30 Years of MTV

MTV served a purpose the first 10 years or so, but it has gotten out of hand and unbalanced... They don't even really acknowledge Hard Rock or Metal compared to Pop, Rap and Alternative.

its a sign of the American culture....

I watch about 0% of MTV anymore to be honest.

Heck, I don't even really watch VH1 either.

I coudn't even tell you what channel numbers MTV or VH1 are on.

I gave up on both as sources of music at least a decade ago.

tohostudios wrote:

I coudn't even tell you what channel numbers MTV or VH1 are on.

I gave up on both as sources of music at least a decade ago.

Me too but even longer than that. The week long tribute to Kurt Cobain (I understand he was a big deal-but a whole week of the same 5 or so tribute shows repeated over and over again was ridiculous) and the cancellation of Headbanger's Ball drove me away.

we are really not in their demographic anyways.

I don't even have cable/satellite anymore thankfully, but as far as MTV is concerned, I think there were phases of it that I remember and looking back, each period was a major change.

First would be 1991 when I was 11 and they would play Metallica, Nirvana, GNR, and whatever rap they had etc., kind of confusing musically, but it was the last of the hair days which I never experienced but was my introduction into music.

I also remember 1994/1995 as a freshman in HS and it was Green Day, Weezer, Stone Temple Pilots, Smashing Pumpinks, No Doubt and no end to Nirvana, plus all the rap.

And then I remember 1998/99 when I started college when Total Request Live came on and it was all \"thebandthatshallneverbementionedagain\", Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock, P.O.D., and of course all the pop crap like nsync and backstreet and britney and christina, and all the other rap. This was about the time I pretty much just went the metal route and have never looked back since. I'm afraid to even watch MTV now, specially since there are no more videos expect ones of teenagers having sex and rich 16 year old kids throwing tantrums over their birthdays.

GrandNational wrote:

I don't even have cable/satellite anymore thankfully, but as far as MTV is concerned, I think there were phases of it that I remember and looking back, each period was a major change.

First would be 1991 when I was 11 and they would play Metallica, Nirvana, GNR, and whatever rap they had etc., kind of confusing musically, but it was the last of the hair days which I never experienced but was my introduction into music.

I also remember 1994/1995 as a freshman in HS and it was Green Day, Weezer, Stone Temple Pilots, Smashing Pumpinks, No Doubt and no end to Nirvana, plus all the rap.

And then I remember 1998/99 when I started college when Total Request Live came on and it was all \"thebandthatshallneverbementionedagain\", Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock, P.O.D., and of course all the pop crap like nsync and backstreet and britney and christina, and all the other rap. This was about the time I pretty much just went the metal route and have never looked back since. I'm afraid to even watch MTV now, specially since there are no more videos expect ones of teenagers having sex and rich 16 year old kids throwing tantrums over their birthdays.

good post! Is MTV even relevant anymore?

I used to watch MTV when I first got it, as much as I could, mostly they played new wave/pop stuff and once in awhile they would play a metal video from Quiet Riot, Motley Crue and Judas Priest, and some live AC/DC clips but that was about it seemed like.

I used to love their Friday concerts were I saw live performances of Judas Priest, Queen, Ozzy Osbourne and other bands that was really cool.

Around the late 80's , early 90's is when they started adding original programming, which I thought for most part sucked, never cared for their game shows, MTV specials on AIDS, G ay teens, or Rock the Vote, I just thought this important topics were not addressed very well but maybe it was just me who felt that way.

Once the Real World came on, then I bailed because MTV just kept creating one sh!tty program after another, and somehow they all became hits, which to me is amazing, because they all had one thing in common, they all sucked.

It is kind of tragic that out of the 30 years that MTV has existed, 20 of them have been unwatchable.

I so agree Fat Freddy.I think 1991 was the last year worth watching it.

Fat Freddy wrote:

It is kind of tragic that out of the 30 years that MTV has existed, 20 of them have been unwatchable.

very very true. they jumped on the reality tv bandwagon and ruined their station..

MTV was never the same for me after they cancelled "Remote Control...."

Fat Freddy wrote:

It is kind of tragic that out of the 30 years that MTV has existed, 20 of them have been unwatchable.

Witha ya there!

exact33 wrote:

GrandNational wrote:

I don't even have cable/satellite anymore thankfully, but as far as MTV is concerned, I think there were phases of it that I remember and looking back, each period was a major change.

First would be 1991 when I was 11 and they would play Metallica, Nirvana, GNR, and whatever rap they had etc., kind of confusing musically, but it was the last of the hair days which I never experienced but was my introduction into music.

I also remember 1994/1995 as a freshman in HS and it was Green Day, Weezer, Stone Temple Pilots, Smashing Pumpinks, No Doubt and no end to Nirvana, plus all the rap.

