MTV: Bad Then, Worse Now

GIANT

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During their first few months of operation, in 1980/81, MTV only had about 50 or 60 videos to broadcast. These were videos the staff scrounged up that were originally done for the BBC in the late '70s up to about 1980/81, recent video projects that were being done by independent bands, and clips of concert footage that would it in a 4 or 5 minute window. Soon after though, the major music labels started sending in piles of professionally-produced videos, seeing MTV as a great promotional tool for their drivel. Of course, Video killed the Radio Star.

Soon, everything went downhill fast and stayed there for quite a long time. After the hevvy metal hair-band thing finally died off, MTV sort of -- artistically speaking -- recovered in the very late '80s. But, by the early-to-mid '90s, everything was going straight to hell again.

Today, there are 2 MTV channels (maybe more to come, I’ve heard) playing non-stop crap. As bad as the early '80s MTV was, the MTVs of today are far worse, and so bad that even the utter pabulum that MTV regularly broadcasted 25 years ago seems, er... something worth reminiscing about!


  • Huey Lewis & The News / I Want A New Drug: In their time, Huey News & The Lewis represented total mediocrity and banality. But, who can forget the image of Huey Lewis dunking his head into a sink full of ice water, still trying to sing the lyrics to this crappy song?


    Styx / Mister Roboto: Only a pretentious and misguided band such as Styx could come up with this half-assed "rock opera" about preventing a mechanized future. At least once a year you should be able to catch Styx playing at your local Holiday Inn.


    J. Geils Band / Centerfold: A particular loser picks up a pr0no magazine at his neighbourhood newsstand and discovers that an old girlfriend has spread her legs in the centerfold. The incident affects him deeply. Very average looking "sluts" dance around in skimpy lingerie.


    Men At Work / Dr. Heckyll and Mr. Jive: The lyrics to this stupid song must have sounded quite inspiring after a couple of pints of Foster's.


    Lionel Richie / Hello: "Tell me how to win your heart, I haven't got a clue..." as the lyrics go. Lionel Richie stalks a blind sculptress ('nuff said).


    Loverboy / Hot Girls In Love: The video starts out with the band strutting and grunting like a bunch of imbeciles on top of a pyramid of powder kegs. Then, the camera cuts to a hot chick driving a yellow truck. She's got a great body but a close-up shot reveals that she's got more makeup caked on her face than Tammy Faye Baker. As she's driving along, all of a sudden, for some unknown reason, a barrel that reads "NITRO" starts chasing her truck. Then, we cut back to the band once again, dancing like a buncha idiots atop the pyramid of powder kegs. Now, we cut to the hot chick, who has mysteriously run out of fuel. She then gets out of the truck, and before you know it, she's strolling through a field of fuel pumps. Then, we cut back to the band members -- one of which is playing the drums with fuel nozzles. The video finally ends with a shot of the girl glaring straight at the camera like some cheap slut at a keg party who starts to look good after six or seven beers.


    Pat Benatar / Love Is A Battlefield: A whacked-out floozy leaves home, decides to become a whore, seeks refuge in a cheap bar, and leads a weird dance ritual in torn clothes. Wild-haired participants flail around like Tourette’s Syndrome victims on crack. Some dude in a three-piece suit tries to hit on her, but she kicks his ass, then strolls off into the sunset.


    Journey / Separate Ways: The setting is at a wharf. The band is playing invisible musical instruments. Lead singer Steve Perry (dressed in a muscle shirt) grimaces like he's constipated. The rest of the band members join in with some grotesque pseudo-macho posturing. Neal Schon even plays a stirring air guitar. Then, suddenly, a hot chick appears on the scene. Band members begin slobbering over hot chick. Video ends.


    Corey Hart / Sunglasses At Night: It's nighttime. A dude wearing cheap sunglasses sits in a dumpy apartment. He starts mugging incessantly for the camera. All of a sudden, shadowy government officials are chasing him. Is he a spy? Who knows? He ends up in jail. He's still wearing sunglasses. It's still nighttime.


    Haircut 100 / Love Plus One: A buncha total geeks in Hawaiian shirts dance around like the buncha fukkin' idiots they were.
 

sechs

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They couldn't have gone down hill, as they don't show music videos on MTV anymore.
 

Mercutio

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I dunno. Those Spider-man cartoons my tivo picked up for me were pretty cool.

MTV would probably be OK if they'd just start showing boobies. Or at least more of the ass-shaking-chicks-in-thongs that are on the Spanish channels and BET every time I channel surf through them.

To reiterate:

Telemundo: Gorgeous hispanic women in bikinis dancing. On a game show.
<click>
Unavision: Gorgeous hispanic women in bikinis dancing. On a talk show.
<click>
BET: Kinda-not-too-skanky gangsta bitches shaking theis asses. Camera is at ass level. All you see is ass. Ass as far as the eye can see. Ass Ass Ass. Every once in a while a guy with 20lbs. of gold teeth shows up. I assume this is a mistake, but I change the channel anyway.
<click>
Playboy: The news, as reported by women who take off their clothes over the course of the telecast. The sports chick actually made me care about the super-bowl for a half-second over this weekend.
<click>
MTV: The network that apparently used to have the gorgeous women in bikinis dancing, accompanied by explosions and guys with big hair wearing women's clothing - something that is on at least some level appealing... has some white fratboy whining about his roommates.
 

Corvair

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sechs said:
They couldn't have gone down hill, as they don't show music videos on MTV anymore.

And, one could argue that much of the "music" they have isn't even music.

I believe MTV1 uses about 5 ~ 10% of the broadcast schedule for playing music videos and fills the rest of their schedule with an assortment of heinous program material. MTV2 uses about 60% of the broadcast schedule for playing music videos. From what I (faintly) recall from about a year or more ago, MTV was negotiating with the various cable and satellite entities to get either 1, 2, or even 3 or 4 more channels (at least in North America) to allow them to broadcast a greater variety of program material and to dedicate certain channels to certain groups of musical genre or audiences.
 

sechs

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Merc, look for "Bliss" on Oxygen. It's on after the Canadian sex lady.
 

LunarMist

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Gary,

ROTFLMAO! That takes me back some years. How do you remember with such detail - are they on tape? :eek:
 

Buck

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Computer Generated Baby said:
Anyone who even occasionally watched early MTV has this junk culture imagery permanently burnt into their psyche.

Unfortunately, yes.


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