flashy, sexy images? In what must be some sort of a cosmic coincidence, MTV and Britney are both about the same age, born in 1981. And I think / hope they both put the final nail in their respective coffins at last night’s Video Music Awards show. I quit watching MTV several years ago, but I think it’s safe to assume that the channel has descended into some sort of reality-based programming channel. When I see it on my TV’s channel guide, I see listings for a lot of “Real World”-type crap. To the best of my knowledge, I don’t think they show videos any more. I’m not even sure the once-powerful Top 40 program “TRL” is still on. For a while, MTV farmed its videos out to its sister channel, MTV2. I don’t get that channel any more, but I think they, too, stopped showing videos.
So, back to my question: Is there any relevance to MTV? The VMAs used to be highly anticipated and a good deal of fun to watch. I’ll admit I usually taped it so I could skip through the commercials and boring stuff, but I enjoyed most of it. You could almost always count on something happening to make you glad you stuck around. In fairness, I turned last night’s train wreck off after about the first hour. From the reviews I read today, I’m pretty sure I didn’t miss a thing. A lot of schizoid cuts to and from bands performing in hotel room suites (wtf was that about?), and a lot of schmoozing of artists who this time next year will likely be second banana on one of those MTV reality shows. The only thing I’m bummed about missing is the Tommy Lee / Kid Rock bout.
To quote Jello Biafra, “MTV, get off the air.”
And take Britney with you. We’ve seen enough.
~~~~
Here's a couple of songs from when MTV was still somewhat relevant. These come from The Unplugged Collection, Vol. 1, released in 1994. In particular, check “Are You Gonna Go My Way.” A great version.
Are You Gonna Go My Way.mp3 Lenny Kravitz
We Can Work it Out.mp3 Paul McCartney
Half a World Away.mp3 REM
Labels: current events, live music, unplugged
posted by aikin @ 9:21 PM
5 Comments:
Tommy Lee Vs. Kid Rock? I wish that Henry Rollins would show up and just pummel them both.
We could go on and on about MTV's demise and irrelevance. But the Lefsetz letter took care of that last week.
Instead I would like to point out something you missed but alluded to in your title, Dead Kennedys's MTV get off the air.
The Foo Fighters were playing in one of the "rooms" on the VMAs. I tivo'd it so I could see them and fast forward to anything worthwhile. This was the only moment and it was cut off.
Foos played with serj from System of a Down on lead vocals and my jaw hit the floor as I sang along to the cover they were doing. It was Holiday in Cambodia by DKs. Who would have thought that 20 years ago?
Of course, just as Serj sang "It's a Holiday in Cambodia" for the first time they faded out to comemrcial and never came back.
I think it was telling that almost no songs were played in their entirety. Its as though MTV treats music like Ringtones.
It's a dead network. But at least there are people like Dave Grohl trying to keep the spirit alive.
I saw Dave Grohl talking about plans to do that song, along with having Lemmy as a guest vocalist on another song. I couldn't imagine MTV would air that, so I decided not to torture myself waiting for it!
Maybe the full version will show up somewhere.
I needed subtitles to understand most of what the "artists" were saying.
Henry Rollins? Chris Rock? Tommy Lee?
If only there was some sort of great event at the VMAs to celebrate everybody's dedications to society...like, for instance, a massive fire in the building they were in.
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