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40 years ago MTV was launched

#21
yodedude2 said:
mtv was the most effective tool to date for capitalizing upon and reinforcing the concept that pop music was about fashion and trendiness and not about music.
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So.... painters from the Romantic period weren't about fashion? Sculptures from the Art Nouveau period were not about fashion? Composers from the Classical Period didn't hang out in palaces and attend the trendiest parties?

Man, ART, in every form, has always been about trends and fashion. 80s pop music was just another form of art like any other.

You can no more separate music from fashion than you can movies, paintings, sculptures, photography, etc.

Why, even the anti-trendy grunge movement was (dare I say it) a TREND. Many grunge fans bemoaned "selling out" and trying the like everybody else..... all while dutifully wearing their flannel shirts like a good little grungy should....and just like all the other grungies were doing. There was no more individualism in grunge than there was with Valley Girls or punks or any other group following a trend. The flannel shirt was a fashion statement. Not wearing makeup on stage and looking like you hadn't had a shower in weeks WAS THE FASHION of the day.
 
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#23
two fingers said:
So.... painters from the Romantic period weren't about fashion? Sculptures from the Art Nouveau period were not about fashion? Composers from the Classical Period didn't hang out in palaces and attend the trendiest parties?

Man, ART, in every form, has always been about trends and fashion. 80s pop music was just another form of art like any other.

You can no more separate music from fashion than you can movies, paintings, sculptures, photography, etc.

Why, even the anti-trendy grunge movement was (dare I say it) a TREND. Many grunge fans bemoaned "selling out" and trying the like everybody else..... all while dutifully wearing their flannel shirts like a good little grungy should....and just like all the other grungies were doing. There was no more individualism in grunge than there was with Valley Girls or punks or any other group following a trend. The flannel shirt was a fashion statement. Not wearing makeup on stage and looking like you hadn't had a shower in weeks WAS THE FASHION of the day.
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You sound like “get off my lawn” Gen-X.
 
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#25
Michedelic said:
You sound like “get off my lawn” Gen-X.
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Nah. I just find hypocrisy mildly amusing. I turned 20 in 1991. So I was a young adult when grunge hit. I never really followed too many trends, and didn't follow that one either.

But the little grungies made me LOL when they talked to me about "selling out" by being in a cover band, and trying to be like every else. Meanwhile, they all dressed and acted EXACTLY the same.... and were only allowed to listen to the same bands as the rest of the grungies if they wanted to stay in the club.

I dug on some Pearl Jam and a few others. But if I pointed out that Duran Duran had se solid players they looked at me like I had nine heads.

They thought they were open-minded and enlightened (thus their inability to "sell out"). They were anything but.

And they were bending trendy all the while professing to be anti trendy.

I didn't hate them. They didn't make me angry. They were just mildly amusing and fun to observe.
 
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#26
nickpc said:
It cracks me up that they still have the "MTV Video Music Awards" when MTV doesn't have room in their "Reality" TV schedule for music videos any more.
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You don't understand. They own the property of "The MTV Video Awards" which they did establish when they played videos. They will continue to broadcast this valuable property irrelevant of other content.
 
#27
I used to love watching MTV.:D Then they started with these stupid reality shows like The Real World:rollno:. They went downhill real quick after that.:poop: I don't know what they show now as I stopped paying outrageous cable fees over 10 years ago and went to free over the air broadcast TV.;) I don't miss cable at all. :thumbsup:
 
#28
BassBrass said:
You don't understand. They own the property of "The MTV Video Awards" which they did establish when they played videos. They will continue to broadcast this valuable property irrelevant of other content.
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I should have left my second sentence in there - "But then any excuse for some overly-entitled people to celebrate themselves, and make some money in the process, will not be overlooked."

Just because the relevance is gone doesn't mean the cash flow is too!
 
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#29
two fingers said:
Nah. I just find hypocrisy mildly amusing. I turned 20 in 1991. So I was a young adult when grunge hit. I never really followed too many trends, and didn't follow that one either.

But the little grungies made me LOL when they talked to me about "selling out" by being in a cover band, and trying to be like every else. Meanwhile, they all dressed and acted EXACTLY the same.... and were only allowed to listen to the same bands as the rest of the grungies if they wanted to stay in the club.

I dug on some Pearl Jam and a few others. But if I pointed out that Duran Duran had se solid players they looked at me like I had nine heads.

They thought they were open-minded and enlightened (thus their inability to "sell out"). They were anything but.

And they were bending trendy all the while professing to be anti trendy.

I didn't hate them. They didn't make me angry. They were just mildly amusing and fun to observe.
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For the record... I agree whole heartedly... but you should be mildly concerned...

I have told people to get off my lawn. ;)
 
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#31
First, the TV had to have a cable subscription. Cable wasn't in every home or area. We couldn't watch MTV on phones. :woot: As a city dweller, it was about everywhere in the beginning.

There were lots of young folk in the US that were not MTV fans in its early days.
 
#33
Headbanger's Ball had some value, you had to watch through a lot of lame hair metal until they threw you a crumb of something cool like Slayer, Sepultura, Death, but it was in there. The rest of MTV of course was just corporate garbage.
 
#37
Michedelic said:
Uh, ruined it, maybe? At least hastened the demise. It was inevitable, it seemed like a good idea in the beginning, but like a lot of good ideas, got corrupted; you know, law of unintended consequences and all that. Sorta like the internet. Oh, wait, you said industry; it just became another tool that was, in a way, self-destructive. Music itself started down the long spiral of devaluation with it.
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Considering humans are visual learners, and most are tone deaf, I get the appeal of music videos. That said, I agree 100% with your post.
 
#39
I remember there were a couple of shows on, years before MTV, that would play nothing but music videos for about 2 hours at a time. It’s the first time I saw who The Police were (this was when they were still playing bars and Disney World). I guess MTV stole the idea and ran with it, making it a 24hr. channel. Was good for awhile.
 
#40
MTV was such a formative thing for folks my age, which is mid forties. Folks who get stuck on the "it was only good in the early days!" mindset only think that way because it was what they liked when they were young. Of course you thought it was cooler!

For me, they still had a place at the table up through the late aughts, even if it was less and less music programming over the years. But hey, they are a business and they are in it to make money. I'm sure if playing videos and music related programming brought in the advertising money, they'd still be doing it. It says a lot that literal non-stop reruns of Ridiculousness makes more money than music in 2021. Of course, with Youtube and streaming music, MTV is a very inefficient way to watch music videos.
 

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