And then I remember 1998/99 when I started college when Total Request Live came on and it was all \"thebandthatshallneverbementionedagain\", Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock, P.O.D., and of course all the pop crap like nsync and backstreet and britney and christina, and all the other rap. This was about the time I pretty much just went the metal route and have never looked back since. I'm afraid to even watch MTV now, specially since there are no more videos expect ones of teenagers having sex and rich 16 year old kids throwing tantrums over their birthdays.

good post! Is MTV even relevant anymore?

Not in my books. It probably really died when TRL came on around 97 or 98 and it was just pop, rap and rapcore(?). Once Eminem, Britney, Limp Bizkit, etc., started getting played heavily, it was the beginning of the end. Perhaps Woodstock 99 was the nail in the coffin. I have no recollection of the music on MTV from 2000 onwards.

Well ,at least they still played music at that point. Whether it's good music or not is all a matter of one's taste (personally that stuff sucked). Nowadays,I don't even get why they call that channel MTV.There's no M on there.


My first experience with MTV seems to be a little later than most on here. I live kind of in the sticks and although we had "cable", it was nothing more than great reception of all the locan channels (2 - 13).The TV guide would list MTV in it just to tease us and show what we were missing. Finally, our old Liberty Cable was absorbed by Comcast and was expanded,giving us all the cool extra channels,including MTV. After that Hewadbanger's Ball became my Saturday night ritual for quite a few years up until it's grotesquely stupid cancellation. After that,I quit watching the station and found I haven't missed anything at all. My daughter's in the station demographic now and she watches it alot. What garbage on there now. Pity.....

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After that Headbanger's Ball became my Saturday night ritual for quite a few years up until it's grotesquely stupid cancellation. After that,I quit watching the station and found I haven't missed anything at all.

That's how it happened with me (though a year before that I kind of saw the writing on the wall). I watched a bit of the new Headbanger's Ball on MTV2 but it just wasn't the same so I stopped watching music television altogether. I'd like to be able to have VH1 Classic but that is not on my dad's satellite package.

Now if I want to watch music videos I either go to Youtube or my Nuclear Blast DVDs (I have two volumes of those).

Does that sh!tty channel even play music videos anymore?

manny wrote:

Does that sh!tty channel even play music videos anymore?

I don't think so, maybe MTV2 does (or at least it did a couple of years ago before I stopped watching it).

I watched some of the first hour of MTV last night - they played Rockin' The Paradise by Styx, but the song title said "Rockin' Paradise". After watching that video (hadn't seen it in years), I don't know how Tommy and JT didn't kill Dennis DeYoung after making them dress up and act like that in the video (and tour!)

When I wanna relive what I dug about MTV. I put on VH1 Cassic.

The coolest thing about MTV was watchin "Imaginary Music" and "Weapoms Of Our Warfare" on Headbanger's Ball.

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MTV was never the same for me after they cancelled "Remote Control...."

That was actually the start of the beginning of the end for me. I was always like "why aren't they showing videos". "I want my MTV! To show music". "It's MUSIC television!". And I even liked Ken and Colin just not for whole half hours that could be used for videos.

Shows what I knew though - almost everyone I knew loved and religiously watched it. By the time Real World came on I was done.

When MTV 2 first started it was actually pretty cool. VJs and videos plus it had limited commercials too. They would play tons of the old stuff. Didn't take long for it to become just a dumping ground for MTV shows. My biggest complaint with VH1 Classic is the shows just play the same stuff over and over.

jstate wrote:

Quote :

MTV was never the same for me after they cancelled "Remote Control...."

That was actually the start of the beginning of the end for me. I was always like "why aren't they showing videos". "I want my MTV! To show music". "It's MUSIC television!". And I even liked Ken and Colin just not for whole half hours that could be used for videos.

Same here, in fact, it even happened before that when they started showing reruns of old shows. I can understand reruns of the beatles cartoons and monkees as those shows had to do with music (and in fact had primitive "music video" segments anyway), but "The Young Ones" had absolutely nothing music-related, and even though monty python is one of the greatest sketch comedy shows of all time, it shouldnt be on mtv.

Hadley wrote:

jstate wrote:

Quote :

MTV was never the same for me after they cancelled "Remote Control...."

That was actually the start of the beginning of the end for me. I was always like "why aren't they showing videos". "I want my MTV! To show music". "It's MUSIC television!". And I even liked Ken and Colin just not for whole half hours that could be used for videos.

Same here, in fact, it even happened before that when they started showing reruns of old shows. I can understand reruns of the beatles cartoons and monkees as those shows had to do with music (and in fact had primitive "music video" segments anyway), but "The Young Ones" had absolutely nothing music-related, and even though monty python is one of the greatest sketch comedy shows of all time, it shouldnt be on mtv.

hey, Lemmy was on The Young Ones!!! LOL!!!